[dyarza]

Hi all, I am still having issues using the GMT offset in the C4D plugin. Hopefuly all this goes away with 1.0 and this post is irrelevant.

I did a quick model of my dining room. I know it's coordinates and I can easily go see the sunlight coming in so that is what I did. I set it up for Sunday morning this past weeken and observed.

Here is the rendering both in Final Render and in M~R. I used identical setting for both renderings and here is what I get.



The Final Render image has the sun coming in exactly as I observed this weekend. In the M~R image the sun angle is correct sideways, but the sun appears too low in the horizon making the sun come in much farther into the room. This is inaccurate, I know that for sure.

It seems that the problem would be due to the GMT offset. In final Render I set it to -8 which is US Pacific time, but if I set up -8 in the M~R plug in, I get just black, as if it is total night time. In Studio a value of -8 works perfectly, but in the plug in, the default setting seems to be 100, so I try GMT Offset of 800 and I get the image above.

Anybody make sense of the GMT Offset in the plug in? Hope this is fixed in the plug in for 1.0, because I am still holding to my opposition of using Studio, I like C4D just fine.

Thanks,

David.

[dyarza]

A quick correction,

In Studio I have to set my longitude to a negative number, odd since I am at 122 west. If I do this and set the GMT Offset to -8 I get the right results.

However, if I do the same and set the longitude to -122 in the plug-in and GMT to -8 it is still night time. So there seems to be an error in translation of the coordinates or the time-date data out of the plug-in.

Oh, and also, all the settings for M~R still do not save in the C4D file so I have to re-create all the sun and location data every time. I thought I would mention that again, maybe it can be fixed some day.

[Tyrone Marshall]

Dyarza,

I need to test this issue. I will get back to you.

Saving plugin parameters:

Known Issue- a workaround for the moment is to use a null object and enter information into a user data field of C4D to store your scene settings and make general notes to yourself. There is a note plugin somewhere for doing longer text fields. But the built in user data field for text does this for me just fine in a tag.

[Kabe]

The current plugin only set's the day, not the month. So this is not just about GMT, this is about a completely wrong day sometime in January.

Actually this bug is one of those that are in the plugin for over one year now...

Workaround: Load the MXS into Studio and set the time there.

Hope it helps

Kabe

[dyarza]

Thanks,

I'll keep my fingers crossed for the updated plug-in when 1.0 comes out, without accuracy the great sunlight features are of little use.

[Tyrone Marshall]

Dyarza,

Thanks for finding this issue. For a work around use Kabe's procedure.

[macray]

I was wondering about the same, but as long as I got good results I ignored it. And I didn't have to do something in the correct light until now so it was not that necessary.
But it's good to know this error exists. Must have slipped my eye a lot if this is existing for over a year.

[dyarza]

Thanks Tyrone,

I'll keep my eyes open for this one, I guess if we need to show true sun shadows we'll use Studio. Otherwise, as macray said, you can get good results even if the sun angle is not correct to the location. In many cases it is not that critical, but it is still good to know.

D

[sunmade]

Should be fixed by tomorrow!!??

I hope so.

Please let us know if it works for you tomorrow

[macray]

one of the first things I'll try. Whenever it will arrive. (hopefully during my office time because I don't have an internet connection in the flat at the moment)

[Tyrone Marshall]

Dyarza,

I am happy to report, I ran few tests the other day for synchronization between the plugin and studio. They were successful with the new plugin. I got perfect match with all physical sky settings in C4D to Studio.

Let me know if you have any problems!

[dyarza]

Thanks Tyrone, good news. I will try it again with V1.0