ABD SS6 - Rendering software questions

Hi everyone

Maybe this thread is very complicated or controversial. I have some questions about rendering:

- We'd like to know what is happening with SketchUp. We can only import or use very, very previous versions of SketchUp

- On the other hand nowadays visualitzations rendering are very important. Sometimes you need basic renders and sometines, the most, you need realistic renderings. We recognize Bentley has made a great step with Luxology and Modo but we think there are still some shortcomings. Everything you can find in internet and everything the companys give us to improve or complete our BIM model in order to get renderings are 3DMax or 3DS models. This is great because you can use them. We can import, more or less, the geometry of these elements into ABD but all these models come with real V-Ray materials - textures/colors/etc - approved by the company/owner and we lose them everytime we import. It is a waste of time trying to emulate them. Is there any plan to solve this? Any converter from v-ray to ms/modo material?

Lots of thanks

Borja

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  • Lot of thanks to both of you for the answer

    Great news about SketchUp.

    We strongly think It would be very interesting achieve this translation from vray materials into MODO/MS materials. We need it.
    We don't know why but v-ray is a standard in 3D rendering world but most of the companys make their 3D models with 3DMax and v-ray materials. We think Chaosgroup is now developing a v-ray version for Revit.

    We are not sure, but maybe the people of chaosgroup that has developed the plug-in for MODO, has any specification file or something similar that made all these company materials usable into ABD and MS. We also know Corona Renderer developed a conversor for v-ray materials in order to use them in their own plug-in.

    Regards

    Borja
  • Hi Dominic

    Thanks for the links. We'll take a look into them.

    I think Bentley bet with Luxology is very good. It is a very good renderer and it is fast, but we need V-ray too. Everyone in 3D world works with it. Even SketchUp and in the future Revit.

    What will happen in the future with all the RFA elements with v-ray materials applied?

    I know this "something: plug-in/interpreter or similar" should be developed by Chaosgroup but I understand Bentey should ask for it.

    Regards
    Borja
  • Hello,

    Well... if Vray is putting together a plugin for Modo, It should be relatively easy for Mstn to leverage this, having the same renderer?

    Maybe you should join the Modo Vray beta group and lobby Luxology and Vray to provide a conversion tool at least.

    We seem to have too many rendering options at the moment: Luxology, LumenRT/Vue, Maxwell, Muto.

    I think that there are quite a few emerging forks in the road for Bentley.

    1. Luxology: Civils: There is the large model / low photorealism internally rendered use case. Think of big highway projects. You want to render directly in Mstn. Problem seems to be that animation is still a problem for Luxo in Mstn if you read the Viz forum posts. I bet a lot of civils guys would be keen for Bentley to focus on the inbuilt Luxo renderer.

    2. Luxology: Photorealistic architectural visualisation: All that entourage needs to be converted into Mstn format. Constant complaints will materials assignment/attachment problems. Artefacts, long renders due to the Monte Carlo stuff. No UV unwrap etc. None of all that nice plugins that you would have if rendering in Modo or Max. Does the distributed renderer work? I bet a lot of archies would be keen for Bentley to focus on the inbuilt Luxo renderer.

    3. LumenRT: Low photorealism but interactive. Early days for translator. I can see this being popular for some civils and architects. But, it's not bi-directional at the moment. Maybe there should be a tool to transfer the materials etc to Vue for high photorealistic rendering? 

    4. ConceptStation: LumenRT inside Mstn? Or it is Mstn tools in LumenRT? Low photorealism but fast with large models. Design and visualise on the same platform.

    5. Maxwell: Ease of use, real life materials, lighting. Less requirements to know the tricks that dedicated users would know... but slow. Poor support due to low number of Bentley users. I can see this being popular with architects who only occasionally do visualisation.

    6. Muto: translate from I-models. Need to know Unity. Long leaning curve. Can embed BIM info. VR Occulus Rift etc

    I think that when Mstn first incorporated Luxology in 2008, we were all excited to able to visualise in the same platform, avoiding all the translation problems and overheads. This would make us all a lot more productive and give us a much richer and more interactive user experience.

    Now, we are noticing that good vis requires a big ecosystem and lots of bug killing power. I think that what is needed is better bi-directional tools. At some point, you will need to export (and round trip) the model. Maybe we need an ISM for visualisation.

    Regards

    Dominic

  • Hi everyone
    Winter (V-ray) is coming. www.vray.com/vray-for-revit
    I'm sure after beta state 90% of companys will offer their products in RFA format with vray materials attached.
    What will be the solution in ABD?
    Thanks and regards