Tips & Tricks for Iray for newbies......

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  • dHandledHandle Posts: 617
    edited December 1969

    Khory said:
    I would think there would be some orange glow from outside.

    You know your right. Some of the orange shining through would be logical. Is the glass in the doors Iray?

    No, there is no glass. It's just alpha channel space.

    So...I used a mesh sphere and played around with the size and distance and luminance.

    At first, I put it too close to the doors outside, and the shadows made it look like someone was standing out there with an orange flashlight. After fiddling with it for a while, I rendered it out. Hit the 5000 max sample default after about 50 min. It was at 80%.

    Here is the result:

    Level19_Iray_scene02.jpg
    900 x 506 - 402K
  • AalaAala Posts: 140
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    Szark said:
    This scene I didn't use any fill lights at all. I used the Sun/Sky using the Sun Dial to provide the suns position, setting ISO at 1600, f/stop 4 and shutter 50. 10000 samples and Render Quality of 2.00. I didn't render it out fully as it would have taken a day or two. I can only render using CPU.

    This is really nice! Well done! Shame that you can render with a CPU only. What system do you have?

    And if you don't mind me asking, what set is that scene from?

    Thanks. PC i7 3770 Quad core, 8 GB of Ram and a lowly GT610 GC.

    The scene is http://www.daz3d.com/rosemill-moor and http://www.daz3d.com/rosemill-moor-ii

    Thanks! :D

    You should definitely save up some money and get a gtx 970 :p.

  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854
    edited December 1969

    I like that one much better. The pop of orange is a really nice contrast with the bluish gray.

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 14,763
    edited December 1969

    The 970 only sees 3.5GB of the 4GB of RAM

  • jakkujakku Posts: 91
    edited December 1969

    Hello :)

    I was looking around the forum but I cannot seem to find any info on it

    My question is, how fast is the Nvidia Iray mode in the viewport with a fast Nvidia GPU?

    is it 100% realtime or just really quick test renders?

    I currently have an AMD GPU, I have not the slightest idea how much faster it would be with an Nvidia card.

    Thanks :)

  • frank0314frank0314 Posts: 14,763
    edited December 1969

    How much RAM is on your Nvidia card? The speed of the render depends on your system. if you don't have a GPU with 4GB of RAM

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    Jakku said:
    Hello :)

    I was looking around the forum but I cannot seem to find any info on it

    My question is, how fast is the Nvidia Iray mode in the viewport with a fast Nvidia GPU?

    is it 100% realtime or just really quick test renders?

    I currently have an AMD GPU, I have not the slightest idea how much faster it would be with an Nvidia card.

    Thanks :)

    There is a thread in which they were doing benchmark tests http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/53771/

  • jakkujakku Posts: 91
    edited December 1969

    Thanks you two :)

    I wondering about the interactive part of Iray though, not the actual render, you know the one you can pick in the drop-down menu in the display and drawstyle menus, together with Texture shaded, Cartoon Shaded, Wire texture shaded and so on

    I do not currently have an Nvidia card, but I just thought it would be much easier to learn and use if one could see the changes instantly.

    Is the Iray render in drawstyle 100% realtime like texture shaded with and nvidia card?

  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854
    edited December 1969

    Is the Iray render in drawstyle 100% realtime like texture shaded with and nvidia card?

    With my 970 it is pretty darn close to real time. Of course it depends on what you have in the scene as to how fast it is. There is a moment of recalculation ever time you make an adjustment though and that can be distracting when you first start putting together a scene and so on.

  • jakkujakku Posts: 91
    edited December 1969

    Ah cool :)

    Thank you very much Khory! :)

  • dHandledHandle Posts: 617
    edited December 1969

    Khory said:
    I like that one much better. The pop of orange is a really nice contrast with the bluish gray.

    Thanks, Khory.

    I really like Szark's "Rosemill Moor" renders, especially the polished glossy floor. Wanted to give it a try with a set I have.

    I used the "Sun/Sky" setting too, but I did add the wall lights and the chandelier. (Can't see the chandelier, though.)

    I noticed in playing around that it's not immediately obvious which way is east/west when trying to place the sun. When a building or other structure is first loaded into a scene, how can that be determined easily? Does the default camera point in a certain direction every time? I took Sickleyield's advice, and have a default camera loaded into every new scene.

    Anyone know which way it's pointing?

    Aslan_Court_Iray03.jpg
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  • KhoryKhory Posts: 3,854
    edited December 1969

    Did a couple of very quick test renders and it looks like the sun sets to the left of you as you look at the scene. That should mean that if your camera is "front" facing then your looking north.

  • dHandledHandle Posts: 617
    edited December 1969

    Khory said:
    Did a couple of very quick test renders and it looks like the sun sets to the left of you as you look at the scene. That should mean that if your camera is "front" facing then your looking north.

    Ok, that makes sense.

    (duh! I could have done that!)

    I think it must be time to work on dome and scene, or maybe adding HDR Images and adding light that way.

    Thanks!

    "D"

  • SuperdogSuperdog Posts: 765
    edited December 1969

    If you are using the sun setting then a 970 or 980 should offer almost instant updates but if you use HDRI's then I find that there is a sometimes significant delay before the viewport is updated. HDRI's seem to slow things right down in my experience. Maybe there's a way to fix this?

    If you can only fit one card then get a 980 at the very least - preferably with 6GB VRAM. It's worth investing in the highest spec card possible even if you can't eat for a month! I've got 4 x 760 4GB VRAM and this can handle quite a lot. Render speeds are pretty fast. When I upgrade I'll go for less cards but higher spec ones.

  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019
    edited December 1969

    I have a question regarding the Iray render settings. Can someone please explain to me the difference between
    Infinite Sphere
    Infinite Sphere w/ Ground
    ?
    By reading the setting, I would expect that the first has no ground that can catch shadows, but the second has. But when I render, the shadows are “caught” depending on the “Draw Ground” setting.
    I’m a tad confused as to wether this should be just one setting in the first place, or if there’s indeed a difference.
    Can someone help me out and kindly explain this?
    Thank you! :-)

  • BeeMKayBeeMKay Posts: 7,019
    edited June 2015

    Some usefull basic settings for Tonemapping, based on the "Sunny 16"-Rule:
    Outdoors
    >>"Bright sun/snow" (very bright):
    at f/stop: 22
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200
    >>"sunny" (distinctive shadows):
    at f/stop: 16
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200
    >>"some clouds" (slightly blurry shadows):
    at f/stop: 11
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200
    >>"cloudy" (hardly visible shadows):
    at f/stop: 8
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200
    >>"overcast" (no shadows)
    at f/stop: 5.6
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200

    Indoors
    (you can use the default lumiance setting of 1500 units)
    >>"very bright lit":
    at f/stop: 2.8
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200
    >>bright lit":
    at f/stop: 1.4
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200
    >>dim lit":
    at f/stop: 1.0
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200

    (I apologize if this has been posted before, I have kind of lost track with the threads. :red:
    Please keep in mind that this are just starting points. Depending on your scene, it might need further tweaking of the settings.)

    Post edited by BeeMKay on
  • LucynskyLucynsky Posts: 64
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    I found the best way to set up lights is to use real world lumen and Kelvin (temp) values and increase Tone Mapping ISO to 1600 or 3200 and drop shutter speed down to say 50 which will let more light in to the camera. Then once you done that add some fill light via Point or mesh lights. Mesh light planes behind the camera works well IMHO.

    Thank you so much! I needed a starting point. I've been so frustrated.

  • madisonx_c5746f56a5madisonx_c5746f56a5 Posts: 224
    edited December 1969

    Hello all.

    Just started playing with Iray, and it does seem to do a decent job fairly quickly.

    I threw together a simple, rough scene and only let it run for about 20 minutes, so I imagine some of the graininess will clean up over time. Used the Iray Painter lights, and adjusted Film ISO to 400 and Exposure Value to 12. While this is nothing fancy, I think it is a decent start for a scene and render that took less than 30 minutes from start to finish.

    Any thoughts on obvious areas I can improve for using Iray?

    Iray_Test_Gia.png
    1024 x 576 - 898K
  • Nyghtfall3DNyghtfall3D Posts: 813
    edited December 1969

    I haven't finished reading the thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned...

    If you own a copy of Reality 4, and are accustomed to its Mesh Lights, you can use them in place of creating your own plane primitives. Just load any mesh light and apply the Iray Emissive shader to the RealityLight section on the Surfaces tab.

    This render was lit with a Reality Mesh Light loaded in the default position.

    Reality-Mesh.jpg
    832 x 1177 - 288K
  • solarviewsolarview Posts: 286
    edited July 2015

    Nyghtfall said:
    I haven't finished reading the thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned...

    If you own a copy of Reality 4, and are accustomed to its Mesh Lights, you can use them in place of creating your own plane primitives. Just load any mesh light and apply the Iray Emissive shader to the RealityLight section on the Surfaces tab.

    This render was lit with a Reality Mesh Light loaded in the default position.

    Hey Nyghtfall,
    I'm a Reality user too. Could you clarify where you mean to apply the emissive shader?
    I tried double-clicking the emissive button in the presets tab of Surfaces/iRay with the Mesh Light selected, but nothing happens.
    Is that the right place, or did you mean somewhere different? Thanks.
    - Sol

    Post edited by solarview on
  • MBuschMBusch Posts: 547
    edited July 2015

    Nyghtfall said:
    I haven't finished reading the thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned...

    If you own a copy of Reality 4, and are accustomed to its Mesh Lights, you can use them in place of creating your own plane primitives. Just load any mesh light and apply the Iray Emissive shader to the RealityLight section on the Surfaces tab.

    This render was lit with a Reality Mesh Light loaded in the default position.

    Yes you can, but should not do it. A Mesh as light source is useful in some situations, but you can get similar results using Photometric Lights and switching the geometry from Point to Rectangle or Disc, Sphere, Cylinder with advantages. You can switch the Render Emitter to off making the geometry invisible in the render while still emitting light, something not possible in Reality/Lux. You can look through the light Camera View which makes targeting the main light focus easier. You also can switch the the light to be Two Sided. Just don't forget to change the Spread Angle when using Rectangle or Disc geometries to get the light spreading correctly.

    Screenshot_2015-07-03_16.30_.02_.jpg
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    Post edited by MBusch on
  • tl155180tl155180 Posts: 994
    edited July 2015

    lee_lhs said:
    Some usefull basic settings for Tonemapping, based on the "Sunny 16"-Rule:
    Outdoors
    >>"Bright sun/snow" (very bright):
    at f/stop: 22
    Shutter Speed: 100 -- ISO: 100
    Shutter Speed: 200 -- ISO: 200

    ...

    These are really useful guidelines Lee, thanks! I've been struggling with what to do with these settings.

    Post edited by tl155180 on
  • solarviewsolarview Posts: 286
    edited July 2015

    MBusch said:
    Nyghtfall said:
    I haven't finished reading the thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned...

    If you own a copy of Reality 4, and are accustomed to its Mesh Lights, you can use them in place of creating your own plane primitives. Just load any mesh light and apply the Iray Emissive shader to the RealityLight section on the Surfaces tab.

    This render was lit with a Reality Mesh Light loaded in the default position.

    Yes you can, but should not do it. A Mesh as light source is useful in some situations, but you can get similar results using Photometric Lights and switching the geometry from Point to Rectangle or Disc, Sphere, Cylinder with advantages. You can switch the Render Emitter to off making the geometry invisible in the render while still emitting light, something not possible in Reality/Lux. You can look through the light Camera View which makes targeting the main light focus easier. You also can switch the the light to be Two Sided. Just don't forget to change the Spread Angle when using Rectangle or Disc geometries to get the light spreading correctly.

    Thanks for the feedback here. Curious you mentioned this. I was just playing with the different point vs rectangle, etc. settings earlier today, and I'm not seeing any physical difference in the light characteristics in iRay. The "spread" setting changes the look (larger/smaller circles), but not those that you mentioned. So are you saying that if I want the look of a long rectangle softbox, I need to change the setting to "rectangle", and then also change the dimensions in the "dimension" box, to actually see that different shape in the light characteristics?
    I tried changing those numbers at one point, but saw no size changes in the light itself. (Head-scratching here.)
    After seeing no difference, I was thinking that maybe they were just for emissions mode or something.
    I also tried to change the physical shape of the spotlight to larger/smaller/ longer, etc., by clicking-on, and changing the actual shape of the light itself. But it still seem to only resemble a spot light in how the light distributed on my subject. Again, except for the "Spread" adjustment. That does make a difference, just like in 3Delight mode. Thoughts?

    - Sol

    Post edited by solarview on
  • MBuschMBusch Posts: 547
    edited December 1969

    Sol765 said:
    MBusch said:
    Nyghtfall said:
    I haven't finished reading the thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned...

    If you own a copy of Reality 4, and are accustomed to its Mesh Lights, you can use them in place of creating your own plane primitives. Just load any mesh light and apply the Iray Emissive shader to the RealityLight section on the Surfaces tab.

    This render was lit with a Reality Mesh Light loaded in the default position.

    Yes you can, but should not do it. A Mesh as light source is useful in some situations, but you can get similar results using Photometric Lights and switching the geometry from Point to Rectangle or Disc, Sphere, Cylinder with advantages. You can switch the Render Emitter to off making the geometry invisible in the render while still emitting light, something not possible in Reality/Lux. You can look through the light Camera View which makes targeting the main light focus easier. You also can switch the the light to be Two Sided. Just don't forget to change the Spread Angle when using Rectangle or Disc geometries to get the light spreading correctly.

    Thanks for the feedback here. Curious you mentioned this. I was just playing with the different point vs rectangle, etc. settings earlier today, and I'm not seeing any physical difference in the light characteristics in iRay. The "spread" setting changes the look (larger/smaller circles), but not those that you mentioned. So are you saying that if I want the look of a long rectangle softbox, I need to change the setting to "rectangle", and then also change the dimensions in the "dimension" box, to actually see that different shape in the light characteristics?
    I tried changing those numbers at one point, but saw no size changes in the light itself. (Head-scratching here.)
    After seeing no difference, I was thinking that maybe they were just for emissions mode or something.
    I also tried to change the physical shape of the spotlight to larger/smaller/longer, etc., by clicking-on, and changing the actual shape of the light itself. But it still seem to only resemble a spot light in how the light distributed on my subject. Again, except for the "Spread" adjustment. That does make a difference, just like in 3Delight mode. Thoughts?

    - Sol

    That is exactly what I am saying. You cannot see the geometry until you change the view mode to Iray interactive in the viewport. Anyway as I said before you can switch the Render Emissive to Off to hide the geometry in the rende while the it stills will illuminate the scene. In the same way as Lux, bigger geometries give soft shadows while little ones give sharpen shadows

  • solarviewsolarview Posts: 286
    edited December 1969

    MBusch said:
    Sol765 said:
    MBusch said:
    Nyghtfall said:
    I haven't finished reading the thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned...

    If you own a copy of Reality 4, and are accustomed to its Mesh Lights, you can use them in place of creating your own plane primitives. Just load any mesh light and apply the Iray Emissive shader to the RealityLight section on the Surfaces tab.

    This render was lit with a Reality Mesh Light loaded in the default position.

    Yes you can, but should not do it. A Mesh as light source is useful in some situations, but you can get similar results using Photometric Lights and switching the geometry from Point to Rectangle or Disc, Sphere, Cylinder with advantages. You can switch the Render Emitter to off making the geometry invisible in the render while still emitting light, something not possible in Reality/Lux. You can look through the light Camera View which makes targeting the main light focus easier. You also can switch the the light to be Two Sided. Just don't forget to change the Spread Angle when using Rectangle or Disc geometries to get the light spreading correctly.

    Thanks for the feedback here. Curious you mentioned this. I was just playing with the different point vs rectangle, etc. settings earlier today, and I'm not seeing any physical difference in the light characteristics in iRay. The "spread" setting changes the look (larger/smaller circles), but not those that you mentioned. So are you saying that if I want the look of a long rectangle softbox, I need to change the setting to "rectangle", and then also change the dimensions in the "dimension" box, to actually see that different shape in the light characteristics?
    I tried changing those numbers at one point, but saw no size changes in the light itself. (Head-scratching here.)
    After seeing no difference, I was thinking that maybe they were just for emissions mode or something.
    I also tried to change the physical shape of the spotlight to larger/smaller/longer, etc., by clicking-on, and changing the actual shape of the light itself. But it still seem to only resemble a spot light in how the light distributed on my subject. Again, except for the "Spread" adjustment. That does make a difference, just like in 3Delight mode. Thoughts?

    - Sol

    That is exactly what I am saying. You cannot see the geometry until you change the view mode to Iray interactive in the viewport. Anyway as I said before you can switch the Render Emissive to Off to hide the geometry in the rende while the it stills will illuminate the scene. In the same way as Lux, bigger geometries give soft shadows while little ones give sharpen shadows

    Cool. Running a test render at the moment, but I'll try your suggestions later tonight.
    Thanks!
    - Sol

  • solarviewsolarview Posts: 286
    edited December 1969

    MBusch said:

    That is exactly what I am saying. You cannot see the geometry until you change the view mode to Iray interactive in the viewport. Anyway as I said before you can switch the Render Emissive to Off to hide the geometry in the rende while the it stills will illuminate the scene. In the same way as Lux, bigger geometries give soft shadows while little ones give sharpen shadows

    Sorry, but where is "IRay interactive"??

  • Kevin SandersonKevin Sanderson Posts: 1,643
    edited December 1969

    Sol765 said:
    MBusch said:

    That is exactly what I am saying. You cannot see the geometry until you change the view mode to Iray interactive in the viewport. Anyway as I said before you can switch the Render Emissive to Off to hide the geometry in the rende while the it stills will illuminate the scene. In the same way as Lux, bigger geometries give soft shadows while little ones give sharpen shadows

    Sorry, but where is "IRay interactive"??

    In the Render editor, under Render Mode, change Photoreal to Interactive from the dropdown

  • MBuschMBusch Posts: 547
    edited July 2015

    Sol765 said:
    MBusch said:

    That is exactly what I am saying. You cannot see the geometry until you change the view mode to Iray interactive in the viewport. Anyway as I said before you can switch the Render Emissive to Off to hide the geometry in the rende while the it stills will illuminate the scene. In the same way as Lux, bigger geometries give soft shadows while little ones give sharpen shadows

    Sorry, but where is "IRay interactive"??

    When you switch the preview mode in the viewport to NVIDIA Iray you will get the viewport rendering in interactive mode by default. At the render time when you render to a new window, Iray renders in Photoreal mode by default.

    Screenshot_2015-07-03_18.47_.08_.jpg
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    Post edited by MBusch on
  • solarviewsolarview Posts: 286
    edited December 1969

    MBusch said:
    Sol765 said:
    MBusch said:

    That is exactly what I am saying. You cannot see the geometry until you change the view mode to Iray interactive in the viewport. Anyway as I said before you can switch the Render Emissive to Off to hide the geometry in the rende while the it stills will illuminate the scene. In the same way as Lux, bigger geometries give soft shadows while little ones give sharpen shadows

    Sorry, but where is "IRay interactive"??

    When you switch the preview mode in the viewport to NVIDIA Iray you will get the viewport rendering in interactive mode by default. At the render time when you render to a new window, Iray renders in Photoreal mode by default.


    Thanks, Guys.

  • Nyghtfall3DNyghtfall3D Posts: 813
    edited July 2015

    Sol765 said:
    I'm a Reality user too. Could you clarify where you mean to apply the emissive shader?
    I tried double-clicking the emissive button in the presets tab of Surfaces/iRay with the Mesh Light selected, but nothing happens.
    Is that the right place, or did you mean somewhere different? Thanks.
    - Sol

    Load a Reality Mesh Light
    Go to the Surfaces Tab
    Select the section labeled RealityLight
    Double-click the Iray Emissive shader preset.
    Adjust settings to suit needs

    (Screenshots below - Reality Mesh with default surface settings on the left, Iray Emissive shader loaded on the right)

    Yes you can, but should not do it. A Mesh as light source is useful in some situations, but you can get similar results using Photometric Lights and switching the geometry from Point to Rectangle or Disc, Sphere, Cylinder with advantages. You can switch the Render Emitter to off making the geometry invisible in the render while still emitting light, something not possible in Reality/Lux. You can look through the light Camera View which makes targeting the main light focus easier. You also can switch the the light to be Two Sided. Just don't forget to change the Spread Angle when using Rectangle or Disc geometries to get the light spreading correctly.

    Awesome. I was not aware of that. Thanks for the info.

    reality-iray.jpg
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    reality-mesh.jpg
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    Post edited by Nyghtfall3D on
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