[fv]

Has anybody succesfully added functioning lightsources in a rendering straight from SU. I manage to do so in a very simple set up. But in normal room dimension lights never seem to produce any effect at all. Even at very high powersetting. The emitters either don't work or there is a trick to it. Its strange to see the emitter working well in a very limitted set up like a two or three cubes.

[deesee]

I've had the same experience, but I wanted to test some more. Up to now, in very simple scenes I've gotten the emitters to work, but I've only tried one scene that was more complex. I just wrote it off as a mistake that I made.

Can you post some images?

[Sheik]

The reason for the problem with emitters from SketchUp is the same as with the other BS (beta style) materials, they don’t work.
If you select YES for type in the emitter dialog, your emitter will be exported using Temperature of Emission (D65->6500K i.e. very dim). It doesn’t use power even if you had that selected.
If you select NO for use type, your emitter is exported using Color+Luminance. The Watts are exported correctly, but there is now the Efficiency parameter, and that is set to only 12,6. The manual says efficiency 683 would be lossless (1W creates 683 lumens), so 100W at 12,6 efficiency would equal only 18,45W lossless power (I think). The light will use the SU colour.
Picking an mxi map for an emitter doesn’t do anything.

As with all materials, I recommend you to only use mxm materials.
In the mxm materials database (Next Limit\Maxwell\materials database\mxm files\ateam special\jomaga) there are preset mxm materials for various emitters. They work!

Have you noted that if you have several emitters with the same material they will all be exported as a single object? So the power you have set is divided among all these emitters. You have to multiply the power by the number of emitters, or you will not get any more light in the scene.
Sheik

[Burkhard]

...hope that someone from the NL site noticed it as well.
Sad that there is no one to talk about from the A-Team members.
I missed some statements.

Burkhard

Sheik, keep up your good work.

[jomaga]

The Watts are exported correctly, but there is now the Efficiency parameter, and that is set to only 12,6. The manual says efficiency 683 would be lossless (1W creates 683 lumens), so 100W at 12,6 efficiency would equal only 18,45W lossless power (I think).

683 is the abstract upper level for efficacy, but it's not present in real world. 180 is the most efficient bulb in the market.
This efficacy value is not a percentaje of lamp power, it's a ratio between electrical power (W) and how many light (in lumens) is being emitted. I don't know how much % of electrical power is converted in luminous flux and how much is dissiped in heat. If you touch a bulb with very high efficacy, isn't very hot
The amount of light emission is:
- Electrical power (W) x Efficacy (lumen/W) = lumens emitted.
or
- Light emission (lumens) directly. Usual lamps in home spaces (up to 30m2) have values between 400 and 4.000 lumens. Big exhibition spaces can have values up to 10.000 lumen, and exterior spaces up to 100.000 lumens.

As with all materials, I recommend you to only use mxm materials. In the mxm materials database (Next Limit\Maxwell\materials database\mxm files\ateam special\jomaga) there are preset mxm materials for various emitters. They work!

I recomend it too

Have you noted that if you have several emitters with the same material they will all be exported as a single object? So the power you have set is divided among all these emitters. You have to multiply the power by the number of emitters, or you will not get any more light in the scene.

Exactly

[Burkhard]

..thanks Jomaga

I hope there will be an updated tutorial for the plugins sometimes.
In my rare times I need a guideline for efficient work, not a kind of beta testing.

thanks again Jomaga and sheik

[deesee]

The reason for the problem with emitters from SketchUp is the same as with the other BS (beta style) materials, they don’t work.
Sheik

Can you explain a bit more here Shiek. I'll I use are the "beta" materials in the drop down menu for all of my materials. The only mxm material I use in an entire scene is ags, and I've been getting satisfactory renderings. Granted, it's slow as hell to work within sketchup, but so far so good.

I'm not sure I understand, that's all.

Great info on the emitters though. Why does the power get divided amongst all emitters when they are of the same material? Is that a bug or intentional?

Take care,

deesee

[Sheik]

The ”beta style” materials (the plastic, dielectic and emitter we have in the plugin) have the same parameters as we had in beta. Now the material system has changed, and there parameters are not the same. The “beta style” materials are converted to the new parameters.
One problem is that there are several old parameters that are totally ignored (you can change them but they do not change anything in the rendering, like V roughness doesn’t do anything, glass can’t be coloured…).
Another problem is some of the parameters that are used go into very strange places in the new system. Like the plastic uses the Specular colour for the reflectance0 colour of one BSDF layer, and the other BSDF layer uses the SU colour. This is wrong, and will cause problems if you try changing the Specular colour.
You can se how the conversion is made by opening the file in Studio and examining the materials in the Maxwell editor. I made a short explanation on plastic and dielectic conversion on another thread. http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=14952
I have no idea why NL left the beta materials like this in v1.0, or if they are going to change.

The emitter power is set by object. Say you have a cube as emitter, then you would like to set the power to the cube, not to every face separately (witch would be six times as strong). All faces with the same material in SU are now exported as a single object, so also several separate cubes will become part of one object.
I suggested to Pavol that emitters should be exported both by material and by geometry, so that connected faces with the same material creates a single object, and unconnected faces will export as several objects. That would make setting power more intuitive.
Sheik

[deesee]

Excellent explanation Shiek. I wish I had more time to mess with Maxwell. With the few stolen moments I've had, I haven't had a chance to come upon these issues.

Thanks a bunch!

Pavol, any ideas on how the SU plugin will be progressing?

[messire]

sheik and others? any hint on how to use the multilight ( without using the studio)
what are the steps for us SU users to be able to use MLight.

thnx!

[Sheik]

I assume you downloaded the 1.1 version of the plugin? It has the multilight render option, but unfortunately it isn’t working here .
Sheik

[messire]

sure did dl the new plug in, now the option is there, but in the render it stays blank and unclickable... grrrr!

any clue?
Nils