Tips to start setting up realistic lighting:

 from KurtS and Peter Tegza

 

 " The Lighting settings in the default 3d seed file that comes with Microstation V8i are not optimized for rendering with Luxology.

The good thing is that it is easy to make changes that improves the rendering output dramatically.

Some of the tips are already mentioned by others in this thread (and in a lot of other threads)

Here is a short list to start with :

 

in the Light Manager:

1. Switch OFF ambient light and flasbulb (IMO useless lights for most kind of visualization work)
2. Switch ON Solar light and Sky
3. Switch ON Shadows, and set the shadow settings to "soft - medium" or better
4. Set the cloudiness to ~90  (ok to start with)
5. Use "Physically based" color type for both Solar and Sky light
6. Select the desired solar position
7. Make sure that "default lighting" is switched off (this is no longer a problem in the newest build of V8i)
8. Turn OFF sky dome shadows. for 99% of scenes the difference is not visible and time effect is drastic

Now open the Luxology Render dialog (hit the render icon or key in 'dialog Luxology') I think most of the rendering and environment presets that Jerry has made works pretty well. For an exterior scene I would recommend to start with "Physical Sky" or "Probe Park Sunny" in combination with the render settings "Exterior Good" or "Draft" for the testing. Try to change the Lux slider and see how the shadows and light changes. "

Note from [[microstation_visualization_wiki:/members/Marc-Thomas/default.aspx|Marc Thomas]]

If you are using "Probe Park Sunny" rotating the image by the following should approximate azimuth directions, altitude cannot be changed:

south - 200deg; west - 290deg; north - 20deg (for southern hemisphere users); east - 110deg

Having both solar shadows and the diffuse shadow from this light probe sometimes works, sometimes looks odd.