hi guys!
i’m new to blender, i have been looking around the web to find info but i did’t find good answers, so i’m asking you :
does Blender have:
1.photon mapping
2.final gathering
3.caustics
???
if it has where are those?
Thanks in advance!
If you want that, you have to use an external renderer, such as Yafaray ( or Indigo, or Luxrender, etc. ) Blenders UI will change to accomodate those things when you switch the renderer.
Thanks Modron, but i’m using Blender 2.54, and it seems that it ain’t an external renderer that actually works with my version of blender yet. Do you have knowledge of yafaray or Indigo or Luxrender to be running on 2.54?
PS: i have Yafaray for blender 2.54 but all i get when rendering is a blank black image 
Yafaray for 64bit builds for 2.45 here http://www.yafaray.org/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3548
Lux built into Blender for 64bit builds can be found on Grapicall.org both are for Windows 64
If you are getting a blank image you have to set an actual output destination other than the //tmp\ path that is there, because in 2.54 this path destination doesn’t work right. Make sure in here you are typing something like c:\something where your png is going and it will show up. Active rendering progress is not allowed in the current API for Yafaray, but the actual Lux build on Graphicall will show the progress.
Thanks AJM!
are you talking about Lux as in Luxrender or SmallluxGPU ?
As far as i know, there ain’t an integration of Luxrender to Blender 2.5 that actually works. Do you have another information?
if you have some money left
you can either buy Octane Render 99 US
or Thea Render 200 US.
First is a GPU engine, second supports biased and unbiased rendering.
Since Blender is in Beta exporters work or dont work …
Thanks Cekuhnen,
so, is better to wait until blender will be ready as a stable distribution.
And you guys, what renderer do you use? other than blender internal? And assuming that you work with blender 2.5
Build r32024 from Graphicall has LuxRender built in for Windows 64bit. I have used SmallLux GPU with Blender 2.53 you just have to point to the file location to use it. Further developments can be found at their site here http://www.luxrender.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=4 they also have a live view integration being developed for the Blender 2.5x development and did work in 2.53, where you can see the render in real time in Blender and the changes you make. Pretty good for previews and such, as well as finals.
I’m rendering a scene with luxrender (CPU version, I don’t believe the code is truly finished to actually use the GPU yet, even though some can kinda get a render with that option enabled.) inside blender 2.54 as I write this, so yeah, I use that. I belive I just got the build ajm mentioned above, don’t actually remember now as I went though a bit of info to end up here. this thread has a fair amount of info on luxblend25 http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=197447
If I’m not mistaken you can even learn how to update to the newest versions as well.
I have yet to try yafaray with 2.5 but it is next on my list of to try in the near future.
guys, you’re talking about Luxrender, not smallluxGPU, right?
I thought luxrender doesn’t work with blender 2.54? how did you make it work?
I tried a couple days ago, but mine is not working
yes, I believe this technically luxrender, as it uses the CPU. but I think it would be more acurate to call it luxblend25 as it integrates the whole work flow into blender, without any exporting to a seperate luxrender interface. but I could be wrong I’m still learning all this myself. and I know it is still in development, as the render I was running crashed at around 27 samples per pixel, which was about 20min in. I’ve encountered similar crashes and I’m trying to pinpoint if what I’m doing at the time outside of blender could cause them, oh well.
As to what I’m doing to get it working so far, go to the graphical download http://www.graphicall.org/builds/builds/showbuild.php?action=show&id=1555 and use that version, but there are some special instructions by the download you have to follow in order to make it work still. If you don’t have 64bit windows I don’t know enough to help you there.
Yes the version you mentioned above does not have the CPU+GPU rendering available, that is in development for LuxRender 0.8, so I think that this option is a placeholder for now until things settle down in the Blender API and the next series of LuxRender matures. It is coming though. Until then there is a way to export to SmallLux GPU. Search the links above.