Epic Props: Godrays & Volumetric Light for iRay (Coming Soon)

PA_ThePhilosopher

Hey everyone,

This is just a quick note to let you know of a new product coming down the pipeline. Please let me know if this may be something you would be interested in.
(I may still be in need of a few testers with slower computers, to get a better sense of how well the props are handled).

-P

KA1

This looks like it would be a fabulous addition to the iRay aresnal!! I have expanded Godrays and Atmocam which I am very happy with, I would still definately add this to my aresnal as well though!

SimonJM

Looks to be very interesting.

Ferretmania

This looks like a great product. I'm sure going to get these when they're released.

Melissa Conway

Love the dust.

3Diva

Whoa! This looks epic indeed! 

Saiyaness

Awesome! The dust particles look amazing!!!! Fantastic promos too!! Excited for this one! 

VortigensBane

Now THIS looks promising!  In case you weren't kidding about wanting testers with slow computers, mine is probably one of the slowest in the community; I average about 4 days for an Iray render if there's any sort of atmospherics involved...

PA_ThePhilosopher

VortigensBane said:

Now THIS looks promising!  In case you weren't kidding about wanting testers with slow computers, mine is probably one of the slowest in the community; I average about 4 days for an Iray render if there's any sort of atmospherics involved...

Vortigens,

Send me your computer specs and I will let you know if I need you to be a tester.

-P

PA_ThePhilosopher

If anyone is intetered, I made a YouTube video tutorial of this product.
Since this product is very involved and took me a number of months to develop, I recommend watching the tutorial to get a better sense on how to use it effectively.

Enjoy!

-P

Oso3D

You know, at first I was like 'eh, I know how this stuff works.' But day am is it hard to get rays in Iray to work properly.

PA_ThePhilosopher

timmins.william said:

You know, at first I was like 'eh, I know how this stuff works.' But day am is it hard to get rays in Iray to work properly.

I totally agree Will. I thought the same thing when I first started on this project. Understanding the mechanics is the first part, but most of the labor went in to tweaking everything just right to make it look as realistic as possible. This project demanded a monk-like patience, but I am hoping that all the hard work will pay off and customers will be happy with the results.

-P

Oso3D

Yeah, this stuff is enormously finicky. Sometimes I get it to look awesome, sometimes I just throw my hands up and try to do without. Looking forward to it!

KA1

Okay, pretty certain I would have picked this up regardless but after seeing the video - guaranteed sale with me!

Knittingmommy

This look really great!  I, also, have the Expanded Godrays for Iray which I love, but it is always nice to have more tools.  And, it looks like you did yours in a totally different manner which gives users, who might have both products, more options which I like.  It might be one of the few times I wish I had a slower computer!  Unfortunately, I think mine might not be as slow as you want for testers.  

One of the things I like, from seeing the video, is that you have explicit instructions in your props names so all I have to do is look at the scene tree to see what I need to have highlighted to make changes!  I think that, right there, is a phenomenally brilliant idea and I wish more vendors did that with some of their light sets! I'm looking forward to seeing this in the store!  BTW, I love those last two promo shots.

Inventivemind55

I'm new to the whole Daz scene. Or... 3d rendering in general. So I haven't really touched lighting yet. But after seeing that video... I think it's time I learn  and stock up on a couple cases of heavy liquor for the endeavor.

My only concern now is going to be what kind of a price tag something like this will have...

L'Adair

I created this image for a contest, then added the GodRay and did some speed testing in both DS 4.8 and 4.9 Beta. This uses the long prop with "Sunshine" spotlight, Sunshine volume, no FX, Dust Level 1 with "Natural" applied. Rendered in Scene Only mode, with the GodRay spotlight the only light source. I did need to reduce the brightness to keep from blowing out the skeleton.

This scene took about 24 hours to reach a little over 1600 iterations, CPU only, in DS 4.9 Beta, Architectural Sampler on, using a two year old HP Envy with onboard Intel graphics.

PA_ThePhilosopher

Inventivemind55 said:

I'm new to the whole Daz scene. Or... 3d rendering in general. So I haven't really touched lighting yet. But after seeing that video... I think it's time I learn  and stock up on a couple cases of heavy liquor for the endeavor.

My only concern now is going to be what kind of a price tag something like this will have...

 

I would imagine the initial sale price at release will be below the $30 mark.  -P

 

 

I created this image for a contest, then added the GodRay and did some speed testing in both DS 4.8 and 4.9 Beta. This uses the long prop with "Sunshine" spotlight, Sunshine volume, no FX, Dust Level 1 with "Natural" applied. Rendered in Scene Only mode, with the GodRay spotlight the only light source. I did need to reduce the brightness to keep from blowing out the skeleton. This scene took about 24 hours to reach a little over 1600 iterations, CPU only, in DS 4.9 Beta, Architectural Sampler on, using a two year old HP Envy with onboard Intel graphics.

Very nice, L'Adair. Thanks for sharing.

L'Adair

I tested this in both 4.8 and 4.9 on an older machine without an Nvidia graphics card. The GodRays alone start rendering really fast and take up relatively little memory. So I started loading them in five at a time, all five spotlight colors for a given prop, and then applying the same Base Style to all five and rendering. I found the results interesting, so I did a series of short renders, (30 minutes each, so they are grainy,) to show how the same base applied to different prop options can create subtle changes. In this comparison, I used the Light-Responsive short Prop 1. I applied the No FX and No Dust options.

Right to left, the props are Clear, 7000K, Blue, Green, and Sunlight. From top to bottom, the Base Styles are ClearA, ClearB, ClearC, 7000K, Blue, Green, Sunlight, and Broken Ray.

VortigensBane

Nicely done on the comparisons!  Neat to see them all together.

IceDragonArt

L'Adair said:

I tested this in both 4.8 and 4.9 on an older machine without an Nvidia graphics card. The GodRays alone start rendering really fast and take up relatively little memory. So I started loading them in five at a time, all five spotlight colors for a given prop, and then applying the same Base Style to all five and rendering. I found the results interesting, so I did a series of short renders, (30 minutes each, so they are grainy,) to show how the same base applied to different prop options can create subtle changes. In this comparison, I used the Light-Responsive short Prop 1. I applied the No FX and No Dust options.

Right to left, the props are Clear, 7000K, Blue, Green, and Sunlight. From top to bottom, the Base Styles are ClearA, ClearB, ClearC, 7000K, Blue, Green, Sunlight, and Broken Ray.

I was already sold but this totally clinched it for me...

RAMWolff

Looks awesome.  I'm def interested.  Funny, watching the YouTube vid in full screen... your color scheme is so close to mine that I got a bit confused for a moment thinkin I had DS open!  lmao Doesn't help that I have the flu so my brain is pretty much on the fritz right now! 

jardine

looks like a must.  very cool--

:)

j

Sigurd

Sold. I might buy two.

Sfariah D

I have a six year old computer.  It is not the slowest but it does not have a nVidia card and it showing its age.  That is if you are still needing beta testers.  It looks great!

VortigensBane

The idea for this randomly popped into my head while testing the rays, so I ran with it.  Of course, since it was for testing purposes, I saved all sorts of data to go with it.  The godray preset is a "medium" beam with a blue filter, the broken ray preset, no FX, and Level 2 dust tinted blue added.  I did lower the brightness of the spotlight, and also decreased the spread angle.  The scene rendered in just under 9 hours, reaching the convergence threshold after 1330 iterations.  On my machine, that's got to be a record!

L'Adair

VortigensBane said:

The idea for this randomly popped into my head while testing the rays, so I ran with it.  Of course, since it was for testing purposes, I saved all sorts of data to go with it.  The godray preset is a "medium" beam with a blue filter, the broken ray preset, no FX, and Level 2 dust tinted blue added.  I did lower the brightness of the spotlight, and also decreased the spread angle.  The scene rendered in just under 9 hours, reaching the convergence threshold after 1330 iterations.  On my machine, that's got to be a record!

I'm guessing that was in DS v4.9.

I ran tests using the skeleton and dog image above in both 4.8 and 4.9 Beta. I rendered using only the GodRays spotlight for lighting, with and without the prop. In my tests, 4.9 with the prop rendered faster than without, but in 4.8 the image rendered faster with just the spotlight. Some definite improvements in Iray in the newer DS.

And your image is just stunning! Love it.

VortigensBane

L'Adair said:

I'm guessing that was in DS v4.9.

I ran tests using the skeleton and dog image above in both 4.8 and 4.9 Beta. I rendered using only the GodRays spotlight for lighting, with and without the prop. In my tests, 4.9 with the prop rendered faster than without, but in 4.8 the image rendered faster with just the spotlight. Some definite improvements in Iray in the newer DS.

And your image is just stunning! Love it.

Thanks.  I was using DS 4.9.2.  In my tests, the scene rendered faster without the prop, and with just the spotlight...  However, usually when I add any sort of atmospherics, the render time goes WAY up, so for me it was a vast improvement.

L'Adair

VortigensBane said:

L'Adair said:

I'm guessing that was in DS v4.9.

I ran tests using the skeleton and dog image above in both 4.8 and 4.9 Beta. I rendered using only the GodRays spotlight for lighting, with and without the prop. In my tests, 4.9 with the prop rendered faster than without, but in 4.8 the image rendered faster with just the spotlight. Some definite improvements in Iray in the newer DS.

And your image is just stunning! Love it.

Thanks.  I was using DS 4.9.2.  In my tests, the scene rendered faster without the prop, and with just the spotlight...  However, usually when I add any sort of atmospherics, the render time goes WAY up, so for me it was a vast improvement.

Interesting. Now I need to create some other images and test the speeds... Perhaps it is also dependent on what's in the scene...?

I know I was definitely not expecting a faster render with the prop. And it was faster whether or not I had Architectural Samples on. In both cases, Iray rendered 3 iterations more with the prop in renders of roughly 30 minutes.

Knittingmommy

@VortigensBane  That is one seriously awesome image!  Nice work.  It's very hard sitting here watching you guys test this product out and not seeing it in the store yet as, with each image, I want it more and more! 

Ferretmania

Wauw awesome renders.

I totally agree with Knittingmommy!  I am so looking forward to this product, it looks amazing.