[fountainhead]

I have a model of a modest sized room, 6 emitters. When setting up the camera, I hide one end wall and position the camera to get a decent overall view, the camera position ends up about 6m outside of the room. If I set the front clipping plane just inside the room, say at 6.1m and unhide the end wall, the rendered area develops as expected with the exception that the visible emitters in the scene are not on. If I run the same scene with the one end wall hidden, and keep the Z-clip option unchanged, all of the emitters work as expected. Why would unhiding the end wall, the one that is clipped affect whether or not emitters are functioning? What am I missing?

Revised: I have done some more testing on a very basic cube with one emitter...please see conclusions further down the topic.

[fountainhead]

I've discovered something about the Z-Clip and emitters, just not sure what it means. As I mentioned previously, if I try and clip into a closed room, with a camera position that is outside of the room, any emitters that are inside the room fail to provide illumination. Now if I cut a hole in the wall that is blocking the camera, the one that I clip past, and I make sure that from the camera position, that I can see through the hole in the wall to an emitter I have inside the room, then in the render that one emitter will illuminate, but the illumination will be confined to the size of the hole I've cut in the wall. The bigger hole I cut, the more area in the render that the emitter will have influence on. If I make the whole large enough to see 2 emitters, then the second emitter will turn on, and the influence of the 2 emitters will be confined to the size of the hole in the wall I am trying to clip past.

What gives?

Revised: The information here that the hole in the clipped wall must allow you to see the emitter from the camera point of view in order for the emitter to turn on is incorrect. The emitter's are all on, but with greatly diminished capacity. Please see basic cube test further down in topic.

[fountainhead]

Some more information...if I export to Studio, and run the FIRE preview, everything works perfectly. The emitters are on and illuminating properly, the view is clipped through the wall and into the room as expected.

If I then render from Studio...goodbye emitters. Well, not all emitters, as there is emitter light in the scene, just not from the ones that are visible in the viewport...those ones are off.

I don't get it.

Revised: It was later discovered that the reason for this success was due to a change in the render display options under 'quality'....if 'draft' was chosen the emitters work at full illumination as expected, if 'production' is chosen, the emitters do work, but at a greatly reduced illumination.

[Half Life]

I'm trying to visualize your problem but what I keep coming up against is "A picture is worth a thousand words"

Best,
Jason.

[fountainhead]

Hi Jason, I just tried rendering the viewport in Studio and that works perfectly as well, just like the FIRE preview.

I could send you some pictures for sure, I have some to post here as examples, but....just not sure how to upload them here

[fountainhead]

I'm getting real close now. The reason the viewport render worked in Studio is that under 'render options' I changed from 'production quality' to 'draft' quality. When the .mxs file that is exported from SketchUp is opened in Studio and the quality is changed from 'production' to 'draft', everything works, the viewport renders correctly, and when sent to MXCL it works correctly. As soon as the quality is changed back to 'production' the emitters disappear...unless, like I said earlier, you have a hole cut in the wall you are trying to clip past, and that hole sees an emitter when viewed from the camera position.

Extremely weird I know. But since there is no way to select the 'draft' option directly from SketchUp, the direct to MXCL export gets sent in 'production' mode, and the emitters don't light up.

[Richard]

Mate could it be that the emitters have not been given enough time to light the room? How long have you run the test (what SL?)

To run draft from SU, type " -rs:0 " in the command line on the output tab of the plugin.

[fountainhead]

Hey Richard....at SL 10 I've got nothing...

[fountainhead]

This is direct from SketchUp to MXCL, clipped wall plane I'm looking through is unhidden. Same result coming from Studio if 'production' mode is selected

[fountainhead]

Apparently I don't know how to post an image...

[fountainhead]

This is image sent from Studio in 'draft'mode.

[fountainhead]

This shows the early test model with a small hole cut out of the wall (not the big one where a window will go). The hole is in the wall that I am clipping past to get 'into' the room. Note that when viewed from the camera position you can see a ceiling emitter through the hole in the clipped wall.

[fountainhead]

This is the rendered result when sent from SketchUp direct to MXCL with the hole cut out of the clipped wall. Note the one emitter is 'alive'...but only in an area that is mimiced by the hole...others are dead.

[fountainhead]

What's also strange about all of these images is that there is emitter light coming from the emitters that are not seen, the ones closest to the clipped wall. The four you can see are dead when in production mode and the clipped wall has no hole in it.

I don't get that either.

[Richard]

Wow yep that is all weird!

I am myself am noticing some little weird behavious in the new release! Not with the plugin but between studio and MXCL.

Using you maxwell sky as HDRI for example seems broken.