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That ofen happens when you have too much light on a reflexive surface. If you used the sky and sun light, try reducing it by 10 (from 1 to 0.1).
I started with the shaders that came in the test scene from the unofficial manual at Carrara Cafe, and then did some tweaking from there. The one on the sphere, however, I built from the ground up, I think. I was trying to see if I could get a grasp of using this engine, but it's just not far enough long yet.
Well... we kind of need that manula and this thread together in order to try and figure it out. I agree though... it's time to start consolidating all of this information together in an easier to use experience. Throughout this thread are mentions of how to set up the LuxRender 2.0 (LuxCore to us) to best work with our hardware, depending upon what we're using. I had it working pretty well, but with a few blemishes, like after I'd change something in the scene, I'd have to do something (can't remember what) to 'refresh' the render engine again, or it wouldn't recognize the changes.
But, to me, that unofficial manual shows some fine work from folks trying to help us understand how to get started.
Thanks for the feedback, I will add more links to the Luxrender manuals for more background info.
Will also add more benchmarks to show that there is a big performance difference between the settings and the hardware, especially with CPU+GPU rendering.
Thank you, Dart, for the explanation. After some struggling I could get a little bit better results, but any ways, final images are still of very poor quality.
Well... it's a whole new way of rendering - so it'll take a bunch of practice to figure out how to set it all up.
The new learning curve can appear as a disadvantage. But when we see that we can actually set up shaders as emissive, meaning that they'll actually becoema real light source, it may also make for an easy, more organic workflow for some.
The big thing is that we need to learn a whole new way of lighting, shading, and rendering.
Plus I think there's still some work to be done ;)
OK, so here is a first benchmark, using one of the classic Carrara scenes that is included with Carrara in Browser/Indoor/Day.
-Carrara light rig: Default scene settings (everything is ON)
-Luxcore light rig: LuxCore SunSky light in the same position as the Carrara Sun was (All Carrara lights and Sky deleted)
-My rig is a quad-core with 3 graphics cards, no network slaves.
-Carrara native render takes 10 minutes.
-LuxusCore render (OpenCL/Path) was set to 3 minutes (to simulate one medium range graphics card for 10 minutes)
Conclusions:
Advantage Carrara: Shaders just work, LuxusCore needs several shaders to be corrected.
Advantage LuxusCore: Can use all GPUs and CPU to do a final render faster. Supports faster preview renders with live changes. Output can be saved as EXR format for further editing.
I was actually CPU rendering in one Carrara window while setting up the LuxusCore scene and GPU rendering in separate Carrara window, so another advantage is to be able to work and render at the same time on the same PC.
...and it work on ATI cards as well as nVidia!!! :)
Thanks 3drendero. Hey... didn't I just say this? Oh well... You Fricken' ROCK!!!!
Yeah... I think both renders are very pleasing. I don't render this way, for 10 minutes per frame would kill me - it really would. I do some 10 minute per frame renders for some scenes that just really need it, but that would be a close-up of a character with sub-surface scattering turned on.
Still... in this world of everybody going for PBR, I'm interested in all of this, and I also love how LuxRender can export EXR among many other things I really love about it. I mean... I still love the original LuxRender/Luxor for Carrara setup. I seldom use it now, but I do have plans for it in trying it out for creating some HDR images.
Very nice comparison. Carrara PR on left, LuxCore on right
Here are my bench marks for the same setup as 3drendro
My rigg is i7 4790K watercooled 32Gb DDR3 1600 Ram Dual R7 250 1 Gb video cards. gigabyte Z97
Native render was 10 minutes.
Luxcore 5 Mins 36 Seconds I could have stopped it earlier as thier was minimal changes after a few minutes.
Hmmm... in your test, Carrara native render is a clear winner, even without considering the lack of working shaders in LuxCore. I like the contrast of the LuxCore, but with these types of renders, I think we're trying to eliminate that contrast. But still... the graininess is an issue.
However, we're all still learning this thing. My first Carrara renders were horrible. Now I feel fairly capable. I'm sure if we spent time working with shaders and lighting setting... tweaking our scenes to be LuxCore optimized, we'll be on a good flow.
I'm curious... is this the sort of engine that can take advantage of outputs from things like Substance Painter/Substance Designer?
That scene should render really fast, there isn't anything like a lot of reflection or transparency. This is that scene rendered in Octane, I did a couple of tweaks, the sky light was very blue so I toned that down, and increased exposure from the default a bit, but this is a 30 second render with Octane. I couldn't see any noise after around 10 seconds.
“Afternoon” scene and “House pool” scene renders via native Carrara engine and Lux render comparison.
...but Octane alone is ~$400 USD and also depends greatly upon having a $1,000+ graphics card or two!
Yes, I know it costs for the software - but you don't need mega powerful graphics boards to use it. I'm running it on a laptop with a GTX 960M. And quite honestly I would not be without it having got used to using it.
Octane is actually 579$: OctaneRender™ for Carrara® + Standalone Combo License ($579)
Requires an NVIDIA graphics card, still no sign of support for AMD or even CPU rendering.
You do get a highly optimized renderer though, comparing Phils render at 30 secs with a single GPU with my 3 minute render on 3 GPUs, I would say 10x faster...
One thing I would like to see in the Luxcore for Carrara manual is a list of exactly how to create various shaders to optimize them for luxcore.
That way I can see how to effectively build them.
Example a scren shot of the shader tree.
Optimized Shaders will always be a flexible term. That's a lot to ask of volunteers. But they are very nice to offer that test scene. Save those shaders to the browser and then try editing them.
I love PhilW's shaders, and they are entirely different than mine - and they're entirely different from Ringo's and GKDantas and mmoir... for example.
Shaders become a very personal thing because lighting is never constant and is approached differently by everyone everywhere.
Still, I hear what you're saying.
As soon as I can, I'm going to buy PhilW's shader preset kit for the first Luxus for Carrara. He explains the kit very well in the promo page and I know he puts a great deal of research into this stuff.
=======================
Phil, a GTX 960 is a ~$500 card! :|
GTX 960 is working on my Windows comp ;)
Nope, it's the "M" version of that, just integral to my laptop. Admittedly, it's a higher end laptop than would be standard and I got it with a specific eye to using Octane with it. I've seen discussions of people investing several thousands into desktop hardware to run 3D software, so it doesn't seem that over the top. And as I earn from my 3D work (at least some of it), then it's a reasonable investment.
i have laptop with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M GPU, it runs this stuff with so much power!
Another update of the unofficial manual today.
As previously requested, more info about the shaders with more screenshots of the shader room.
The lights chapter was also updated a little and links added to the luxrender lights and materials wiki.
http://carraracafe.com/plugins/luxuscore-for-carrara-plugin-unofficial-manual-2015-02-15/
You are welcome with questions or tips/tricks.
Very nice now I can see a bit better what I was trying to do, Which I was going down the right path.
Alright, another update of the manual today.
Since it happens to be the 2 year anniversary of the unofficial LuxusCore manual today, I added the very first video that SphericLabs posted over 2 years ago in chapter 3.
http://carraracafe.com/plugins/luxuscore-for-carrara-plugin-unofficial-manual-2015-02-15/
Now if I only had the time to render myself a birthday cake...
(to make this more special, I borrowed the Birthday Card from MistyRarra)
Happy Birthday!
Yo, 3drendero. Thank you for taking the time to (very generously) work so hard to help this whole thing along. The links are an immensely awesome addition to this whole thing because, truthfully, to actually get into using such a system, we need to understand a whole new way of doing things. Samples are one thing, and are also incredibly helpful. But a real understanding is truly required, which I see as something that can be tough for some folks.
I spent years working on understanding shaders. Now, this time wasn't spent "Studying Shaders". I was working on the works, and adjusting and building shaders was a big part of it. It's one of those things we, as artists, must never feel 'satisfied' with as being fully aware and fully skilled. We must always strive for getting better with our shaders, whether using LuxusCore or any other render engine, the Carrara native included.
Anyways... you don't get paid for any of this, yet you tackle so many tasks as if you do... and I, for one, Truly Appreciate You and All You Do!
Thanks Dart!
I will try to explain the difference between the native renderer and Lux a bit better.
Lux is a different tool and actually easier to setup regarding materials, because Glass is Glass with the upside that getting realistic scenes are easier to setup, the downside is impossible to do non-realistic renders and no flexibility with shaders and lighting.
Thanks again for the kind words!
So basically True Realism Only sort of thing, eh?
Well... that's why we have visual effects post software! ;)
Or you can use Carrara's native renderer - that's not to say that Carrara can't do realistic, it can, but you have lots of settings to tweak so you can get just the look you want.
Oh... of course. I was referring to the above comment about LuxusCore
My stuff has a sort of realistic impression, while not being overly realistic... something that I've worked on for a while to get the way it is - and I like it like this. LuxusCore still looks enticing though. I could always just use my VFX apps to bring down realism in renders the same as I would if it were caught on camera, is what I meant. Because I think that would be easier than to try and manipulate LuxusCore to put out a less-than-realistic output.
But yeah, dragging me away from Carrara's native render engine has been a chore, hasn't it? I just won't let go! Let technology and sophistication just pass me by - I love my Carrara!
If SphericalLabs ever completes this mission, however, I'll certainly pay him for his services. Like Luxus for Carrara, it's always nice to have these extra tools - well... the ones I can afford anyway! LOL
Seems like NVIDIA is finally updating their driver to support OpenCL 2.0, which AMD already does and LuxCore needs to render complex scenes.
It means that LuxCore should run as good on NVIDIA cards as on AMD cards, although the driver is early and LuxMark benchmarks shows that the OpenCL 2.0 with "evaluation support" is slower than the older 1.2 driver.
Some more info here: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OpenCL-2.0-NVIDIA-Preps
Latest NVIDIA driver here, should be 378.66 or higher: http://www.geforce.com/drivers
I don't know if I make a mistake, but if I set a Luxcore sun & sky with a gain of 1 and render with "linear" tonemapping, everything is white. I have to adjust the gain for this lignt to 0.0005 (1/2000) to start to see something.
I've started experimenting with it because all other lights seemed absent with the default setting when rendered with "autolinear" tone mapping.
Have you encountererd this kind of issue ?
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Yeah, same here in LuxusCore in both path and bidir on CPU.
But in Luxus, the Gain of 0,005 seems to be pre-selected when inserting Lux sunsky2 and works fine when rendered and too bright with gain 1.
So I guess that is the standard setting, just not included in LuxusCore beta yet.
/EDIT Tested with the simple LuxusScene.car