Photorealistic Rendering - Which way to go?

[Dade]

@zardoz

Looks cool, Is it still Linux-only?

It runs under Linux/MacOS/Windows.

[Paint_Guy]

The general workflow for using Blender/LuxBlend/LuxRender is indicated below, but first a bit of background: Materials created in Blender do not translate over to LuxRender. Essentially the material engines in each speak different languages. Therefore, while LuxBlend will do its best to ‘translate’ the materials in a Blender scene file over to LuxRender, it is advised that you check all of the materials in LuxBlend before hitting its ‘Render’ button or you may be surprised.

With this in mind, the best workflow for creating scenes in Blender is to model all of your objects (including lights and camera), place them as you want them, and then assign a default material to each object. You want to give this material a unique name (usually just copy the name you gave the object in Blender to the Materials name box - you did give each of your objects a unique name in Blender, right?) but don’t bother making any changes to it since you will just have to repeat that work in LuxBlend anyway. Also, any objects that will be receiving an image texture should be UV mapped in Blender before exporting to LuxRender. They will behave much better.

Once that is out of the way and you are now in LuxBlend getting ready for LuxRender, you can select each object in the 3D view of Blender, select the Materials button of LuxBlend and set up the material(s) for each of the objects in your scene. In the Cam/Env area you can set up global illumination and environment. See the Main Menu for information on these areas of LuxBlend.

Zardoz, hi great thread. I am not trying to hijack this thread but as a noob I had a couple of questions that you might be interested in too.

1. So I understand that LuxRender won’t render any textures created in Blender. (see above) If this is the case, then how do you save materials with a scene? In the past I would have a folder with my .blend files and I would store all of my materials in there. Everything would be togehter. With using LuxRender how would you do this? I am not too keen on having to add my textures to the scene every time I close it. Please explain!

2. I installed the LuxRender then I linked the the “python” script in the Blender Preferences, but now how do I render something from Blender 2.5 to the LuxRender engine?

Thanks

pg

[organic]

@Paint Guy

Zardoz, hi great thread. I am not trying to hijack this thread but as a noob I had a couple of questions that you might be interested in too.

1. So I understand that LuxRender won’t render any textures created in Blender. (see above) If this is the case, then how do you save materials with a scene? In the past I would have a folder with my .blend files and I would store all of my materials in there. Everything would be togehter. With using LuxRender how would you do this? I am not too keen on having to add my textures to the scene every time I close it. Please explain!

2. I installed the LuxRender then I linked the the “python” script in the Blender Preferences, but now how do I render something from Blender 2.5 to the LuxRender engine?

Thanks
pg

1. They will be saved in the file and will display in the Luxblend gui. You do not have to reset them every time.

2. Using the Luxblend gui. It is in the Render menu and in the Scripts -> Render menu

[jeanphi1 (jeanphi_)]

@Paint Guy

1. So I understand that LuxRender won’t render any textures created in Blender. (see above) If this is the case, then how do you save materials with a scene? In the past I would have a folder with my .blend files and I would store all of my materials in there. Everything would be togehter. With using LuxRender how would you do this? I am not too keen on having to add my textures to the scene every time I close it. Please explain!

Like organic said, all LuxRender parameters defined in LuxBlend are saved in the .blend file.

@Paint Guy

2. I installed the LuxRender then I linked the the “python” script in the Blender Preferences, but now how do I render something from Blender 2.5 to the LuxRender engine?

The LuxBlend exporter hasn’t been ported to Blender 2.5 yet, you need Blender 2.49 to use it. The SmallLuxGPU example GPU renderer has an exporter for Blender 2.5 though.

Jeanphi

[Paint_Guy]

@organic

1. They will be saved in the file and will display in the Luxblend gui. You do not have to reset them every time.

Thanks organic.

1. So I don’t create the materials in Blender, but I create them in LuxRender, but once I create them in LuxRender they are saved in the .blend file. Is this correct?

2. If I create the materials in LuxRender and save them in the .blend file what happens if I render from Blender Renderer, will it use the materials I created in LuxRender or will I have to create new materials in Blender to render from Blender?

@jeanphi_

Like organic said, all LuxRender parameters defined in LuxBlend are saved in the .blend file.

The LuxBlend exporter hasn’t been ported to Blender 2.5 yet, you need Blender 2.49 to use it. The SmallLuxGPU example GPU renderer has an exporter for Blender 2.5 though. Jeanphi

Thanks Jeanphi.

Have you heard if LuxRender is planning to port this to Blender 2.5 any time soon?
Sorry, what is this SmallLuxGPU exporter? So does this export the 2.5 file so it can be rendered in 2.49? Can you please tell me where to get this?

Thanks

pg