AccuRender Studio

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Starting a new thread...

Latest version of AccuRender Studio is here.  Among other changes:

1. ArStudio command automatically loads the model and begins interactive rendering in addition to bringing up the Control Panel palette.
2. Decal interface has been redone to include multiple decals and cylindrical projections.
3. Legacy data is being handled a little better.

[Peter Milner]

Okay. I've installed the latest version.

Still can't change lighting values by typing in - have to use the up-down arrows. The value box does now display properly.

Still have to select object first before clicking on "Tag object as light" button.

Can't see how to add lighting channels.

Material previews are now showing. However, it's much harder to see the texture on the widget rather than the old sphere/cube/slab in nXt. Also, it would be useful to be able to change the scale of the preview image.

Opening materials now defaults to previous destination.

Is there any way of having more than one bump map in a material?

Scale of sandpaper texture seems to have changed. What would be the equivalent of the old scale 0.5?

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Type-in is certainly working here-- so is picking objects to tag as lights-- both pickfirst and not.  Not sure what's up.  Do you have an older version of AutoCAD you could test with? 

There is a right-click on the Material Previewer that lets you apply the material to the floor plane.  I'll add a scale factor and make sure the floor setting is persistent.

Single bump maps only.  People typically use a blended bitmap for more complex effects.  Sandpaper doesn't work as well as it used to, at least for matte materials-- the noise filter has trouble distinguishing it from noise artifacts.  

[Peter Milner]

Type-in - If I highlight the number, the highlight doesn't stick. If I click anywhere in the value box, the the cursor doesn't stick. It just disappears.

Tagging objects as lights - when I click anywhere in the Studio palette and then move across to the AutoCAD space, my cursor stays as a mouse pointer rather than reverting to the AutoCAD pickbox. This also stops me from dragging materials directly onto objects.

Unfortunately I don't have an older version of AutoCAD. It's possibly something to do with the new floating windows feature in AutoCAD 2022. 

Blended bitmaps - So if I create a blended material and put the second bump map in the second material, this should work?

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

I just got 2022-- it's working fine here for type ahead and selection.  You often have to click twice in AutoCAD in order to get the pick cursor, etc.  The first one shifts focus.  It's been a known issue in AutoCAD for a while-- I'll see if there's something I can do.  The type-in thing is still a mystery to me.   I'll investigate the floating windows.  Are you using those?

Blending two materials with different bump maps should work.  Also using photoshop if you want to blend two bitmaps into a single bump works as well.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Found it-- it's not working properly if the palette is docked.  For now if you drag the AccuRender Studio palette and make it floating everything works.  I'll see what I can do.

[Peter Milner]

Yes, that works now, though a bit glitchy.

Dragging and dropping materials doesn't work (is it supposed to?).

[Peter Milner]

Reliance on the noise filter does concern me a little.

A lot of my work involves wood grain and fabrics, both of which can have varying degrees of texture which affect the way light is reflected.

With the noise filter off, are renders likely to take the same amount of time as nXt Path Tracer, or longer?

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Pretty much the only thing sacrificed has been the sandpaper bump, and even then only in certain circumstances.  Everything else is preserved nicely including any random noise you add to color maps. Hard to say on performance without the denoiser, it will be highly rendering dependent.  The new engine is much better at multithreading, but it does process more noisy light pathways which can potentially add noise (but also quality.) 

[Peter Milner]

I suspect it will take a lot longer without the noise filter.

These similar renders ran for 5 minutes each. nXt performed 127 passes and Studio performed 344 passes.

Incidentally, is it possible to set a render running to a certain number of passes rather than time?

Using time makes no sense to me because you can't predict how good the result will be. One render may only take a couple of hours to resolve, whereas another may take 10 hours or more.

However, I know that 3000 passes in nXt gives me a high res print quality image.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

It's an easy feature to add, but I'm pretty sure with this new version you'll find a time constraint to be more reliable.  The rendering below is probably done already, with a noise filter, or close to it.

Rendering runs can be combined in the Image Editor, as before.

[Peter Milner]

The problem is when I'm running several renders over a weekend. How will I know how much time to allocate to each one?

I wouldn't want them to run for the same amount of time, as one may over-cook to no extra benefit, while another is underdone.

[Roy Hirshkowitz]

Yeah-- I understand.  I just think you may find you have a similar problem in this new engine with trying to estimate how many passes will be good enough.   That can vary a lot.

You're always going have some error, allocating some unnecessary processing and under-cooking some others.  My gut just tells me allocating by time will work a little better.