Black shadow areas in PBR

[RolandF]

Has anyone had success in eliminating the black shadow areas in exterior PBR renderings?  It appears in looking at some exterior PBR renders done by other users that this is just 'how it works'. 

 

For some reason, any doors / windows within a shaded area also have the jambs/sills rendering solid black.  If I move the sun angle so a door has direct sunlight, that area within the sunshine will render correctly, however, the shaded portion will still be black.  Adjusting sunlight lumens seems to have no effect.  Turning off sunlight and relying on only manually placed exterior lights seems to work as well.

 

On a standard-framed home it isn't too obvious an issue, but it's a bit problematic on things like a garage door on a 12" ICF wall.

 

I've had issues with some exterior wall sections rendering black in PBR, but managed to determine that it's an issue with some attic walls, oddly.

 

Thanks,

 

Roland

 

 

[Chopsaw]

One test that I did was to turn on the lights inside the room of the effected doorway and it seemed to work and then it did not and I never really figured out why.  Possibly worth another try.  Let us know if you are able to produce any results without having to shut off shadows altogether.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Try adding one or two exterior placed 3D lights to get some light into those heavily shadowed regions.

 

PBR Sun Only.

 

PBR Sun with two exterior 3D lights.

 

The 3D lights have shadows turned off.

[Kbird1]

I think I remember reports in Beta about the Odd Attic Walls showing in PBR too , so please make sure you report this , especially if it is reproducible , hopefully they haven't "broken" something again in one of the recent fixes (updates)

 

M.

[Dermot]

One possible cause of this kind of problem is that there is an object in the plan that the program can't tell whether it is inside or outside of a room.  We use the room's lights to shade all of the surfaces so if the program incorrectly thinks some surfaces are inside of the building they will appear too dark when viewed from outside.  You can sometimes have the reverse problem where some surfaces appear too light when viewed from the inside.  In any case, the best solution is to report these problems to us so that we can make improvements to our lighting algorithms.

 

Please report any problems like this directly to our tech support team so that we can investigate them further.  Discussing them on the Chieftalk forums is not the same as reporting them.  Please include the plan with a saved camera view that demonstrates the problem along with an image that shows what you are seeing on your computer.  Please be sure that you are always using the latest update before reporting any problems since it is possible that we have already fixed the problem.

 

 

[HomesByDesign]

On 4/20/2018 at 7:01 AM, RolandF said:

Has anyone had success in.........

rendering black in PBR, but managed to determine that it's an issue with some attic walls, oddly.

 

 

 

Roland,

 

I just had the same experience and no sooner did I find your post didn't I solve my problem :-)

-- I have a return client from 2010 that wants to build the same house (with a few modifications) as the 2010 build burnt to the ground :-(

-- so I make a couple of adjustments and proceed to ray-trace but the area under the entrance system comes out black,,,,

-- I fiddled and messed with a number of settings without success BUT out of the blue I decided to start from scratch and use Chiefs Ray-trace Wizard, I enter all the same settings as I originally tried and presto, Bob's your uncle, it worked,,,,,

-- So what setting was causing the black shadows?  I have no idea :-)

 

Give it a try if you haven't already...

R,

[Gawdzira]

"Bob's your uncle". Oh so random and hilarious.

 

[HomesByDesign]

19 minutes ago, Gawdzira said:

"Bob's your uncle". Oh so random and hilarious.

 

 

I've been stuck on that phrase all week, it's like a jingle you can't get out of your head and you hum it everywhere and anywhere :-)

[RolandF]

On 5/5/2018 at 12:51 PM, HomesByDesign said:

 

Roland,

 

I just had the same experience and no sooner did I find your post didn't I solve my problem :-)

-- I have a return client from 2010 that wants to build the same house (with a few modifications) as the 2010 build burnt to the ground :-(

-- so I make a couple of adjustments and proceed to ray-trace but the area under the entrance system comes out black,,,,

-- I fiddled and messed with a number of settings without success BUT out of the blue I decided to start from scratch and use Chiefs Ray-trace Wizard, I enter all the same settings as I originally tried and presto, Bob's your uncle, it worked,,,,,

-- So what setting was causing the black shadows?  I have no idea :-)

 

Give it a try if you haven't already...

R,

 

Thanks for the input R (and sorry for the delay, been off on holiday for a bit).  But in my case, it's not raytracing that's an issue, it's the new X10 physically-based rendering (PBR).

 

I reported it to tech support, with the plan, and apparently it's a known issue they're trying to come up with a solution for, as Dermot mentions.  Tech support said in some cases, the software thinks surfaces like sills/jambs are opposite the viewing direction, and aren't receiving correct lighting when PBR rendering.

 

Roland