A rendering experiment

[msx80]

Hi there, while working on blueprint i had the idea to try and pass the model geometry to a simple free java renderer, Sunflow. It's a small software but kind of cool and super easy to integrate. I did a quick hack and this is the result, i tought i might share it with you. What do you think? It's far from POV, but it's also quite fast, this render took less than two minutes (1024x768, average pc). Perhaps it could be something between the terrible LDD screenshots and the high quality POV renders, if i ever find the time to make it into a proper program.

The original

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Beside the technical side, I quite like the model itself, nice one - what is it? It's your MOC?

[msx80]

well thanks :) yes, it's a moc of mine, the Octan Mule X4. It's my first entry for Andromeda's Gate. You can find a little comic strip about it (and building instructions!) here.

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It's my first entry for Andromeda's Gate

Whaaaattttt?

[msx80]

Whaaaattttt?

You missed the frontpage news ? :P It's a roleplay game where you build stuff to get points and resources. Nice stuff :)

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You missed the frontpage news ? :P It's a roleplay game where you build stuff to get points and resources. Nice stuff :)

Yes,very likely I did.

Gonna look at it now...thanx for the link.

[sparkart]

Hey, I really like the results, especially with that performance...in minutes? Awesome! The last LDD -> POV-Ray render I did was for a simple model at a medium resolution, and it took 11 hours. Excrutiating, especially when you've got a deadline...the render was part of the cover art for a local LEGO AFOL convention program. The artist put out a call on the LUG mailing list asking for help to render his LDD model. There definitely is a need to get higher quality and faster renders of LDD models.

Man, I really like how you're making LDD an even more useful tool, with Blueprint, with this...I hope you make this part of Blueprint or a standalone utility, I know there will be many users. Thanks!

[Naijel]

If you are doing a simple render in POV-Ray and it takes 11 hours I would recommend looking at whether some settings could be modified to lower the quality and still be good enough. The defaults may be for very high and un-necessary quality . You may find that 80% of the time could be saved for very little drop in quality. It really depends on what you are doing of course. It's also usually best too to do a low quality and low resolution render to ensure that the scene is framed correctly before committing to a high quality and high resolution image.

[msx80]

If you are doing a simple render in POV-Ray and it takes 11 hours I would recommend looking at whether some settings could be modified to lower the quality and still be good enough. The defaults may be for very high and un-necessary quality . You may find that 80% of the time could be saved for very little drop in quality. It really depends on what you are doing of course. It's also usually best too to do a low quality and low resolution render to ensure that the scene is framed correctly before committing to a high quality and high resolution image.

you're right, POV-Ray has an extreme quality by default, that's why it takes so long. I'm not trying to compete with povray of course, just doing some experiments as it comes really cheap (95% of the code is from blueprint).

It could still be useful to have an alternative :)

Here's another render, this time with correct colors (i was skewing them in previous render :P)

Hey, I really like the results, especially with that performance...in minutes? Awesome! The last LDD -> POV-Ray render I did was for a simple model at a medium resolution, and it took 11 hours. Excrutiating, especially when you've got a deadline...the render was part of the cover art for a local LEGO AFOL convention program. The artist put out a call on the LUG mailing list asking for help to render his LDD model. There definitely is a need to get higher quality and faster renders of LDD models.

Man, I really like how you're making LDD an even more useful tool, with Blueprint, with this...I hope you make this part of Blueprint or a standalone utility, I know there will be many users. Thanks!

Thanks :) I dealt with full quality povray renders and i know what that mean :)

[Calabar]

This little rendering software seems to be very interesting.

I'd like to try such a small and fast software, the result is very good related to the rendering time.

A pair of questions:

- is the software still in development? It seems to be discontinued, in the website the last update is dated February 2007.

- is there a simple way to pass the software a LEGO model? How did you import it?

- are you planning some kind of integration with blueprint?

[msx80]

1- no, Sunflow looks to be not developed anymore, unfortunately. But it seems like it's still used a lot around, the source code looks mature and the gallery is awesome.

2- currently, I export the geometry from Blueprint to a text file, stitch it together with some boilerplate rendering instructions and feed it to Sunflow. Eventually i could make a small GUI with a file chooser and a render button. If you have an LXF file for me to try, i can test it :)

3- i don't know, they're separated things. I could eventually ship them together to save some space i guess. Or you were thinking some other kind of integration?

[Calabar]

Thanks.

Surely a simplified way to render lxf files in this way would be very appreciated... from me at least! I would not know where to start!

My idea of integration was something like: copy Sunflow in a folder inside the blueprint folder and use it though blueprint (mainly for render instruction image, but even for single renders too!).

About the file to test, you could try "7700-1_C3_calabar.lxf" or "casa_full_Ultimate.lxf" from my gallery (on the bottom, click on the file name to download).

Edited May 22, 2015 by Calabar

[msx80]

I don't know if renders like this would look right in building instructions. I think they should look more technical than realistic, but maybe i could experiment.

Here's your model, took 0:01:14.8 to render at 1024x768. Maybe the light settings are not the best for a white model but it doesn't look bad i think! (and no texture for now.. at least not until they're supported in blueprint)

PS looks like eurobrick stretch the image, you can see it in original form by clicking on it

Edited May 22, 2015 by msx80

[sparkart]

Yes, simple-looking isometric technical line drawings should be used for the model assembly instruction steps; Perspective and specular light reflections can obscure or hinder accurate part identification in renders and photos.

What are you going to name this rendering tool? If you're going to have a naming contest, my entry is "3V - Very fast Virtual Visualizer".

"Let's see what this model looks like in 3V." Catchy, no? No? Ok. :)

[Calabar]

I think they should look more technical than realistic, but maybe I could experiment.

Sure! The rendering could be an interesting option anyway.

About the image, it is surely a nice result for a "one minute rendering"! On which machine do you obtained that time?

[Zerobricks]

Looks good for such a quick render. I'm very interested.

[msx80]

Yes, simple-looking isometric technical line drawings should be used for the model assembly instruction steps; Perspective and specular light reflections can obscure or hinder accurate part identification in renders and photos.

What are you going to name this rendering tool? If you're going to have a naming contest, my entry is "3V - Very fast Virtual Visualizer".

"Let's see what this model looks like in 3V." Catchy, no? No? Ok. :)

Wouldn't that be VF2V ? :)

Anyway, i'm using the working name of BlueRenderer but it doesn't sound so good either.

Sure! The rendering could be an interesting option anyway.

About the image, it is surely a nice result for a "one minute rendering"! On which machine do you obtained that time?

An average machine, Intel I5 3.20 Ghz.

Looks good for such a quick render. I'm very interested.

Thanks!

Here are some more renderings (some models are mine, some found on the net):

http://imgur.com/a/lKCzB

I've been experimenting to find a decent default set of settings for lights and colors, i think these one works good.

I'll package it into a distribution as soon as i find the time so you can try and tinker with it

[sparkart]

Those renders look good. BlueRenderer sounds like a fine name...but how about BlueProcess? Then, when we make instructions and renders, we have a BlueProduct in the end that is:

1. BluePrinted
   
2. BlueProcessed
   
3. BlueProduced
   

[msx80]

Lol, i went for Bluerender in the end. I've prepared a package, you can find it here. I'll make a proper post later

[sparkart]

msx80, THANK YOU for this LDD rendering tool. I really appreciate the speed and quality of the renders, e.g. this was done in about 5-and-a-half minutes on an i5 laptop:

McLaren MLP8 by SPARKART!, on Flickr.

This was done in about 6-and-a-half minutes on the same i5 laptop:

McLaren MLP7 by SPARKART!, on Flickr.

Edited May 28, 2015 by sparkart

[msx80]

Thanks! good to hear the program works well :) I've just posted the official topic here

nice cars btw!

[Jody Meyer]

Ok, got mine to work, a few questions , how do you change the background also when I try to do my mech. I only get half of it...also camera location?..

Cheers

Jody

[msx80]

Hi there, if you have the most recent version, the background can be changed by editing the scene.sc file, it's near the beginning. Half of it in which way? :) if it's the top part, you probably have the model placed below zero height and the ground plane cuts it. You can download the latest version (3) that solve the problem. The camera location is taken from LDD, in alternative you can define your own inside the scene.sc file.

Please follow up on the official thread here :)

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if it's the top part, you probably have the model placed below zero height and the ground plane cuts it. You can download the latest version (3) that solve the problem.

Yes, but you should mind those that had such problem that it not saved them much: it moves plane right below the most lower object on the scene BUT all the other objects will be hanging in the air - beware!

Better for you with this problem is get back to LDD, move your camera view so that you are looking at the model from the very front or side near the bottom and see which brick(s) made that problem...you will probably see that one or several bricks are simply below all other bricks (they were placed at negative Y axis). Now select those lowest ones, cut them (WinOS: CTRL+X) and then paste them back (WinOS: CTRL+V) - PROBLEM SOLVED THE RIGHT WAY.

Edited June 6, 2015 by bublible

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+ you can also try other way around (or combined with the previous one above if it alone did not help): being in LDD select all bricks (WinOs: CTRL+A) and move them all at once a tiny bit - that should reset the plane Y axis back to y=0