Lighting Channels while rendering

I'm so exicited about this feature, I had to announce it before it was ready for release.

The next Beta version is going to have the new PathTracer option, but it is also going to let you alter lighting channels from the rendering window.

This first image has the right hand spot light much brighter

This second image has the left hand spot light turned up.

You can slide the sliders and watch the image change, and we will remember the values for the next rendering of the same model.

Also. I was able to name the lighting channels which will make them much easier to use.

I promise to get this new Beta out on Monday. (Which means we may actually get it out by Tuesday if we are lucky)

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on September 27, 2010 at 1:21am

Looks good - I will look forward to it

I know I keep nagging about this one but will there be any chance in the future to determine individual material self glow in lighting channels or have more self glow channels?

Thanks

Boothy

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Permalink Reply by Richcat on September 27, 2010 at 3:11am

Hurray :-)
Its like christmas eve or is that christmas eve eve.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 27, 2010 at 7:17am

If you use Object Properties, omnidirectional, lighting to light the image, you can assign it a different lighting channel. The first image below uses object properyl lighting on the right hand image. The second image uses self-glow on the left hand image. (Both images are from the same rendering with different lighting channel intensity values)

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 27, 2010 at 7:20am

Boothy said:

Looks good - I will look forward to it I know I keep nagging about this one but will there be any chance in the future to ... have more self glow channels?

The problem is that lighting channels eat up huge amounts or RAM.

I rendered the images above at 3,000 pixel resolution (to see how much memory is used up). With 1 Lighting channel they use 390MB RAM, with 8 channels they use 890MB RAM.

However, with enough RAM and a 64-bit version of the renderer, 16 channels might be reasonable.

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on September 27, 2010 at 8:23am

No chance of a option splitting between say 4 self glow and 4 lighting channels ?-I am really keen on the multiple self glow option - with experience I think it is as important for subtle variation in scenes - particularly with backgrounds - if not more so than some light channels - I would personally prefer a second\third individual self glow tab - usually I find I have enough control with 4-5 light variants.I understand this is probably a minority view.

I know its not for every one spec wise but both my machines are min 8 gb (1 x12)ram and 64 bit running either a xeon or overclocked i7 so on that basis should be OK - I would of thought a lot of pro machines would be getting into the 6-8 gb (64 bit) region by now. Probably could do with poll on user ram and 32\64 bit specs. Am I correct in thinking that with enough ram available the light channels should not slow down render time ?

Thanks for the tip on omni object properties will the omni not affect light locally? - unlike self glow?- I suppose if omni is subtle there should be little effect - I am currently knocking out a interior visual for a client so I will give it a go - probably Tuesday

Boothy

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 27, 2010 at 10:10am

Boothy said:

Thanks for the tip on omni object properties will the omni not affect light locally? - unlike self glow?- I suppose if omni is subtle there should be little effect - I am currently knocking out a interior visual for a client so I will give it a go - probably Tuesday

Boothy

The omni glow does emit light into the scene . However, a TV screen, or backlit sign also emits light into the real world. So you might find this acceptable.

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Permalink Reply by Render Plus on September 28, 2010 at 5:46pm

We released a new version, JI28, which should have this working.

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Permalink Reply by Boothy on September 30, 2010 at 3:23am

Hi Al

I have been having a play with above concept regarding multiple Omni lights and channels - it works to a certain degree but unfortunately each light tends to cancel out the other so I cannot get the full control I would prefer (see below)

Having looked at this further - what I think I really need is to be able to exclude individual objects from sun and sky - in the second image the backround image\panels look unrealistic because the sun as flooded with light - if I could exlude light from background panels - I could then have much more control using omni\self glow.