[messire]

Its really crazy to see SU still has so many limitations for third party renders...
JD do you have any idea when the OSX version update of your plug-in will be fixed? ( i mean no date but lets say which month..?)
I had to remove 2.0 from the mac since it was useless ( material editor too slow and stuck..) and would love to be able to use the speed of 2.0 rather than doing it with 1.7.1
As for the camera matching, i'v fought with it last week: the film setting ( same size as SU) seems the best workaround so far...

thnx!
Nils

[JDHill]

Hi Nils,

Sorry, but I still won't give a date - suffice to say, I don't plan on taking any holidays. Keep in mind, that 2.0 can read 1.7 files, so if you are having trouble with Studio, it should not be too difficult to make a hybrid install that uses 1.7.1 Studi0 & MXED, but uses 2.0 for actual rendering. If you'd like me to try to come up with some exact instructions on doing this, let me know.

On the camera-matching topic, are you saying that you found a way to work around getting these crazy grey bars on your SU output?



I have to completely re-work the camera-handling side of things if we want to avoid this issue - setting the SU camera's aspect ratio also alters the FOV, but the way in which this is done does not seem to be documented. The current plugin takes this into account and does a proper match when this is the case (i.e. when you enable 'Show Render Area'), but having that enabled is causing SU to put these bars over the picture, on OSX here anyway. When the SU camera does not have aspect ratio set (i.e. 'Show Render Area' is not enabled), then the FOV is calculated differently, and we are not getting a good match. So red_shift is correct that there is currently a catch-22: we don't match without the SU aspect ratio set, but with it set, SU doesn't render correctly.

[messire]

JD
Yes i would like really to be able to use 2,0 rendering with 1.7.1 mxed would improve greatly speeds.
If you would be kind enough to explain how i shall proceed, what to install etc..(actually the biggest issue with 2.0 mac is the mxed slowness or freezing issue)

I'm actually on OS 10.5.8 planning to upgrade to 10.6 on 2,26 ghz octo nehalem.
Using SU 7.1.4870 english version and MR 1.7.1 with 2.2 SU export

As for grey bars in the SU output, i unfortunaly have to use photoshop to get rid of them by selecting the black lines and inverting selection, fill with white etc.. ( i guess like everyone else does).


Thnx
Nils

[JDHill]

Thanks Nils - I'll make sure the new plugin works around this issue, one way or another. On the Maxwell 1.7.1 vs. 2.0 scenario, give me a little time to download some things and set them up. In the meantime, make sure you have your installers for 1.7.1 and 2.0 ready.

[Richard]

Maybe the way to avoid the black stripping is to use SU native cameras from the film and stage plugin and match maxwells camera resolution to this! Just an idea? I know previously one had to use the F+S plugin to work with the MR plug!

If in general you want to work with SU without the black lines resize your sketchup window to the frame size you choose, then start to export and image from SU and this will give you your current SU window proportions. Then set your maxwell camera with the chosen res but at the same proportions as the SU window. Then obviously show the cropped area through the plugin and you wont have top and bottom bars! Though obviously you will have the OSX issue your taking about.

Question? Do these vertical bars show up when using the film and stage plugin and not that created by the MR plug?

[red_shift]

Maxwell 2.0 works fine on my Mac Pro with OS X 10.6.2 and SU 7.1 if you export the MXS file without the 'render in Maxwell after export' checked. I don't use AutoMXM at all, just add materials in Studio. The gray bars issue is the thorniest one. The workaround I am using at the moment is resetting the SU aspect ratio to 0.0 prior to exporting images from SU. I still have to tweak those images in Photoshop to get them to overlay the Maxwell render image somewhat accurately, and am still experimenting with whether this works in all cases.

[messire]

did some tests today: grey stripes appear only at over a certain output size, and only when "show render area" in the plug in is selected.
I outputed an image at various sizes and found that
3000x2000= grey stripes
1500x1000= grey stripes but different location
750x500= no more grey stripes
It seems related therefore to a maximum possibility of pixel export somewhere...( if that can help!)

Nils

[messire]

Still fighting with this 2D export issue( the random grey stripes): found the turn around is, in pshop, to increase light and contrast 100% two times. It removes the grey stripes without too much touching the lines.

Nils

[JDHill]

For what it's worth, I've spent alot of time making sure that this won't be an issue with the new plugin.

It has two basic camera modes: Viewport and Custom. In Viewport mode, it will match whatever you see in the SketchUp viewport, including its pixel size, perspective (still, being Maxwell, only perspective cameras are supported), and any aspect ratio (i.e. the grey bars) that's been set up by you or another plugin. In Custom mode, the camera's output is de-linked from the SketchUp viewport and you are given the option of whether or not you would like to show the grey bars -- if you show them, you will be able to see how your custom output is framed within the viewport; if you don't, you won't, though the camera will continue to render the same as if they were shown.

There are also two custom tools related to camera focus: a focal distance picking tool, and an auto-focus tool which asks you to pick two points in the model; when you do, the plugin calculates the correct fStop, using the two points as near/far focus distances, and adjusts the shutter to maintain the camera's exposure given the new fStop.

In no case are you ever forced to click any OK/Cancel or Update buttons; any changes take effect as soon as you make them. That will be a common theme; there are, as far as I remember right now, no such OK/Cancel/Update scenarios in the new plugin. Instead, if you don't like a change you've made, you can just Undo it.

[messire]

holly cow...
This just sounds great !! cannot wait really !!
Actually it sounds awsome: when i see the quality of renders i can do with all the limitations and workarounds ( already pretty good to my tastes) , i know the results with your work will be hot

thnx
Nils

[brodie_geers]

sounds great JDHill. One comment on the first option. What if instead of having the pixels linked to the viewport, you could at least increase the resolution. For example, what if you could say I want the width to be 3,000 px wide and the height is just whatever it ends up being based on your viewport aspect ratio. Make sense?

-Brodie

[JDHill]

The x/y resolution in Custom mode has a ratio lock which is enabled by default, so to do what you are asking about, you'd:

1. put the camera into Custom mode
2. change the width to 3000px

At step 1, the current viewport dimensions become the now-Custom camera's resolution. At step 2, the height is figured automatically based on the a/r, due to the function of the ratio lock. So you end up with a camera whose resolution is 3000px by whatever, based on the viewport a/r.

[brodie_geers]

sounds great

-Brodie