VUE Rendering Frequently Asked Questions

	Product(s):	MicroStation
	Version(s):	10.16..
	Environment:	N\A
	Area:	Visualization
	Subarea:	VUE

What is VUE Rendering?

In MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 15 E-on Software’s VUE Render Engine was introduced as a Technical Preview. With the release of MicroStation CONNECT Edition Update 16 the VUE Rendering Engine replaces the previous Luxology Rendering Engine.

The VUE Rendering Engine uses Global Radiosity where as Luxology used Irradiance Caching and thus the render settings are different. These settings can be accessed via the new VUE Render Settings dialog.

The Vue Rendering Engine supports Path Tracing which in addition to using all CPU cores it will use all GPUs found in your system that support OpenCL For interior renders Path Tracing combined with either NVIDIA or Intel denoisers provide best results especially those scenes using Physically Based Materials (PBR).

The VUE Rendering Engine supports Image based lighting, Gradients and Photometric Special Atmospheres that produce more realistic renders than just Physical sky used by the Luxology Engine.

What are the minimum hardware requirements?

It is recommended for VUE Rendering a CPU that supports Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) instructions is used. In general, this would be CPU’s manufactured after 2011.

For MicroStation System Requirements please refer to https://communities.bentley.com/products/microstation/w/microstation__wiki/24799/microstation-connect-edition-system-requirements or for the most up to date information, the helps ‘Installation Requirements’ section delivered with the version being used. (Home > Readme > Installation > Installation Requirements)

Is the VUE rendering engine multithreaded?

Yes, the VUE Rendering Application / dialog is modeless and coexists with standard application view windows. The VUE rendering process is multi-threaded, which means that once the processing stage of a rendering is completed, you can continue to work while the rendering is in progress.

Should I use Ray Tracing or Path Tracing when rendering with VUE?

In general, it is recommended that the Path Tracing should be used for all rendering situations, Interior / Exterior etc. as its much faster especially if PBR materials are used.

Path Tracing is a hybrid CPU / GPU renderer, is physically unbiased render mode that naturally simulates many effects that have to be specifically set with other methods, such as soft shadows, depth of field, caustics, and indirect lighting. GPU acceleration allows for interactive rendering updates while editing your scene and using the Fast Preview render mopde. The Path Tracer will take advantage of any available GPU, from either Nvidia, AMD or Intel, with an OpenCL driver.

The Path Tracer doesn’t need additional computation for features like various soft effects (for example, soft shadows, blurry reflections and refractions, and depth of field), nor any kind of pre-pass calculations for indirect lighting. The only artifact that can be generated by the Path Tracer is high-frequency noise.

Some other advantages:

· In most cases path tracer is much faster than the ray tracer

· Minimal render settings other than stroke tolerance, depth of field etc. render quality is controlled by one setting that being the number of samples per pixel

· Soft shadows, antialiasing, and texture interpolation without increasing render times

· Physically based unbiased render produces most accurate result well suited for interior renders

· Easily render hundreds of shadow casting source lights without increasing render times

However, there are some draw backs (Below) to using the Path Tracer, for these situations it may be worth considering the use of Ray Tracing. But bear in mind Ray Tracing can lead to long render times it’s a matter of striking a balance between quality over time.

· Atmospheres are prerendered and low res

· No support for alpha channel at moment however this will be added in future release

· No support for procedural textures

· No support atmospheric effects such as rainbows, snow, or rain

· No volumetric clouds or lighting

· No light dispersion

· No colored shadows through solids with transparency

When rendering using the Path Tracer the image appears grainy, why?

The grainy appearance is down to high-frequency noise; The Path Tracer starts off with a noisy image and then recursively increases the rendering quality, thus decreasing the visible noise. However, the Path Tracer can be configured to use Powerful AI denoisers like the CPU-based Denoiser by Intel, and the GPU-based denoiser from NVIDIA. NVIDIA's GPU based denoiser requires a Maxwell based card or later such as Pascal or latest generation Turning based card. Amazing renders can be produced with fewer samples per pixels by using any of the available denoisers.

The Denoiser can be preselected and saved to predefined Rendering Settings via the ‘Render Setup Manager’ or via the ‘Post Rendering Setting’ dialog.

Can I change the Rendering Presets?

Yes, VUE’s Rendering engine settings, can be modified, and saved via the Render Setup Manager Dialog

with tabs for Path Tracing and Ray Tracing.

NOTE: A few settings are shared between these render methods. Changing the shared settings will change the option on both tabs.

What are the differences between the preset Rendering Settings?

The Rendering Setup presets use the following naming convention:

· Good - implies this render setup should give you good results

· Better - is similar to Good but adds texture filtering and is recommended for rendering animation frames

· Best - implies this render setup will produce better quality results but will take longer to render

· Extreme - useful if your scene is suffering from noise, splotches, or blotches. Rendering time for this preset will be significantly longer.

The primary difference between the Interior and Exterior versions of these presets is that the Exterior versions are optimized for exterior rendering by setting indirect bounces to 1, whereas Interior versions will all be set to 10 indirect bounces. Besides, ray trace settings for global illumination will use fewer indirect samples for exterior presets than interior presets. Path trace samples will be fewer for exterior presets than interior presets.

Having rendered a view why am I not able to adjust the lighting?

Prior to rendering the View ensure that the ‘Relighting’ is enabled on the VUE Rendering dialog

Lights can be turned on / off, their intensity and color can also be changed, post rendering

Is it possible to produce Non-Photo Realistic (NPR) images using VUE Rendering?

Yes. Prior to rendering the View ensure that the ‘NPR’ option is enabled on the VUE Rendering dialog.

Once the render is complete, you can then adjust the resultant image using the NPR Effects tab available on the Rendering Dialog.

Can I use VUE Rendering on existing files?

Yes. The VUE render engine can render existing files, however the existing Luxology render settings are no longer available these have been replaced by the advanced VUE Render Setup Manager.

Can I add atmospheric conditions when rendering?

Yes. This is another advantage over the Luxology, with the VUE render engine’s ability to accurately render the atmosphere such as Fog, haze, real clouds and not just a sky backdrop. These can be accessed via the Atmosphere Editor on the VUE render dialog by clicking on the icon.

Presets can also be chosen, in the case above ‘Edinburgh’ is selected.

Atmosphere Editor settings can be saved / opened from ATM files. The parameters that describe atmospheres are complex and time consuming, you may want to consider a copy of VUE.

Note: MicroStation’s Atmosphere Editor will not allow for the creation of new cloud layers but if you load a Preset that has a cloud Layer you will be able to adjust the cloud cover.

Can I alter my design whilst rendering?

Yes, with the VUE rendering engine, it is possible to modify your design whilst the View is still being rendered.

Also note if for example you move a Cell within the design that falls within in the View being rendered, you will also see the Cell move in the render via the Vue Rendering dialog.

Where can I get further information?

FAQ

Replacing Luxology with VUE

Introductory Videos

Simplified Rendering using VUE Rendering

Path Tracer and Denoising

View Render Dialog OverView

Vue Rendering Engine Pathway

Technical Preview Document

Jerry Flynn’s Rendering With VUE Technical Preview

Denoisers

Intel https://www.openimagedenoise.org/