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analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
Hi. I've tried exploring different rendering modes before. But my photo hosting service died and all my illustrations disappeared forever. This topic is very interesting, so I will try to repeat this experiment with new knowledge. I will spread it out gradually so as not to miss the main point. I'll start with the basic rendering mode in the third quality level. The basic mode is the "DirectLighting" lighting method and ShininessShader "Default". for the scene, I chose three boxes with a texture of multicolored letters (don't worry, there are no words or meaning here, it's just an alphabet on a colored background). Such letters will help to correctly understand the reflections in shiny surfaces. I have set the maximum gloss for all surfaces - the boxes and the ball are as shiny as possible in all the pictures in the future. There are no changes, everything is the same everywhere. There is only one light source, the sun, and no other sources. so Directlighting + default
The reflections in the boxes look great, but there's a strange feeling. On the illuminated surfaces of the ball, it does not look like a polished material, but like a matte material without reflections. There is no glare, so the ball looks strange - in the shadow part it is polished, and in the illuminated part it is matte. It's like it's not treated the same way. It feels weird.
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
In the Shininess mode, there are three options - default, glossy and silk. I must say right away that in the third quality mode, "default" and "glossy" work exactly the same, but "SILK" is very different and you need to focus on it especially. This mode allows you to get glare from light sources. A fantastic feature needed for a realistic picture. A glare on a polished surface.
the glare on the ball has appeared, now everything is fine on the illuminated surface, here the ball is polished and shiny. But now there is a new strange feeling - there are no reflections in the shadow part, there is just darkness. Doubts about the truthful picture begin again. Is there anything that can be done? Yes. You need to create a glass shell around the ball. To do this, select the ball and save it in OBJ format. In the MTL file, add the transparency parameter d 0.1 and the optical light refraction parameter Ni 2 (you can do Ni 1.5). This important parameter cannot be made very large, for example, a diamond has Ni 2.5, which is the maximum. If you make Ni, for example, 5, then terrible chaos will begin. So bring this transparent glass model back and align it with the ball. Now this glass mold needs to be enlarged in all directions by 4mm, and the textured ball needs to be raised by 2mm. The result is a polished stone ball in a thin glass shell, as if covered with a glossy varnish.
Now it's a real polished ball from all sides. There is a glare from the sun and there are all reflections everywhere. The time of this picture has not increased!! But everything is ahead, I'll continue later.
Russia
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
please note that there are no reflections on the polished boxes in SILK mode, although the boxes are still as shiny as possible. Again, you can make glass shells for them. OBJ-MTL-d0.1-Ni2 . Return it back to SH3D and slightly increase the thickness to get a layer of glossy glass varnish. Now the time will start to increase, but it's not critical yet.
Russia
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
there is another important button, it is located next to the button for calling the render settings. This is "Enable sky lighting". This button adds a cool blue light. In the third quality mode, this light simply colors the entire scene with cold light, no more. But in other modes (everything will continue) this light is of great importance. Notice how the time has increased. Strongly. But you have to pay for everything. Not much yet. But it should be continued..
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
Excellent, keep it up! Determining how the the different settings change the results is very difficult for most users (me too). This is a great help. I love the trick with the extra glass ball. How did you ever get that idea?
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Russia
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
Hello Keet! Thank you so much for your interest in this topic, I will continue to try not to be boring)). Glass shells are, of course, a necessary measure, because it is difficult to achieve expressive results without this additional layer. Is there any way to manage this complex symbiosis? Unfortunately, quite a bit. For example, you can reduce the gloss level for the inner ball and get a small glare from the sun, as if it were not a very polished ball. The glass of the outer shell can be made bright in color - the ball will become slightly colored. For the "Directlighting" mode, these are probably all the options. I would like to switch to a more complex "Pathracing" mode, which introduces new features that are not present at all in the basic "Directlighting" mode. These are reflexes, or rather almost reflexes. Reflexes are the coloring of the surface of an object (ball and boxes) by reflected light from the colored surfaces of other objects and walls. This is the most desirable path to realistic photography. Getting it in SH3D seems impossible at first. But let's try to understand the possibilities of the program. In the following picture, I removed all the glass on the boxes and on the ball (they are still as shiny as possible, but without a layer of varnish). I must say right away that in the "Pathtracing" mode, at the third quality level, the glare from the sun on the ball also appears only in the "Silk" mode.
Please note that there is a glare from the sun and there are soft illuminated places on the ball and on the boxes from the letters. The boxes are interestingly colored by reflected light from other boxes. Everything is very complicated and unusual. I think this mode is not entirely realistic, because these soft reflections are something between a smoothed mirror reflection and a real reflex. It's half an illusion, but it's pretty convincing. This must be applied whenever possible. Time increases a lot, of course, but reflexes are a completely unknown game in SH3D. What else can you see in this first picture? Large grains appear on the box in the shadows of the ball. This is the price for new opportunities. Can this be improved? May. I'll tell you later.
Russia
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
We will continue in the previous mode of changes. Let's add a glass shell to the ball. The time has hardly increased.
But the reflexes under the glass layer have almost evaporated, they are there a little, but not in such a strong form as in the previous picture. But they are viewed a little anyway, so there are differences from the "Directlighting" mode.
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
how can I get rid of a large grain in the shadows of the ball? Very simple. Switch to the fourth quality mode. The same settings, "Silk", the time will increase 10 times, but the picture will be grain-free. Increasing pixels at the third level does not improve. For example, 4000 pixels will be the same time as the fourth 2000 pixels mode, but the result is very bad. Here is the fourth quality mode.
Russia
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Re: analysis of various rendering modes. Replay.
But the joy of such a discovery of the magic mode will not last long. I added glass to the boxes. And suddenly the shadows turned almost black. This mode is very sensitive, and the picture changes unpredictably from external details. In reality, nothing will change, the shadows will not turn black for sure. And then there are such metamorphoses.
What can be done? You can add lights to dark places. But there is a simpler solution. The same button for turning on the heavenly light. It highlights the black spots very well. Although it certainly adds blue lighting.
