LuxRender 0.8RC3 (almost final) released!

Thread is here: http://www.luxrender.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5920

Release info from jeanphi:

"Hi all,

Another round of bug fixes and here the third and hopefully last release candidate before v0.8 final. There are a few issues left that should be fixed for the final release, if you find something not working, please report it in our bug tracker to make a great final.
Note that since Blender 2.57 is stabilizing, we will also start to stabilize LuxBlend2.5. There’s also a new Pose2Lux exporter in the works for Poser users.

Get the new binaries from our new downloads page.

Changes since v0.8RC2 (also check the new in 0.8 wiki page):

  • lots of fixes for hybrid GPU accelerated path tracer (now usable)
  • camera response presets so you don’t need to keep the files around for most camera film types
  • fixes for IPv6 networking support
  • improved speed for microdisplacement
  • fix an issue when using IES profiles on area lights
  • better handling of filenames across platforms (\ vs / separator issue)
  • ability to load STL meshes
  • new advanced tab in the GUI exposing various informations on the render configuration
  • ability to use local coordinates, UV coordinates or normal coordinates for Blender and PBRT textures
  • fixed light intensity when using an imagemap or bilerp to texture an area light
  • new stop button behaviour in the GUI, the render can now be restarted, a new menu option allows a full stop of the render engine
  • ability to embed file data inside LuxRender files
  • new option for EXR output to output straight colors even with alpha channel (the standard requires that the color is always multiplied by the alpha value)
  • ability to load and save tonemapping and post effects parameters in a file
  • various fixes and tweaks all around

Source Code

People who want to download the source code can download the v08RC3 tag files of our HG source code repository here:
http://src.luxrender.net/lux/file/785a8911c08e

And luxblend: http://src.luxrender.net/luxblend/file/cbbe68db692e


Cheers,

Jeanphi"

fantastic.

so microdisplacements is not realy mesh subdivided to pixels right?

Microdisp works the same way as regular displacement, but instead of subdividing and displacing at load time and keeping the whole finished mesh in RAM, it stores the base mesh then subdivides and displaces an individual face on the fly as the ray goes by it, then forgets about it. Adds computation time, but removes the need to cache the whole high-res displaced mesh. It’s trading speed for less RAM use.

but when it renders it renders the whole subdivided mesh right?

is this displacement similar to Vray?

I was not able to uncompress lux-v08rc3-x86_64-sse2-NoOpenCL.tar.bz2 archive.

Yes, ideally you shouldn’t be able to tell in the finished render if microdisplacement or regular displacement was used. Of course, generally you will want to do one or the other of course, but you should be able to achieve similar results with both types of displacement. (traditional subdiv/displacement has been in Lux for some time)

Never used Vray, but some googling for “vray displacement” and “vray microdisplacment” would suggest the answer to your question is “yes”.

I been through OpenCL Index 1-16 w/o successfully rendering CPU+GPU :frowning:
got an old 2008 nvidia gs 8800 , but it has OpenCL I know because I’ve downloaded some samples and compiled and run them. Soo … do I still ned pylux or something?

anyone got it to work that can give some directions.

You tried “0” for OpenCL index, right? In fact, unless you have multiple OpenCL platforms (not devices) installed, such as Stream SDK + Nvidia drivers, I wouldn’t expect anything other than 0 to work. Also, what error do you get from Lux? Does it start rendering and just refuse to use your GPU?

i am using a non open CL RC3. and i get an error. ‘‘cannot import name pylux.’’
do we need pylux for rendering?

Pylux should be inside the folder that contains the Luxrender .exe, just copy and paste the folder into the Luxblend25 addon folder.

It should be fairly easy to do. :slight_smile:

I’ve used pylux before, but my belief was that with RC3 of 0.8 luxrender was moving towards not using pylux.
I thought pylux was only a intermidiate solution to for smallluxgpu which i’ve used to render but dismissing since im waiting for luxrender to get gpu access…

I might have missed 0! I think by default mine started at 1 and I did as the help said, increase with 1 step until I hit max of 16.

what happens is that 0.02 or something goes, render is black, and luxrender gui doesn’t start.

if I only use CPU luxrender GUI starts and it renders …

No Pylux is the LuxRender core wrapped up as a python module, it’s what allows you to render inside Blender without starting an external Lux process. It’s needed for material previews as well, since they use the internal render mode. It’s a permanent part of luxblend25, and also powers that preview renderer on the Lux material database. It might show up in other exporters in the future too.

I notice that there are several external renderers, like LuxRender.
What is the advantage/difference between them and the renderer in Blender?
Which one integrates best with Blender, assuming it is “that” much better?
Can you direct me to explanation of all this?:confused:

The main difference you will find is GI. (Global illumination).
BI can’t do that, so it can’t really render photo realistic images.
But if you want things toony, just stick to Blender Internal.

@ Bluesguit

Lux render has one major advantage.

While being initially slower then other engines you can render with multi light
which means once the image gets clean enough you can turn on off lights after
rendering and relight your scene.

That is better then rendering - stop - rerender - stop … when you work in architecture
or object rendering.

I still would only use it when you are on a fast machine and not very tight time line.

Short Answer:

Luxrender is an unbiased rendering engine. This means that the underlying math of the render algorithms are designed to try and behave as close to the real physical world as possible. From you push the render button the luxrender starts shooting rays and render and it will never stop. The image will just get sharper and sharper until you are satisfied and stop the rendering process.

  • Pros: Its ultra realistic, Its very easy to set up (nearly one button = beautiful render), you can adjust the color, lights etc. of your render on the fly while it is rendering.)
  • Cons: It is very slow, It is very hard to produce anything other that realistic renders (i.e. no cartoon renders).

Yafaray and Blender internal are biased render engines. They do their renders by APPROXIMATING how light acts in the real world. I.e: you have to choose the amounts of photons you shoot through a room and how many times they can bounce of walls and through mirrors etc.

  • Pros: Very fast, can give you very sharp renders in very short time with the right settings. You can have stylistic effects and make i.e. toon style renders.
  • Cons: Can be complex to setup all the settings right. One time rendering (no on the fly adjustments).

Examples of unbiased render engines: Luxrender, Maxwell (commercial), Indigo (commercial), Octane (commercial).
Example of biased render engines: Blender internal, Yafaray, Vray (commercial), Mental ray (commercial), Final render (commercial).

Hope you can use the info and wiki your way through the rest… :slight_smile:

have you ever used blender internal?

what do you mean?

LuxRender has best integration so far, v-ray for blender is not far behind. You can get for free the maya v-ray demo, and use it with blender to test it out.

Yeah but pylux is not necessary for OpenCL right? well I give it a try at work.

aermartin,

how is the GPU implementation in Lux now?