First Try with Twilight - critiques welcome

[jsmda800]

hello all,

just getting my feet wet w/Twilight: fantastic, fantastic product!

these are from a reno that started in revit and later imported and added to in SU, Twilight, fotosketcher & PS

after taking the Lamp test, no denying that my computer is definitely slow...the below was overnight, 2.5 passes...even at that, I thought it was far superior than other rendering engines I've tried w/ more passes...really like the SU interface and would like to learn a lot more about textures and using Kerkythea too...overscaled some of the textures a bit to make sure they read but I think I can definitely cut back...need to also find a better way to blend the tiling (used offset in PS)...the lighting was REALLY blinding at first but will adjust w/actual fixture data when known

Kitchen View.jpg (290.15 KiB) Viewed 5962 times

really like how Twilight starts off, the below is maybe 1/2 a pass:

Kitchen View-1 Ray.jpg (424.02 KiB) Viewed 5964 times

processed w/ fotosketcher and blended in PS with the "final pass" for a little "rougher" look than running the "final pass" thru fotosketcher alone

Kitchen View-Blending Test.jpg (285.57 KiB) Viewed 5962 times

[fymoro]

Hi and welcome,

I like the first image, you write "..the below was overnight, 2.5 passes.." only ? At least you should have 50 or even 100 passes.
For me it's missing some material reflections, you can increase the shininess until 3000 or 6000...

Good start...

[jsmda800]

Hi and welcome,

I like the first image, you write "..the below was overnight, 2.5 passes.." only ? At least you should have 50 or even 100 passes.
For me it's missing some material reflections, you can increase the shininess until 3000 or 6000...

Good start...

thanks for your comments, Fred...unfortunately, yes...only 2.5 passes..."overnight" was actually about 5 hours that night...but still, it did seem slow so I subsequently tried the lamp test...hope to upgrade at least the CPU soon...

I will start to try to manipulate the shininess and other options...I'm finding with all the variables, I need a refresher of all the terms!

[Fletch]

the thing that will slow a rendering down most is the size of the texture maps.
any texture image that is too large should be scaled down to be appropriate size for the scene.
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... size#p9556
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... ize#p11301
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... ize#p12108

I like the first image best, but encourage experimentation... the Twilight/photosketcher combination route is great if you are in a hurry.

Some threads about increasing render speed:
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 477#p14477
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... =12&t=1505
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 331#p11331
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 3328#p3328
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 243#p15243

about lighting, lights and speed, color of lights, etc.:
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... f=12&t=716
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... f=12&t=665
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... =12&t=1093

about render settings - which is the best one?
http://twilightrender.com/phpBB3/viewto ... 446#p13446

[jsmda800]

thanks, Fletch, for your comments and, wow, for putting together the list of threads to review! So many interesting things to review on the forum, haven't been very focused in studying and sidetracked by looking at so many beautiful renderings - this is great

I'll try that rendering again w/ the textures set down...last night ran a test with a mish mash of materials and lighting...more appropriate texture sizing and smaller overall file size but it did get up to about 50 passes in 6 hours...perhaps, too, the other one came from a revit import and there were a lot of repeated components, planes extraneous or unnecessary to the view, etc...

been looking at the motherboard specs and it seems the best I could do would be a core 2 quad Q9650 with the given board, which seems to be very close in price to an i7...for a reasonable amount more, under $200US, might be well worth it to replace the board too...starting to look into that now...