[subspark]

I have undertaken a maxwell rendering project for my latest collection of works. The sun grazes the silhouette of this futuristic cityscape in a harmonious blend of photorealistic light transport and fantastical design. Or so I wish...

What is it that makes real-life halo effects bleed out behind objects rather than suddenly appear when enough of the light is exposed and how do I achieve that effect in Maxwell?

Using SimuLens, I have created an ideal lighting situation however it's effects feel unnatural, linear and computer generated. Please see below:

Top = Desired Effect / Bottom = Maxwell's Effect


On another note, are godrays/jesusbeams/lightshafts supported yet?

Cheers,
Paul.

[Hybaj]

On another note, are godrays/jesusbeams/lightshafts supported yet?

For a quick note - those terms refer to effects used in game engines. In the rendering world it's known as volumetric lightning

[Bubbaloo]

On another note, are godrays/jesusbeams/lightshafts supported yet?

For a quick note - those terms refer to effects used in game engines. In the rendering world it's known as volumetric lightning

Volumetric lighting.

Couldn't resist...

[subspark]

Actually you'll find the term Godrays is also used in Eon Software's Vue and is quite common in the rendering world. I drew the term from Vue. Jesus Beams was just me being silly on a Saturday night with a beer in one hand and a severely depleted vocabulary capacity.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Hybaj]

On another note, are godrays/jesusbeams/lightshafts supported yet?

For a quick note - those terms refer to effects used in game engines. In the rendering world it's known as volumetric lightning

Volumetric lighting.

Couldn't resist...

Bubbaloo, you got me there dude

So Eon guys were the ones who came up with the silly name godrays?? Damn..

Btw Fryrender has a very interesting implementation of sun volumetric lighting (which is fast and works great). But shhh it wasn't me who told you this

[subspark]

Btw Fryrender has a very interesting implementation of sun volumetric lighting (which is fast and works great). But shhh it wasn't me who told you this

Thanks for the info, Hybaj. Sounds interesting.

Cheers,
Paul.

[Maximus3D]

It should also be mentioned that Fry's solution to "godrays" is a post process, meaning it will render out a pass with the lightbeams which you then in a program like Photoshop comp in to your final rendering to get the volumetric light effect you desire. It is not a actual feature which automatically adds those rays in your rendering depending on the physical sky settings you have set. It's a post process effect.

/ Max

[subspark]

The beauty of Maxwell is that everything is based off of real-world properties and phenomenon. The more accurate the simulation, the more realistic the images will be. The other thing that Maxwell does well is make this complex technology, simple to operate for the end-user.

I hope more and more real-world properties are modeled by NL and implemented into Maxwell Render soon.

Cheers,
Paul.

[subspark]

Anyone know how I can achieve the desired effect as stated above in my first post?

Cheers,
Paul.

[Hybaj]

It would take ages with a SSS material. I don't know which app you use but I guess almost all of them have built in volumetric light capabilities so just use the same camera and put an omni in place of the Maxwell sun (or use built-in sun light system) and render out the alpha for the volumetric channel and do the proper composition in Photoshop.

[subspark]

I wouldn't need to go that far. There'd be no point. But thanks for the suggestion. I just rendered two versions, one with simulens and one without and diff'd the two. My goal is to achieve as much accuracy as possible and it would be nice if maxwell could accommodate this effect in general. I'm not so much speaking of godrays but rather my initial dilemma that everybody seems to have overlooked or forgotten in my first post.

My main question being is the said effect already possible in maxwell and its just my settings that are wrong or is 'asymmetric' scattering of light simply unsupported at this time?

If so then its just me and Photoshop this time. Otherwise its happy rendering of the most photorealistic synthetic scene ever!

Cheers,
Paul.

[subspark]

Hybaj, I've done a bit of video research and I understand what your getting at. The reason for the sun to bleed out from behind something is if that 'something' is translucent or semi-translucent (SSS), sucking the light into an object and away from the sun. Is this correct? Should the sunflare created bu simulens actually pop out in an instant behind a non SSS object or does is still bleed out in some cases?

Cheers,
Sparks.

[Bubbaloo]

is 'asymmetric' scattering of light simply unsupported

Have you messed with the new sky settings? More possibilities may have recently opened up with 1.7.
Also, just an opinion, I think all these effects you are looking for have more to do with the lens of the camera than the geometry of the scene.

[subspark]

I had a feeling it might be like that. Thanks for the reassurance.
I had a look back in my posts and realized I didn't actually reference the version I'm working with. Sorry about that.

I've been using version 1.7 for a while now. This post is relevant to this version.

Cheers,
Sparx.