PBR rendering?

[Timeless_16]

I have Home Designer Pro 2020 (NOT X-11) and it has the PBR feature. I love it but I'm still struggling with setting up specs for lighting and materials. The materials from what I understand are PBR capable if within HD Pro but importing textures for materials just has an image and a pattern upload, nothing else for using a multiple file like a PBR file that you would be using in X11, but I'm okay with that since HD Pro Catalogs plus ones that I have purchased are huge.

I seen a titled "Let's PBR" and the thread is huge and I have read through a ton of it. I am wondering if there is a guide that exist for PBR rendering in the program, as far as, what settings for rendering go with what combinations, etc. I understand that the Home Designer Line has less abilities than X-11, but I also know that if you work for it, you can do it. I also know that the PBR, is supposed to be nearly the same capability wise according to CA. I do realize that a lot of it is by look within the model as you are modeling and using materials / lighting / etc, but I didn't know if there was a write up of different baselines to go by or if this is just something I am going to have to learn as I go?
 

I seen renders on that post mentioned above and they are incredible and thought that any advise you all could offer or guidance would be worth asking. I am looking to increase the realism as far as I can go without going to an external render, I have been down that road and it just leads to much more headache than I am comfortable with at this time. 

I added the menus that control the materials and the camera / rendering, so you'll know what I have access to. Also added a render I just completed not too long ago for reference of what I can do currently.

[Chris_Kelly]

I'm by no means a pbr expert, but I know a bit more than your average bear. One of the aspects that make pbr so realistic in chief are the different maps you can apply to a texture that give it more realistic shadows or depth or shininess, etc. It looks like HD doesn't have the option to include those maps, like the normal, bump, ambient occlusion maps, etc. So that's going to limit you a bit. But another big part of getting a realistic rendering is lighting.

 

In chief (and I'll assume HD) you can add extra light sources to a light fixture to get different effects with shadows and "hot spots" in the light a fixture is casting. This can go a long way towards having a more natural look. Another option is to download a (currently free till Nov.) rendering program called Twinmotion. You can import your model into it and use their textures and lighting to potentially get a better look. I played around with it a bit and it may or may not be worth your time long term, but its free so it's worth trying out.

 

So I guess my only helpful advise regarding HD is to experiment with additional lighting sources with different settings. Get a baseline, take a picture. Make a change, take a picture. Flip back and forth between pictures and pick the better looking one then try to improve it further.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Yes, it does look as if you have fewer options concerning the material properties. However, as Chris_Kelly states lighting is extremely important, both sun and your actual light fixtures. You can play with material properties all day but if the lighting is not correct it will never look very good. In the sample you posted the lighting needs to be worked on, for example, if you have the option on your recessed lights to change the drop rate I would increase this to eliminate those hard transitions between lite regions and non lite regions. You may also need to adjust the sun angle and intensity, for most materials their reflective property is mostly influenced by the sun.

 

Here's an example on a project I'm working on now. The reflections in the backsplash tile are the result of the sun setting, same for the sheen on the cabinetry and the floor. The internal lights don't really contribute much to this reflectivity, you can see this if you look at the backsplash to the left, almost no visible reflectivity even though there are under-cabinet lights there.

 

In this example, same project, note the softness in the upper in-cabinet lights, no hard transitions, that's due to the drop rate being set higher to 9.0.

 

[Timeless_16]

3 hours ago, Chris_Kelly said:

I'm by no means a pbr expert, but I know a bit more than your average bear. One of the aspects that make pbr so realistic in chief are the different maps you can apply to a texture that give it more realistic shadows or depth or shininess, etc. It looks like HD doesn't have the option to include those maps, like the normal, bump, ambient occlusion maps, etc. So that's going to limit you a bit. But another big part of getting a realistic rendering is lighting.

 

In chief (and I'll assume HD) you can add extra light sources to a light fixture to get different effects with shadows and "hot spots" in the light a fixture is casting. This can go a long way towards having a more natural look. Another option is to download a (currently free till Nov.) rendering program called Twinmotion. You can import your model into it and use their textures and lighting to potentially get a better look. I played around with it a bit and it may or may not be worth your time long term, but its free so it's worth trying out.

 

So I guess my only helpful advise regarding HD is to experiment with additional lighting sources with different settings. Get a baseline, take a picture. Make a change, take a picture. Flip back and forth between pictures and pick the better looking one then try to improve it further.

 

 

I've tried Twinmotion and like the concept and seems similar to Lumion. However, the model loads okay but the light fixtures from HD Pro do not import with the model which leaves and issue.

[Timeless_16]

2 hours ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

Yes, it does look as if you have fewer options concerning the material properties. However, as Chris_Kelly states lighting is extremely important, both sun and your actual light fixtures. You can play with material properties all day but if the lighting is not correct it will never look very good. In the sample you posted the lighting needs to be worked on, for example, if you have the option on your recessed lights to change the drop rate I would increase this to eliminate those hard transitions between lite regions and non lite regions. You may also need to adjust the sun angle and intensity, for most materials their reflective property is mostly influenced by the sun.

 

Here's an example on a project I'm working on now. The reflections in the backsplash tile are the result of the sun setting, same for the sheen on the cabinetry and the floor. The internal lights don't really contribute much to this reflectivity, you can see this if you look at the backsplash to the left, almost no visible reflectivity even though there are under-cabinet lights there.

 

In this example, same project, note the softness in the upper in-cabinet lights, no hard transitions, that's due to the drop rate being set higher to 9.0.

 

 

 

I'll try to mess with the lighting tonight, I do have drop rate options, so I will adjust it and see if I can get it any better!

 

Thanks for the advice both of you!

[Timeless_16]

How is this? I adjusted some settings the best I could and played with the drop rates as well as the PBR settings.