stager386 Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 My bigger question is how to make ray traces look their absolute best. My walls end up looking sparkly. There are dark spots throughout, and materials aren't looking real. I know I have to learn more about material definitions. One video shows the wood floors looking realistic due to bump maps. But there is nothing explaining what a bump map is, where it is, how to get it, and how to apply it. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidJPotter Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 Bump maps are usually just a copy of the image texture assigned as a bump map on the "Properties" tab of a material. Bump maps can give a material greater 3D presence and sometimes they make a material look fake, so it is not a simple matter of assigning one to a texture and that is that, you will then need to Ray Trace to evaluate the change. Ray Tracing, in general, is a trial and error affair adjusting lighting and materials settings until you feel like the render is enhanced. DJP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 2 hours ago, stager386 said: One video shows the wood floors looking realistic due to bump maps. But there is nothing explaining what a bump map is, where it is, how to get it, and how to apply it. CA's documentation tends to lag behind on new features , so they are not always mentioned in the Manual or Help, Bump Maps are assigned on the Texture tab of the material's definition but for many many materials they are not supplied by CA , so you would need to make you own in Photoshop or Gimp or perhaps an online converter? M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cv2702 Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 Search the Web on 'bump map' and you'll get a bunch of videos on 'what is' and 'how to' as well as sometimes free tools or online converters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheryl_C_Crane Posted August 19, 2018 Share Posted August 19, 2018 Stager, How about posting a RT for us to see? We''d like to help! (And, as Mick suggested, give us info in your signature on the version of CA, and equipment that you are running on.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stager386 Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 I have CA Premier 10. I use a desktop. Processor info: i7-4790K CPU 4.00GHz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stager386 Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 Here is my latest RT. See the specs on the red sofa? Lighting is odd. Floor has no texture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkClemons Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Dan does a great job of explaining the differences between bump and normal maps and how to use them in Chief in this video here:https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10153/quick-tip-chevron-herringbone-materials-with-normal-maps.html In this Knowledge Base article, you are shown how to apply a bump map to a material in Chief:https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01076/creating-etched-glass.html In this article, I give a brief explanation on what bump and normal maps are, and how to create your own: https://kcclemo.neocities.org/creating-height-and-normal-maps/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, stager386 said: Here is my latest RT. See the specs on the red sofa? Lighting is odd. Floor has no texture. Do you have a Foundation and Roof Built ? both are usually required for proper lighting to work in my experience..... Are there Potlights (R.Cans) or added 3D lights in the Red Sofa Room? , not sure why there is 4 light blotches otherwise. lowering the roughness of the Floor material to 10-15% should give it some shine at least that works in PBR but the settings don't always translate, but make sure you are using the latest Updated X10 Material Libraries too ( Library>Catalog Update) CA older Wood textures don't work well in X10 and have all been now updated. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, KirkClemons said: Dan does a great job of explaining the differences between bump and normal maps and how to use them in Chief in this video here:https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10153/quick-tip-chevron-herringbone-materials-with-normal-maps.html In this Knowledge Base article, you are shown how to apply a bump map to a material in Chief:https://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-01076/creating-etched-glass.html In this article, I give a brief explanation on what bump and normal maps are, and how to create your own: https://kcclemo.neocities.org/creating-height-and-normal-maps/ Thanks Kirk , are you aware of Awesome Bump ? it's a Free Open Source Bump Map Program I found recently on GitHub , latest version is 5.1 ,it is a portable Qt based program so nothing to install , just unzip the Folder. I'd be interested in what a 3D Artist has to say about it as it's not exactly my field of expertise. https://github.com/kmkolasinski/AwesomeBump/releases/tag/Winx32v5.1 One Note about Awesome Bump , I found I had to Open the 3 Config files and change the Font Size to 12 to make it all more readable for me , not sure which one is controlling what so I changed them all ...The Author must have good eyes as it is set at 8. Main folder : Config.ini Configs Folder : gui.ini and 48_AwesomeBump.ini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stager386 Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 Yes light cans in the room with the red sofa. I don't normally build a roof and foundation when I am just doing the interior. Should I? The floor material def dialogue box doesn't allow me to change the roughness. What is PBR? Thank you!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 37 minutes ago, stager386 said: I don't normally build a roof and foundation when I am just doing the interior. Should I? Yes, it's best practice to always have a roof and a foundation with a floor in your model, even for interior Ray Traces. Without these you can encounter what we call light bleed, it's when light from the exterior bleeds into the interior though wall ceiling and floor intersects. A foundation with a floor is very important if you are using the "Environment Lighting" in the Ray Trace DBX. Without the foundation and floor you can get speckles and unusually highlighting along baseboards and underneath furnishings. If you could post your plan it would make resolving the sofa speckles much easier as we can check into the lighting and material settings to see what's going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheryl_C_Crane Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 PBR = Physical Based Rendering I now use it exclusively as it is very fast and allows editing 'on the fly." But, I am not trying to produce EXACT renderings as to the time of day, GIS coordinates, and precise materials. My job is to get enough information into the picture to make viewers like the space and see that their own 'stuff' will work within the space. My goal is to suggest how the space may be used, and possibly suggest a demographic or lifestyle. Ray Tracing still has some benefits. I'm just glad that PBR is in CA X10, and that it's good enough for my work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkClemons Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 2 hours ago, Kbird1 said: Thanks Kirk , are you aware of Awesome Bump ? it's a Free Open Source Bump Map Program I found recently on GitHub , latest version is 5.1 ,it is a portable Qt based program so nothing to install , just unzip the Folder. I'd be interested in what a 3D Artist has to say about it as it's not exactly my field of expertise. https://github.com/kmkolasinski/AwesomeBump/releases/tag/Winx32v5.1 One Note about Awesome Bump , I found I had to Open the 3 Config files and change the Font Size to 12 to make it all more readable for me , not sure which one is controlling what so I changed them all ...The Author must have good eyes as it is set at 8. Main folder : Config.ini Configs Folder : gui.ini and 48_AwesomeBump.ini Yes, I've played around with it from time to time. I still check in on it to see how it's coming. It's a very promising alternative to programs like Crazy Bump. Personally, I use a more manual approach to creating my various maps in GIMP and Blender. I just wanted the information in my article to be usable with as little setup/learning as possible to get people started. Someday, I would like to use substance painter which generates textures procedurally along with all the maps needed for the texture, but, I haven't been able to justify the expense yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheryl_C_Crane Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Stager, Thanks for starting this thread! I'm learning a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 8 minutes ago, KirkClemons said: Yes, I've played around with it from time to time. I still check in on it to see how it's coming. It's a very promising alternative to programs like Crazy Bump. Personally, I use a more manual approach to creating my various maps in GIMP and Blender. I just wanted the information in my article to be usable with as little setup/learning as possible to get people started. Someday, I would like to use substance painter which generates textures procedurally along with all the maps needed for the texture, but, I haven't been able to justify the expense yet. Thanks for the reply...... I was following your Tutorial but could not equate the Histogram Slider in Gimp/PS to something Similar in Awesome Bump but I haven't played with it much yet. M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, stager386 said: What is PBR? This is CA's Video on PBR , https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/2412/3d-rendering-features-added-in-x10.html They use the Settings some of us discovered while trying to fix issues in the Earlier versions of X10 , these can be set in your Camera defaults , the Use Enhanced lighting and setting max lights to 100 is important otherwise you can get White-outs or Black-outs in the PBR Camera. The Who thread is on PBR when you have time to look at it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stager386 Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 The Kitchen Abode: I have tweaked the plan a little. But here it is for you to look at. Example_with_decor.plan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheryl_C_Crane Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 I used PBR and adjusted the lights (cans are Off) to 100. I didn't have some of your textures, like the rugs, red sofa, etc. But, this should give you an idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, stager386 said: The Kitchen Abode: I have tweaked the plan a little. But here it is for you to look at. Example_with_decor.plan Do a File>Backup Entire Plan it will create a Zip file with all the Textures and the plan in it that you can attach instead since it looks like you have Custom textures.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stager386 Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 Thank you everyone, for your very generous assistance!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stager386 Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Cheryl_C_Crane said: I used PBR and adjusted the lights (cans are Off) to 100. I didn't have some of your textures, like the rugs, red sofa, etc. But, this should give you an idea 25 minutes ago, Kbird1 said: Do a File>Backup Entire Plan it will create a Zip file with all the Textures and the plan in it that you can attach instead since it looks like you have Custom textures.... I don't back up my own files. I have a service do that. If I try and do what you've suggested, it zips up way too many files, not just this the one associated with this plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 Here's a Ray Trace with the settings as outlined below. Ran 30 passes, 19 min. Changes Sun Intensity = 1,000 Lux, Changed direction = Tilt -32, Direction 258.6 3D Lights = 100 lumen, height off of floor = 55" Two Floor Lamps = 400 lumen Auto Built Roof, Foundation with Floor Added Bump Map to Floor (just used texture file) and changed to Polished Environment Lighting = Off Photon Mapping = On Direct Sun =50 Ambient Occlusion = min 0, Max 1.5 Image Properties = 50,40,25,51,48,75,40 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kbird1 Posted August 20, 2018 Share Posted August 20, 2018 3 minutes ago, stager386 said: I don't back up my own files. I have a service do that. If I try and do what you've suggested, it zips up way too many files, not just this the one associated with this plan. It will put everything in the plan in the Zip file , all the materials , images, pdfs etc , anything related to the plan so Others will see what you see when they open it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stager386 Posted August 20, 2018 Author Share Posted August 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Cheryl_C_Crane said: I used PBR and adjusted the lights (cans are Off) to 100. I didn't have some of your textures, like the rugs, red sofa, etc. But, this should give you an idea Here is PBR, lights adjusted to 100 and cans off. Why does it look like this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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