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Hi folks,
I recently tried LuxCore via Luxus (Carrara 8.5 Pro Plug-In) with the intention to speed up rendering. Unfortunaly I cant get it to work. The plugin seems to be installed correctly, since Carrara recognizes it as Renderer "LuxCore via Luxus", also LuxCore-Lights are available via Insert-Menu-Point. Problem is, when I set LuxCore as a render, I can see a grey render-window for around 10 seconds, then, while my progress-bar indicates 100%, there comes a simple black render in seize euqal to the production frame. This behaviour isnt altered by changing lights, halt/spp-values, Accelarator, sampler or things written in "Config Settings". When launching LuxCore IPR, a small window apears leftsided on the screen, stating: "PathOCLBase kernel compilation error" at its lower end. Pressing render at this point finaly kills Carrara.
I'm only experienced as a hobby-user, without IT or scripting-Background, so my first thought was, if the luxus for carrara plug-in from the DAZ-shop could fix the problem.
As GPU I use a nVidia Quadro M3100, CPU is [email protected] Ghz, 16GB RAM, Win 7 Pro 64. I choosed the Quadro as only device in the settings for luxcore, but choosing the other integrated card (intel M4500) solo or with the quadro doesnt change anything. Driverversion is 353.30.
Thx in advance
A good test is if LuxMark v3 works for you, then most likely LuxusCore Carrara will work for you
-> http://www.luxrender.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=12359
That being said, on my 680M, driverversion 353.30 does not work for me. I had to roll back to 347.09 for both LuxMark and LuxusCore Carrara to work.
I have been unable to replicate the missing lights problem. Here is a scene that just uses spots and a distant light:
-> https://app.box.com/s/vts493zf37mq3q551lupr1hmwdg7bt59
As a way to determine if its OpenCL/Driver related, does it do the same thing if you choose CPU as the engine? Any chance of getting a zipped up a a scene that has the problem and pm me a link?
For SphericLabs
Checked your file, works fine all modes. Even removed all your lights, duplicated the plane 5 times and made a box to enclose your spheres completely, added a bulb from my light panel and that works fine too.
Have spent morning cutting down the scene I originally failed with. Hopefully to save you some work. Removed items bit by bit until I've got to a very basic walls/ceiling/floor only with just 2 basic shaders and 1 bulb. On my system this basic file still gives "An error has occurred" on opening the IPR. Note this message may or may not also appear with the "No Lights" message, or vice versa. Had both appear as I've removed furniture, structure, then shaders etc.
Sod's law states that the last thing you look at will be the culprit, still stays true today!
Finally got to the floor shader and for some reason, removing the floor texture map clears the problem. Have to do further investigation here, and as it's New Years Eve I don't have time now. Possibly other shaders may be problem also if I back track.
Just a heads up to let you relax, it's seemingly not a problem with your code. Update you if/when I work out more.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE, wherever you may be.
Errrrr.... update #1
GMT 12.40 pm Jan 1st where I am. Thought I'd do a couple of quick checks.
Fired up Carrara. Load your test file, open IPR, Nothing! Try render in Render Rm, Yellow 1's!
Could LuxCore have expired? I have last one you posted (from sequencial order).
It did expire. Sorry about the lapse. This one expires at end of March. No other changes.
Win64 -> https://app.box.com/s/2g03wx4j6y3lyw7uzhxgq6ifnk3hnxga
Thank you! ;)
Sweet! It works!
Now I just need to study up on what it does and how to work with these shaders! ;)
Attn. SphericLabs - Update #2
For info, my system has AMD Radeon R9 GPU (Hawaii), i7-4770K CPU, Carrara 8.51 bld 19 64 bit, Windows 10 Pro.
Had latest ASUS GPU driver installed, now updated to latest AMD driver to be sure (no change in results). Should also stress that I have no stability problems with Windows on any other programs, nor on Carrara when using the Realistic Renderer. Stability issues only occur when actually using LuxCore!
Now, Jan 2016 issue is said be not changed apart from extended date? The experience on my PC seems to refute this, it runs like a different program. For one thing I no longer get immediate 'an error has occured' message, nor a 'no lights' message. I now get an entirely different set of results...
My own (original) file is quite large. When loaded initially it gave error message "PathOCLBase Kernel compilation error" when in GPU-OCL mode, changed to CPU-OCL mode and got same. Changed to CPU non-OCL and it rendered, but all one colour - Red. Another time rendered all Blue! Deleted a few things and frigged around until got working well enough to get renders in all 3 modes. Most noticeable thing always, was no textures in any render, plus some colour changes, plus a lot of monochrome grey. The more I played around, the more confusing it got, the results varied too much to make any sense.
Decided new tack... Opened a scene from Carrara's own Browser: Scenes > Indoor group > Desk, thus anyone can play if they so desire (any other AMD users out there?). All tests done at absolute default: open Desk scene, switch to Camera 1, open IPR, ensure rendering, also go to Render Room and check full render works. Then change the LuxCore config and repeat to check 3 modes.
Initially had some stability issues. IPR worked, but got "error occured" message on clicking Render Room Tab. This seemed to clear after a a couple of times, and system now settled down and seems to work consistently.
All modes currently working, with similar results in CPU + OCL-CPU + OCL-GPU, speed being the only difference. All have the same problem however, textures are not rendering. Attached file shows CPU only render, including IPR, and Realistic Render (Doc2) for comparison. Other OCL modes look identical. Compare also the glass ball on the desk.
Note that The Halt sliders still have a problem in that they only render when set to Min & Max. Any other position and the render stops immediately, end time=start time, black screen.
Love to see this working properly, hoping SphericLabs can take time to look at why dropping all texture maps? Happy to run any tests to resolve.
Oops! file didn't load for some reason. Try again.
I have AMD as well
Dartanbeck,
So Luxcore renders Carrara's volumetrics? Very cool!!!!
Before I get any flack I should state I haven't played with Luxcore for months and forgotten most rules. Just realised the glass won't render as It needs a luxCore glass shader. The desk file is also probably not idealsince I notice some things have glow in there. But it will be interesting to see how much of a standard scene will render, and I'm hoping that I shouldn't see errors like the following...
Here is a relatively simple scene (mostly instances) I made for realistic renderer... Not adjusting any lights, or textures, not rendering to completion - stopping when enough visual info. Happy to delve into LuxCore textures for real when these random errors stop happening. I Believe reports say that simple textures should render quite well? Here are results on one scene file, 3 render modes, different errors each mode:
Pic1
OCL_GPU render... in the render room.
Doc 4 is realistic render
The IPR rendered OK but wrong colours, floor planks texture is rotated 90deg.
Doc 5 is OCL-GPU render - completed in 1 sec (black Screen) as visible in screen capture
Pic 2
CPU non-OCL... is Assembly Room.
Set the renderer to CPU engine only.
IPR worked but way out! Then clicked Render Room tab, error popped up. Can't get into the render room, locked! Note both tabs highlighted, stuck in Assy Rm.
Pic3
OCL_CPU render #1... - Error message on IPR but still renders.
Pic4
OCL_CPU render #2... Continue on to Render Room and still renders.
Note, sometimes get 'Carrara has stopped working' when exiting Carrara after running LuxCore (but not after using only realistic renderer in a session). Also not sure these results will repeat the same when if I run them again!
SphericLabs I've never sent files before, I have a go with this one.
Nope! (Well, not that I know of)
That's an HDR spherical map I've made Using Woodlands' Panoramic Maker ;)
Then I Insert > LuxCore Infinite Light, and load that HDR into the map field
So it has the benefit of getting us practice on switching out to new shader functions. Really cool.
So it looks (by looking at Doc 4 in Pic #1) like those lighting fixures have a glow shader, right? Did you turn that off before messing with the LuxCore?
Sorry for sounding ignorant, but I am brand-spanking new to all of this due to my own ignorance! LOL
After trying Luxus for Carrara and LuxusCore a little bit yesterday, I'm planning on trying to get into this whole thing by first studying up on creating actual shaders meant for these render engines, just so that I can know better what's going on and why. The hard part about that is finding the time.
Dartanbeck
Actually this was an old file and it's not been changed at all, just gone in to check again. Those soft boxes do have glow, but only colour white to give the glow effect on the face, the light is actually a spot behind that illuminates everything except the softbox. The spot is driven by an IES, something I tend to use always on internal scenes. Now it strikes me that I don't know if LuxCore even supports IES lights? I initially chose this scene because at first glance it has 9 spotlights only, I didn't check the effects tab! Thanks for the kick, I'm being lazy approaching this. Trouble was I was being distracted yesterday because the wife's Laptop was playing up too, and I kept getting dragged away.
I'll try taking out the IES and any glow in there too, and see where that leads. Thanks.
I was trying it on my laptop yesterday and found that to NOT be an option! LOL
Wrap Up...
Removed IES from spotlights, and all glow from any objects. Still had issues rendering, i.e. Cpu (non-OCL) consistently rendered all blue. OCL renders worked pretty much as previous examples, reasonable facsimiles but with possible system misbehaviour.
Gave up on that as a waste of time and went back to the Desk scene (simple, or so I thought). I put actual luxCore materials (simple) on most items (odd bits on the desk left as was). This then behaved properly in all modes, render shown. Moved lights a bit (desk lamp is just a bulb) and made ceiling emit to give a false ambient light.
Previous pages in this thread show some brilliant example renders by those far more expert than I will ever be, and it makes it all seems so simple. Don't be fooled like me if you're just a hobbyist, this has been a useful exercise but I have found it far from simple. The main problem is lack of any in-depth documentation, plus practically no stand alone shaders to use or learn from (the Luxcore Wicki materials page is blank). There are plenty of base shader base types included in Carrara LuxusCore itself that I have used in the scene: Matte, Glossy, etc. However, you need to use these to build your own shaders and I did not find it that easy to do. For example, in the example there is no picture in the wall mounted frame. I played around for ages and could not get that picture to display - even converted the primitive cube to vertex cube and re-did uv's. Showed fine in UV editor, but I couldn't get it to render. Now this is probably my own incompetance and there may be a perfectly simple way of configuring a shader properly to achieve that objective. Point though, is that with a big internal scene you could spend weeks just converting shaders (assuming you're as dumb as me of course). A good shader cook-book would be a huge help.
Conclusion is that converting any existing interior scenes, other that very simple ones, will be difficult and time consuming. Exterior scenes are probably simpler as you can just substitute LuxCore infinite or sun lights, Daz figures tend to render quite well at default with those lights.
I'm not knocking Carrara LuxCore at all here, when you understand it and get it working it is great, and will be a real boost to Carrara when complete. Now it does Carrara Hair too is fantastic, I tried that and found it easy to use. Just be aware that this needs more maturity before it is worth delving too much, unless you are quite expert and have plenty of time, it means a whole new way of working. For me, I think it would be quicker to build new scenes from scratch than convert old ones. The renderer baulkes too much when it meets things it doesn't uderstand.
Sorry if I rambled and stumbled around too much, stopping now as real life intrudes.
I am guessing I left you guys with a version that did not work since end of November. Ouch.
Not seeing it, am I looking in the wrong place?
From the feedback for DartenBack and Bradpiper, it clear the next feature needs to be a "convert all shaders to LuxCore"
1) This avoids a lot of work resetting up textures
2) This allows for further tweaking on LuxCore's terms.
Maybe not. I just need to figure out what to do with models thaa use texture maps. Many of these shader options are pretty foreign to me so far - well.. they all are so far - but I'm just tip-toeing in right now, so I was expecting to be at least a little lost. The material database at LuxRender must not work with Google Chrome, or it is down, so I don't really have any examples that use maps yet. I started wading through some of the forum posts but haven't found anything yet. So the only thing I really know so far is that Infinite light for both Luxor for Carrara and LuxusCore have a place where a map can be applied and it works. Whenever I 'think' I know where to put a map in a shader, I've been wrong so far.
Nothing wrong with this... I just haven't got a whole lot of time to try and 'find' a breakdown on where I can put my image maps/how to tweak these things/how to build from the ground up. But that certainly doesn't mean that I'm not going to try ;)
For SphericLabs,
Sorry, been extremely busy on none PC stuff. I did PM an explanatory note and files a couple of days ago, after you said "Not seeing it...". Please check if you didn't find it before now, otherwise ignore.
Here is a picture of my latest attempt at the Luxcore Demo From the first post.
As you can see it does not look Right compared to what it looks like on the first pages.
The only difference i have in my machine is I now have 2 R7 250 1GB Video cards.
You can also see I have used it last year on Page 5. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/743015/#Comment_743015
Any ideas what I am doing wrong?
Edit/LuxCore confing: Uncheck "Biased"
This recently added render method "Biased Path" has not been working in LuxusCore (since LuxCore is far from finished).
It is only useful to speed up certain renders, it is not as important as getting the Unbiased renderers to work.
Some more info here:
http://carraracafe.com/plugins/luxuscore-for-carrara-plugin-unofficial-manual-2015-02-15/
Really need to update the manual now that there is a GUI...
I will try that tonight
Thanks
I can't get anything to render ecept a default primitive with default shader. if I change the shader or try to add anything else all i get is black
Unticking the Biased box on the LUX CORE Config fixed it.
That will also get rid of the black screen.
The unofficial manual has just been updated with the latest added features, like GUI, Hair support and HDR/EXR rendering:
http://carraracafe.com/plugins/luxuscore-for-carrara-plugin-unofficial-manual-2015-02-15/
Far from complete, it is a good start with most info from this thread, in one long page.
Just post here with more tips, tricks and renders and I can add it to the manual.
/EDIT: Added even more info in the FAQ and HDR/EXR settings.
Seem to have lost the ability to render in GPU mode. All I get is a black window when using LuxCore IPR. CPU works fine.