[Guide] Rendering LDraw models using POV-Ray

[Calabar]

(User Account Control) was the issue and once I turned it off the rendering work straight away.

UAC is one of the best protections inside Windows, and turn it off is not a good idea.

Try starting Powray with the proper right instead.

[hrontos]

UAC is one of the best protections inside Windows, and turn it off is not a good idea.

Try starting Powray with the proper right instead.

I agree. I have also UAC enabled and POV-Ray 3.7 works without any problems. Rendering software is not good enough reason to turn off UAC.

Edited September 26, 2012 by hrontos

[C3POwen]

Was rendering this set, and was a bit...disturbed...by the colour results for the crown. I used chrome gold, but don't know if I should use a different colour or if there's some way the colour can be fixed?

The Chrome Gold colour is correct, but the definition of the colour in the "lg_colors.inc" file is not. When updating the colour definitions, my main priority was solid and transparent colours, with some metallic colours.

I shall try and create a more accurate version of Chrome Gold (and Chrome Silver), as it should be more yellow, with perhaps less mirror-like reflection.

[Palathadric]

Okay, thanks!

[MarkusOSX]

My last render with PovRay 3.7

Image

Greetz

Markus

Edited October 17, 2012 by Calabar
Oversized image converted in text link (maximum size allowed is 800x600)

[Shroud]

My last render with PovRay 3.7

Image

Greetz

Markus

Might I recommend some different light settings? I played around a lot with them to get it right (Not perfect yet), also used one shadow and only two lights.

If you like open the pov file in POV Ray and replace the code for the lights with this:

light_source {

<100,100,0>

color 30/100*ldd_light_color

shadowless

transform { ldd_camera_transformation }

}

light_source {

<-100,100,0>

color 50/100*ldd_light_color

area_light 5, 5, 10, 10

adaptive 1

jitter

circular

orient

transform { ldd_camera_transformation }

}

I use that as standard but for darker mocs use this:

light_source {

<100,100,0>

color 90/100*ldd_light_color

shadowless

transform { ldd_camera_transformation }

}

light_source {

<-100,100,0>

color 70/100*ldd_light_color

area_light 5, 5, 10, 10

adaptive 1

jitter

circular

orient

transform { ldd_camera_transformation }

}

light_source {

<0,100,0>

color 20/100*ldd_light_color

shadowless

transform { ldd_camera_transformation }

}

light_source {

<0,0,1>

color 30/100*ldd_light_color

parallel

shadowless

transform { ldd_camera_transformation }

}

An example of a dark Moc can be found here with those light settings.

[Palathadric]

Interesting. I want to play around with these settings a bit and see what I come up with. Thanks for sharing.

[TotalyWicked]

I am new to POVRay, and i am having a small problem.

In LoeCad/MLCad/ Lview model displays fine, however when I render it in POV ray I get a blank screen.

Anyone has an idea why?

Download 3740.Dat

[Palathadric]

Save it as a .ldr file type. It renders fine then, from what I've seen.

[TotalyWicked]

Thanks changing from .DAT to .LDR worked...

[Palathadric]

I've been working on some MOCs for a Heroica quest I'm planning, and I wanted to make a model with water, so I was planning on using 5-6 layers of transparent blues for the water. Well, it turns out POV-Ray hates transparency ( ) and I couldn't get the model to render. I knew it would take a long time, but...

Finally, I settled for a tryout render:

Believe it or not, this render took over 20 hours to run and it's just two layers of transparent blue over a brown 4 x 4.

Since I'm posting pictures, I may as well post some other MOCs I've been doing using POV-Ray for you viewing pleasure.

Hope you enjoy,

[TotalyWicked]

Palathadric,

back_gate3.jpg looks amazing. Is there a bigger rendering???

All it missing (in my opinion) is some DOF... I believe it’s called Focal Blur in povray.

A slightly blurred background, would put this pic over the top...

Edited November 16, 2012 by TotalyWicked

[Palathadric]

Thanks! How do I add Focal Blur to a rendering? I'm not really that adept a POV-Ray user. I actually rendered the image with a transparent background in POV-Ray and then added the sky in Photoshop. I'm not very adept at Photoshop either.

[TotalyWicked]

I have not played around with DOF yet. Ill try to experement with it a bit next week.

Here is an DOF example. Hopefully you will find it usefull.

http://www.f-lohmueller.de/pov_tut/camera_light/camera_e2.htm

Also, you said that you add background in Photoshop afterwards. I think if you add background in povray and render it it will give you a better end result. The reason being is that brick will reflect background colors instead of white background adding to realism.

Edited November 16, 2012 by TotalyWicked

[TotalyWicked]

Ok, i have tried DOF/Focal Blur - I think it came out relatively good, after about 5 min of playing with settings.

Basically all you need to do is add these lines to camera.

// focal blur settings:
focal_point <0,0,0> // This point is in focus 'sharp'
aperture 50 // More = more blurring
blur_samples 200 // More = higher quality
confidence 0.9 // How close to the correct color, 0 ~ 1, default 0.9
variance 1/128 // smallest displayable color difference

To find a right focal_point I have created a sphere at the desired location, than copied sphere’s XYZ into this field

For aperture it was a guess work. I did few test renders till I was happy with it.

I hope this helps.

Simple renders with Fast Radiosity and DOF/Focal Blur

Edited November 18, 2012 by TotalyWicked

[Palathadric]

Wow those, are neat. Where do you insert the focal blur or is there already a place for it automatically in the POV-Ray file generated by LDView. Sorry, I can't check. My computer just crashed again, and I think this time I just need to stop doing hard drive repairs myself and just buy a new hardrive to put in.

I haven't gotten radiosity to work, I think I heard somewhere that you need megapov installed as well to use it...but I'm not sure if that's true or not. Also, can I use a normal .jpg image as a backround, or how does making a background work?

Thanks, TW!

[seb/vdn]

Very thanks for the tutorial and other tips.

bye.

seb/vdn

[TotalyWicked]

Very thanks for the tutorial and other tips.

Sure thing.

Wow those, are neat.

Thank you!!!

Where do you insert the focal blur or is there already a place for it automatically in the POV-Ray file generated by LDView.

You can insert it under //camera . LDView code for it looks something like this:

// Camera
#ifndef (LDXSkipCamera)
camera {			
#declare LDXCamAspect = image_width/image_height;
location LDXCameraLoc
sky LDXCameraSky
right LDXCamAspect * < -1,0,0 >
look_at LDXCameraLookAt
angle 57.679672

can I use a normal .jpg image as a backround, or how does making a background work?

Yes you can use .jpg as background images....

I am switching from 3.6 to 3.7 so i can play around with HDR(I), maybe after i am done il'll post a quick tutorial.

See this link for background info

[TotalyWicked]

Here is another quick test.

This time its a fisheye lens...

i am not really sure iof i am happy with this render, but its good enough to show the effect....

To creat a fisheye lens all you need to do is add fisheye and change the angle to about 180

camera { fisheye
#declare LDXCamAspect = image_width/image_height;
location LDXCameraLoc
sky LDXCameraSky
right LDXCamAspect * < -1,0,0 >
look_at LDXCameraLookAt
angle 180
}

Edited November 22, 2012 by TotalyWicked

[C3POwen]

Ok, i have tried DOF/Focal Blur - I think it came out relatively good, after about 5 min of playing with settings.

To find a right focal_point I have created a sphere at the desired location, than copied sphere’s XYZ into this field

For aperture it was a guess work. I did few test renders till I was happy with it.

I hope this helps.

I have to say that this is the way that I've tried DoF in the past, and using a sphere to obtain the right point of focus is certainly much easier than guessing. As I usually export from LDView, the following code usually allows me to place a sphere that shows somewhere just above the centre of the model:

sphere {
 <0, -100, 0>, 10
 pigment { color rgb <1, 0, 1> }
}

This creates a purple sphere floating above the middle of the model, although if the model obscures it you can either raise the height of the sphere (using -150 or -200 instead of -100) or move it left/right or forward/back. From there, alter the coordinates to get your preferred focal point.

Again, rendering with no anti-aliasing will create a render that can be downsized later on for a better effect.

[Palathadric]

Is there a bigger rendering???

Oops, realized that I never got back to you on this. Yes, I rendered all these images originally in 2560 x 1440 I believe, but posting those on brickshelf is tasking.

Again, rendering with no anti-aliasing will create a render that can be downsized later on for a better effect.

So for rendering large images like I do and then downsizing them in Photoshop/whatever, it's better to render them without anti-aliasing...or...

[C3POwen]

So for rendering large images like I do and then downsizing them in Photoshop/whatever, it's better to render them without anti-aliasing...or...

I find that the "depth of field" effect doesn't look great until I've shrunken the image down. Have a look at a detail from the original rendered image of a set I've just posted here. When you zoom in a bit, the blurry parts show a lot of grainy artifacts, which are lost when you shrink the image down.

I think I tested this with an older rendering I did of a Star Wars set, and got the same result with anti-aliasing on, but I'll check and let you know.

[TotalyWicked]

I find that the "depth of field" effect doesn't look great until I've shrunken the image down. Have a look at a detail from the original rendered image of a set I've just posted here. When you zoom in a bit, the blurry parts show a lot of grainy artifacts, which are lost when you shrink the image down.

What did you use for blur_samples and confidence???

I think I tested this with an older rendering I did of a Star Wars set, and got the same result with anti-aliasing on, but I'll check and let you know.

My test renders are done with AA and no post work....

I think it might have something to do with color blending, the black line between 2 bricks,

I think that reducing confidence value might help.

Edited November 22, 2012 by TotalyWicked

[C3POwen]

What did you use for blur_samples and confidence???

The settings I used were as follows:

blur_samples 100

confidence 1

variance 1/500

Again, I've not really much in the way of DoF before, so the Brickley model is only the second time I've tried it.

Any suggestions, that don't have too much of a hit on performance, are more than welcome!

[TotalyWicked]

360 panorama camera test…

I just switched to 3.7 cannot wait to do some HDRI tests..