Ray Trace Problems

[JesseL]

Hi everyone, I am new to the ray trace part of this program, but now need to use it for a client. I've spent quite a few hours trying to figure out how to get my photos not to look blurry and grainy. I've read a bunch of posts on here, but nothing seems to be working. I've let the ray trace run up to 20 passes and it still seems to not look much different than pass 10.

[Dennis_Gavin]

Jesse,

 

   THere are many attributes to a ray trace.  THe most important is lighting.  Your scene has way too much lighting, way too bright.

I would start by turning off all lights escept for one 3d POINT LIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM SET AT ABOUT 40 AND A HEIGHT

OF 60" OFF THE FLOOR.  Just to see how it looks compared to what you have.  You can fake light looking like they are on by turning the

emissive setting up for the light fixtures glass to about 80.  Ray trace is not like real life turning lights on and off.  IT takes experimentation.

You may also want to adjust the ambient light in the rrom.  Play around with different settings and amount of lights on/off and there

intensity to see what you like.

[JesseL]

Dennis,

 

Thank you for your response, I read some of the other posts you made for other people on ray traces. The advice you gave me definitely is helping thank you. I think all I need to do is some how get more light without making it washed out a grainy. The cabinets are looking grey when they should be white. When you say ambient light are you referring to the light coming in from outside?

[Dennis_Gavin]

Ambient lighting is set via the 3D view defaults at the bottom of the list.  I am referring primarily to the interior setting.

IF items appear to gray increase the emissive setting in the material settings for that item.  In real life white are usually not real white.

You may want to alter the color a little with a hint of yellow etc.  NOt making it look yellow but more of an off white or cream.  IT is

an art form so be patient and go with what you see on screen.  Be aware light settings for a standard render and a ray trace will

most likely be different.  ALso photons versus no photons.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Here is an example of Raytrace I just ran. It only uses two Raytrace DBX settings, Ambient Occlusion & Direct Sunlight. Everything else is turned off including Use Camera View Settings & Photon Mapping. 3D lights are used for ambient light control, the other lights are all on and adjusted for accenting.

 

Graham

 

 

[JesseL]

Here is the most recent rendering of the bathroom, changing the different setting like Dennis said are making big improvements. It's starting to look pretty good considering I only knew that this program had ray tracing two nights ago, I thought all there was is the 3-d final view rendering. I think with a few more tweaks I can get it really nice. Like others said in other posts, it is definitely an art and you have to think differently. Thank you Dennis for pointing me in the right direction! I think with time and practice, it will become easier to set up and more realistic. Graham I about to start playing around with the wall sconces to see what I can come up with now that its rendering more realistically. As for the settings, I am using Ambient occlusion 1.0/5.0 and direct sunlight 5.0, and no camera view or photon settings. I really like the white cabinets in your rendering, Looks good!

[TheKitchenAbode]

Jesse, in the Raytrace DBX go to Edit, Advanced Settings and turn of Tone Mapping. This will improve the contrast, if everything goes way to bright then just turn your lights intensity down. Also, suggest changing the shower glass to standard glass, might need to alter the transparency but this will get rid of the greenish glass look.

 

Post your results again and we will see if it needs more tweaking.

 

Graham

[JesseL]

Graham, I made the changes to the shower glass and it looks much better that way thank you. I turned up the light intensity a little bit and turned off the tone mapping. Should I be using shadows for more of a lighting effect? As of right now I have soft shadows off and shadows off. I also have two 3-d point lights in the room at 80" in addition to the 3 wall sconces. I also have the emissiveness on the light shades turned up to appear to be on, not sure if this is helping or hurting the sconces lighting effect.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Jesse - what is the light intensity of the two 3D point lights, also I would change their height to mid height of the floor/ceiling height, these should have the shadows turned off. Are the wall sconces turned on, if not put them on with shadows, try an intensity of about 5%. See what happens.

 

Graham

[JesseL]

Graham, The interior ambient light is set to 80% and the two 3D point lights are now at 50" and 75% no shadows. Here is the latest ray trace and what the 3D model looks like. Its very bright compared to the ray trace, Is this normal? I added shadows to the sconces and they are set to 5%. Also I turned up the emissive on the white to try and get it whiter looking.

[TheKitchenAbode]

Jesse - for the regular 3D camera view just use the 3D settings to adjust the interior ambient. As you are not using the Use Camera Settings in the Raytrace DBX this will not affect your raytrace. Try setting the 3D lights to 15% and make the max ambient occlusion 9, minimum 0.5. Run and post.

 

Graham

[Kriska]

Im following your thread. Ive been struggling with the same problems...its all in the lighting