Luxus discussion

BlackFeather1973

Rareth said:

I have a GTX 550 ti and when hybrid doesn't crash... it renders about 2x as fast.

Thanks, Rareth.
That is quite a noticeable difference, i suppose a 580 could do 3-4 times faster then.
Does hybrid mode crash often on you ? Know where it's coming from ?

Rareth

BlackFeather1973 said:

Rareth said:

I have a GTX 550 ti and when hybrid doesn't crash... it renders about 2x as fast.

Thanks, Rareth.
That is quite a noticeable difference, i suppose a 580 could do 3-4 times faster then.
Does hybrid mode crash often on you ? Know where it's coming from ?

not really, I've updated my graphics drivers to make sure I'm compatible with what's required for doing a Hybrid render. and it seems to be hit or miss as to why it crashes.

it's not Luxrender thats crashing, my graphic's driver does a dump, and D|S implodes. gives me an Open GL error but no other details.

BlackFeather1973

cwichura said:

BlackFeather1973 said:

it's at 1kS/p and it's still just a mosaic. Will switching to hybrid mode make much of a difference ?

If you have "just a mosaic" at 1k samples per pixel, then your real problem is the scene construction and not which rendering mode you are using. There's probably something blocking your lights (like you have a skydome in the scene and then sunsky outside of that) or your material settings are whack, things like that. Hard to say without knowing what your scene setup looks like.
It's an interior scene, with two surface lights. There's no skydome, i did have a sunsky shining through the windows, but i turned that off by setting it invisible in the scene tab.

cwichura

There's something clearly wrong with the scene given the crop you posted if that's at 1000S/p. But hard to say, since we can't see the details of the scene (where exactly the lights are, what the material settings are, etc). On the other hand, if that's using the Random sampler which Luxus uses by default from what I've read in the Luxus threads here, maybe that would explain some of it. Try rendering with the sampler set to Metropolis and see if that does any better. From the crop you've posted, your scene doesn't look particularly complex.

Also, with regards to your GPU performance questions: for OpenCL (which is what LuxRender uses for GPU rendering), the ATI cards perform much better than Nvidia does as Nvidia is deliberately crippling their OpenCL driver to try and force people to use CUDA instead so they are locked in to Nvidia's platform. If you're going to buy a new GPU for LuxRender, you'll get much better performance with an ATI card. The 7970 is the current king, as I understand it.

SphericLabs

I am going to guess bump or displacement too high?

Kerya

Using a portal?
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?210041-Lighting-problems-with-luxrender
(This is for blender, but the first thing I found)

SphericLabs

Stick a area light in the room and see it clear up.

cwichura

Portals are an optimization for Lux when using sun, sky or infinite lights. They can help a scene render faster, but they don't change the look of the scene. The example BlackFeather posted does not look like it's a problem with the outside sunsky.

It also doesn't look like bump/displacement gone wild, either. The speckling is too uniform across all the different surfaces, which would likely have different bump/displacement settings. And when displacement is too high, it's VERY obvious that the displacement is whacked.

Artini

I like Luxus plugin very much and its integration with Daz Studio is excellent.
Below is an example render, that reached 5800 samples per pixel in 3 hours 16 minutes.

sirknightangel_92947a44a5

I bought and installed Luxus manually, but it didn't work. I'm running DAZ Studio Pro Edition - Version 4.5.0.90 (64 bit), on Windows 7.

BlackFeather1973

Thanks for all the support, everyone ! I'm learning a lot today :-)
The speckling is uniform all over the render.
Renderer is set to sampler, and sampler is set to Metropolis.
Most materials are standard DS, a few have been set to Lux cloth, glass or mirror.
The surfaces of the center light bulb and the cabinet light i set to glass and Light Parameters checked on.

Running the render again, with the disabled skysun deleted, and surface light settings turned higher...

SphericLabs

Sir Knightangel said:

I bought and installed Luxus manually, but it didn't work. I'm running DAZ Studio Pro Edition - Version 4.5.0.90 (64 bit), on Windows 7.

Maybe win32 win64 mixup? I would try downloading the installer again.

sirknightangel_92947a44a5

No. I verified that. It's the right version, but I will try downloading it again.

Czexana

czexana said:

SphericLabs said:

I like the render settings idea. The gamma correction is based on that Texture Gamma settings. A texture Gamma of 1.0 mean no gamma correction, which is the default.

But sounds like you only want the Texture Gamma to apply to diffuse?

Yes, but perhaps an option box by the texture gamma with choices for applying it to 'All Maps', 'All maps with colour multiplier' and 'Diffuse colour maps only' might be the way to go, so folk can choose what look they prefer? :cheese:

Sorry to quote my own reply, but I enquired about default render settings on the LuxRender forums and was pointed at the v0.8 and v1.0 scene file formats on the Lux wiki (apparently the two files haven't been fully merged yet).

About half way down the v1.0 file is a section on gamma correction which contains this paragraph (my emphasis):

As a physically based renderer, linear workflow is fairly important for LuxRender, and is strongly enforced. All color inputs are assumed to be linear. Image textures are assumed to not be linear and have reverse gamma correction applied to them (the gamma parameter on the image map texture sets this, it should be set to the gamma the texture was created in for color textures, but left at 1.0 for float textures). The film is saved in linear XYZ color space, and gamma corrected for viewport display or when saving PNG or TGA output (this is done according the film gamma setting). The OpenEXR output is NOT gamma corrected, as the OpenEXR spec states that these files should always be linear gamma. The write_exr_applyimaging flag does NOT affect this behavior, it causes everything except gamma correction and clamping to be applied.

So it looks like the second of my two suggested options is what Lux expects to receive.

sirknightangel_92947a44a5

SphericLabs said:

Sir Knightangel said:

I bought and installed Luxus manually, but it didn't work. I'm running DAZ Studio Pro Edition - Version 4.5.0.90 (64 bit), on Windows 7.

Maybe win32 win64 mixup? I would try downloading the installer again.

The version is the right one, but I redownloaded and reinstalled anyway, and still the same problem occurs. I'll try installing in another machine later!

SphericLabs

czexana said:

czexana said:

SphericLabs said:

I like the render settings idea. The gamma correction is based on that Texture Gamma settings. A texture Gamma of 1.0 mean no gamma correction, which is the default.

But sounds like you only want the Texture Gamma to apply to diffuse?

Yes, but perhaps an option box by the texture gamma with choices for applying it to 'All Maps', 'All maps with colour multiplier' and 'Diffuse colour maps only' might be the way to go, so folk can choose what look they prefer? :cheese:

Sorry to quote my own reply, but I enquired about default render settings on the LuxRender forums and was pointed at the v0.8 and v1.0 scene file formats on the Lux wiki (apparently the two files haven't been fully merged yet).

About half way down the v1.0 file is a section on gamma correction which contains this paragraph (my emphasis):

As a physically based renderer, linear workflow is fairly important for LuxRender, and is strongly enforced. All color inputs are assumed to be linear. Image textures are assumed to not be linear and have reverse gamma correction applied to them (the gamma parameter on the image map texture sets this, it should be set to the gamma the texture was created in for color textures, but left at 1.0 for float textures). The film is saved in linear XYZ color space, and gamma corrected for viewport display or when saving PNG or TGA output (this is done according the film gamma setting). The OpenEXR output is NOT gamma corrected, as the OpenEXR spec states that these files should always be linear gamma. The write_exr_applyimaging flag does NOT affect this behavior, it causes everything except gamma correction and clamping to be applied.

So it looks like the second of my two suggested options is what Lux expects to receive.
Almost all the textures that I encounter look correct when gamma is 1.0 When I set the texture gamma to 2.2, like they recommend, I get super-ized color.

For those that want ultimate control over it there is Eluxir.

SphericLabs

Sir Knightangel said:

SphericLabs said:

Sir Knightangel said:

I bought and installed Luxus manually, but it didn't work. I'm running DAZ Studio Pro Edition - Version 4.5.0.90 (64 bit), on Windows 7.

Maybe win32 win64 mixup? I would try downloading the installer again.

The version is the right one, but I redownloaded and reinstalled anyway, and still the same problem occurs. I'll try installing in another machine later!

It should work with any Studio 4.5, but maybe try Studio 4.5.1.6

StratDragon

BlackFeather1973 said:

Thanks for all the support, everyone ! I'm learning a lot today :-)
The speckling is uniform all over the render.
Renderer is set to sampler, and sampler is set to Metropolis.
Most materials are standard DS, a few have been set to Lux cloth, glass or mirror.
The surfaces of the center light bulb and the cabinet light i set to glass and Light Parameters checked on.

Running the render again, with the disabled skysun deleted, and surface light settings turned higher...

As a test try removing the mirrors and see how LuxRender behaves. I've had some run-ins with mirrors, especially lights reflecting off of them.

sirknightangel_92947a44a5

SphericLabs said:

Sir Knightangel said:

SphericLabs said:

Sir Knightangel said:

I bought and installed Luxus manually, but it didn't work. I'm running DAZ Studio Pro Edition - Version 4.5.0.90 (64 bit), on Windows 7.

Maybe win32 win64 mixup? I would try downloading the installer again.

The version is the right one, but I redownloaded and reinstalled anyway, and still the same problem occurs. I'll try installing in another machine later!

It should work with any Studio 4.5, but maybe try Studio 4.5.1.6

Alright. It worked on Studio 4.5.1.6. Thanks!

linvanchene

I started to go through the wiki:

http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Main_Page

As far as I could gather for animations it is suggested to use the "Surface Integrator" "ExPhotonMap".

I tried to follow the wiki page "Intro to ExPhotonMap":

http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Intro_to_ExPhotonMap

I was able to set the "Surface Integrator to "ExPhotonMap" in "Luxus" Render paramters.

I currently havent been able to find any advanced parameters that are needed to fine tune rendering with the "ExPhotonMap" Surface Integrator.

Direct photons
Indirect photons
Caustic photons
Radiance photons
Number of Photons Used/Max Photon Distance
Max depths
Final Gathering/Samples/Gather Angle

At the moment is seems there are 200´000 photons set out but what is recommended are at least 1´000´000.
For caustic effects of water, glass etc it would be necessary to fine tune those settings.

Can someone push me in the right direction where those settings are in Luxus?

Or please share if it is intended to included them in an update if they really are not available?

Update Edit:
My other settings are as recommended in the wiki for animations:

Renderer: Sampler
Sampler: lowdiscrepancy
Pixel Sampler: Hilbert
Surface Integrator: ExPhotonMap

SphericLabs

linvanchene said:

I started to go through the wiki:

http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Main_Page

As far as I could gather for animations it is suggested to use the "Surface Integrator" "ExPhotonMap".

I tried to follow the wiki page "Intro to ExPhotonMap":

http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Intro_to_ExPhotonMap

I was able to set the "Surface Integrator to "ExPhotonMap" in "Luxus" Render paramters.

I currently havent been able to find any advanced paramters that are needed to fine tune rendering with the "ExPhotonMap" Surface Integrator.

Direct photons
Indirect photons
Caustic photons
Radiance photons
Number of Photons Used/Max Photon Distance
Max depths
Final Gathering/Samples/Gather Angle

At the moment is seems there are 200´000 photons set out but what is recommended are at least 1´000´000.
For caustic effects of water, glass etc it would be necessary to fine tune those settings.

Can someone push me in the right direction where those settings are in Luxus?

Or please share if it is intended to included them in an update if they really are not available?

According to the file spec there is only the common parameter, Shadow Ray Count.
-> http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/Scene_file_format_1.0#Surface_Integrator

I am guessing that the exphotonmap is not documented in the file spec. I will see what I can figure out.

Bluebird 3D

BlackFeather1973 said:

cwichura said:

BlackFeather1973 said:

it's at 1kS/p and it's still just a mosaic. Will switching to hybrid mode make much of a difference ?

If you have "just a mosaic" at 1k samples per pixel, then your real problem is the scene construction and not which rendering mode you are using. There's probably something blocking your lights (like you have a skydome in the scene and then sunsky outside of that) or your material settings are whack, things like that. Hard to say without knowing what your scene setup looks like.

It's an interior scene, with two surface lights. There's no skydome, i did have a sunsky shining through the windows, but i turned that off by setting it invisible in the scene tab.

Hiya BlackFeather!

That is most likely a problem with your lighting set up. For LuxRender it is vital that you light for what your render camera can see, not what you can see on your monitor. The camera lens is not getting enough light information so it is struggling and trying to make up for that by allowing an even spread over where it thinks the light might be. Surface lights aren't packing enough punch here but you can keep them in the scene.

Have you ever snapped a bad cell phone picture with no flash in a dark environment? The results are a lot like that - black grainy blotches all over the place due to lack of lighting.

Try this:
In addition to your existing surface lights, put one area light to the left or right of your render camera just outside of the frame view and then maybe pop one more in the opposite direction but further back and cut that intensity down to half of what the main light is. IE: If you place your area light to the left of the camera, put the second one in lower, further back and to the right. Don't put any lighting dead center of the scene.

Let the render run again for about 10 minutes and lets see what we come up with. From there if there are still lighting problems it will be due to the surface materials and not the lighting itself.

Let me know how it goes!

~Bluebird

Edited to add: I did see you are using sunsky and forgot to acknowledge that. Keep that in there, too, but in most cases that won't be enough.

MarcosDK

Ok! 10 mins later here's the result. I like this plugin :)

Czexana

BlackFeather1973 said:

Thanks for all the support, everyone ! I'm learning a lot today :-)
The speckling is uniform all over the render.
Renderer is set to sampler, and sampler is set to Metropolis.
Most materials are standard DS, a few have been set to Lux cloth, glass or mirror.
The surfaces of the center light bulb and the cabinet light i set to glass and Light Parameters checked on.

Running the render again, with the disabled skysun deleted, and surface light settings turned higher...

I've been looking through the Lux wiki and one thing that it could be with sampler and metropolis is the mutation rate setting. Luxus seems to default it to 0.0 but it should be set to (image width + image height)/32 and yes, this can be a big number for large images. I'm runing a 600x600 test currently and set mutation rate to 35 - approximately 1200/32 - and the scene cleared up faster, fireflies are almost nonexistant too.

Edit: it may be that the surfaces are too specular - try dividing the specular colour by three or four on the surfaces and see what that does.

Bluebird 3D

dkmarcos said:

Ok! 10 mins later here's the result. I like this plugin :)

Nice work!

~Bluebird

MarcosDK

I try to apply sky2 but the luxrender log tells me:

[2013-03-13 19:52:34 Error: 14] Static loading of light 'sky2' failed.
[2013-03-13 19:52:34 Error: 47] luxLightSource: light type 'sky2' unknown

BlackFeather1973

Bluebird 3D said:

Hiya BlackFeather!

That is most likely a problem with your lighting set up. For LuxRender it is vital that you light for what your render camera can see, not what you can see on your monitor. The camera lens is not getting enough light information so it is struggling and trying to make up for that by allowing an even spread over where it thinks the light might be. Surface lights aren't packing enough punch here but you can keep them in the scene.

Have you ever snapped a bad cell phone picture with no flash in a dark environment? The results are a lot like that - black grainy blotches all over the place due to lack of lighting.

Try this:
In addition to your existing surface lights, put one area light to the left or right of your render camera just outside of the frame view and then maybe pop one more in the opposite direction but further back and cut that intensity down to half of what the main light is. IE: If you place your area light to the left of the camera, put the second one in lower, further back and to the right. Don't put any lighting dead center of the scene.

Let the render run again for about 10 minutes and lets see what we come up with. From there if there are still lighting problems it will be due to the surface materials and not the lighting itself.

Let me know how it goes!

~Bluebird

Edited to add: I did see you are using sunsky and forgot to acknowledge that. Keep that in there, too, but in most cases that won't be enough.

Ok, started a new scene so any settings i messed up are gone now. Did the lighting like you said and at 15S/p i'm already getting a render as good as my previous one at 1kS/p ! This time i'll adjust the settings one by one and testrender inbetween, so i can see where it might go wrong again. Although i'm pretty sure now it was indeed the lighting.

Now go and finish up these tutorials, Bluebird :lol:
But seriously, thanks for the help. I feel like such a noob again with Lux...

PS : Thankfullness also applies to cwichura, Rareth, Kerya, SphericLabs, StratDragon, czexana and all other Dazzies that stepped in to help.

Dumor3D

Has anybody in this thread tried reverting to 3Delight from Luxus? It seems that something has gone wrong with things like solid glass. In 3Delight it looks like the back surface is no longer transparent or translucent. I really don't want to do away with 3Delight. FYI, this happens with products that have never been loaded while Luxus was set to the default render engine.

SphericLabs

dkmarcos said:

I try to apply sky2 but the luxrender log tells me:

[2013-03-13 19:52:34 Error: 14] Static loading of light 'sky2' failed.
[2013-03-13 19:52:34 Error: 47] luxLightSource: light type 'sky2' unknown

What version of LuxRender do you have installed?

mjc1016

Here's what you get if you let it cook long enough...