Take a look at this one: https://picload.org/view/doiidcca/luxemotor137.png.html You will find a lot of "not perfect parts", but not the ones you talked about. SW3D is not perfect but hey, it's FREE! In my opinion the rendering power of SW3D is absolutly state of the art! You mentioned about the sharpness? You have to raise the resolution! This is possible in SW3D (the pic above has over 64MP), but it will consume a lot of time and patience.
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Pascal
I hope you can see different of quality these renders compare to your sweethome render.
Of course I can see the difference, but you never once mentioned quality, even when I asked if I had misunderstood something. I thought you had problems finding out how to render that kind of images, and you wouldn’t have been the first. So, we have finally established that it’s the quality of the render you are not satisfied with. Good. Let's take it from there.
I can fully understand your desire for sharper and more professional looking images. We all want that. And I must agree with Puybaret : a sharper image requires a larger file.
I made my demo from the low-poly furniture that either came with the program or was donated by contributors ( I don’t remember which). It took me about 20 minutes to put it together, and I rendered a 1280 px image in some 3 minutes. Now I have replaced some of the low-poly models with my own models, and replaced some of the floor textures. I have not spent any time on perfecting the light, just placed a 800 x 600 cm light panel 6 meters above the floor, which of course will give some unrealistic reflections and other strange effects – but it shows a bit of the quality you can get. This is a scaled down 2560 px image that took me 38 minutes to render. Rendering at 10240 px will of course give you twice the quality (if your models and textures allows it), and quadruple the time it takes to render:
Zooming in, I rendered this in 17 minutes (@1280 x775 px)
Now, for higher quality, we obviously have to use something other than low-poly models and tiny textures, and we need to set the light correctly. The latter is the most difficult, and I can assure you it’s not getting any easier the more advanced and expensive software you use. My father has always said that it’s the creator, not the tools that makes the master. You won't paint like Picasso by using his brushes.
Personally I’m not overly impressed by the quality of the floor plan you are comparing me with. Look at the textures at the top of the shelves – look at the closet, where the clothes looks like a 2D image with no depth is just copied and pasted onto the second half. But the floor plan itself is very good, and the palette is well designed. And that’s why it looks so nice at first glance. A good palette st the basis for all graphic design.
Well, anyway, I don’t think you should give up on SH3D until you have tried using high quality models and high-res textures. Challenge both the program and the Sunflow renderer – as well as your own creative talent, and you might be surprised. I was.
I understand your concern, about the quality of renderings. You can export your SH3D projekt to OBJ format, and then import it in Blender. Here you get better renderings. And tons of possibilities with light and render-settings. It's a bit difficult, but i'm trying myself. If I succeed I'd be happy to make you a guide. Blender is free too.
Just to say I agree with Puybaret, dorin, UbuntyBirdy, Ceciliabr. And I am unhappy with leaving potential SH3D users with an impression that SH3D is free, but imperfect. This is misleading. SH3D is brilliant software by any standard. In addition, it is OpenSource and free.
Regardless of software, it comes down to the 3D drawing, the lightsources used - and not least - to the creator.
..we obviously have to use something other than low-poly models and tiny textures...
True, but to repeat myself ad nauseum, it is not only a question of number of vertices and pixels in a bitmap. It is also a question of how the models and textures are drawn. In thread 8292 Ceciliabr tests different quality models. Or put differently, you can download huge model/furniture files from the web that will still not render well because they are badly made.
..import it in Blender. Here you get better renderings. And tons of possibilities with light and render-settings. It's a bit difficult...
It is true that Blender will give you a very wide range of options to play with in terms of rendering (and editing). And do not get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Blender and frequently use it to fine-tune and correct models. But Blender is a different kettle of fish altogether, and for rendering of a home, you will need to spend quite a lot of time to get good results. For most users I suspect using Blender for SH3D renderings will be a waste of time.
SH3D is, the way I see it, about something different. It offers the ability to sketch a plan very quickly where the elements are by default well defined and easy to edit. Plus, making a render is straight-forward: the result with SH3D / Sunflow can easily be as good as, or even much better, than the ones in the beginning of the thread. But that requires, as every software will that: - models/textures are well designed suited for the rendering you wish, - lightsources are used cleverly (see enkonyito's plugin and special lightsources) - and you have a feel for what you do.
This is just a long way of lending my support to the other posts and addressing the original issue:
I love SweetHome but... .. would like to move forward. I know it's free and can't be perfect...
I have many wishes for SH3D, improved rendering is not on that list. And all in all, of all software packages I have used, SH3D is arguably one of the very best in terms of achieving what it sets out to do - and more.
It's very good news that SH3D can do renders like that. I had no idea. I made 100+ floor plans by SH3D but rendering results are not good as I would wish. I will study and will see what I can do.
Just because I'm cirious can you show me your best render you every did in SH3D? Work you are proud of. Or if there is topic like that just send me a link. I couldnt find it.
Speaking for myself, I'm quite satisfied with all of the images I have presented. Out of respect for the other members of this forum, I wouldn't dream of presenting images that's not reflecting the best of my abilities.
But it's not only about presenting a good rendering, it's also about presenting a piece of work; a photographic composition, a creative design or a 3D-model.
I think these are good images, rendered with EnkoNyito's new light sources:
I have tried posting a couple of threads about lighting, but that sort of information appears to be of little interest, judging from the reactions. Here are some threads where you might find something of interrest:
I presume you have already seen the thread 8292 that okh linked to.
As to what I'm the most proud of, I still regard this (from 2015) as my best 3D-creation, a mock-up for a fictional magazine picturing what will happen to Denmark in a hundred years from now.
These images are a "joint venture", where terrains are created with Verto Studio 3D, the people created in Poser Pro, the composition created with SH3D and exported to Eon Vue, where the sky and water were added.
If you look closely I think you will find that the renderings are made with SH3D. If you list the posts by Ceciliabr and enkonyito and browse their existing contributions, you should find lots of examples to assist you in you renderings. By all means, there are lots of other good examples of renderings of apartments, houses etc. But Ceciliabr and enkonyito have already gone to extra lengths to explain how they use lights and rendering techniques to achieve the results you might be looking for. Including interiors and so forth. ok
I'm a lousy architect so I really don't do "appartments". In my projects I attempt to make illustrations that tells a story. I make most of the models and textures myself, and my projects usually ends up weighing around 1.5 – 2 GB. All of these images are rendered on a Mac Pro 2015 12 core 24 threads, and were done prior to the introduction of EnkoNyito's new light sources.
Here are some interiors:
These images are all created in SH3D during the last three years, and presented as rendered, with no retouching or other adjustments – just downscaled from 3440px to 1280px and converted to jpg, to save space on my server. Of course everything looks sharper and more detailed on the originals, so I have included an original sized rendering (4.5 MB)HERE
Hope these are more in accordance with your specifications.
@Ceciliabr Very nice! I would not believe that SH3D can do this. I will not give up on it for sure and try my best to have better renders then I posted before.
