Differences in rendering types between 2012 and 2013

[ScottAPara]

I am currently using 2012 but have showcase 2013. I am using 2012 as I feel I am getting better and more consistent results when rendering. Why did we lose options like "ambient interactive" or "global illumination good", both of which I use regularly. The new rendering options are a bit of a mystery and the results are less than expected.
My other issue is when creating my own environments more than 90% of the time I get a crash right as it says it is finishing. The odd thing is it makes the necessary files and places them in the temp directory. This workflow is less than productive and does not work as the instructions show.
I would appreciate a little insight into both issues if possible. Currently 2013 is sitting completely unused.

[MarionLandry]

Dear Scott,
I hope I can shed some lights on your request.

1-Why did we lose options like “ambient interactive” or “global illumination good”, both of which I use regularly. The new rendering options are a bit of a mystery and the results are less than expected.

My suggestion when rendering with ray tracing are the following:

Look Under the Ray tracing Performance and Quality settings (press Y and then click on the settings button)
You still have access to the Ambient Shadow -Interactive and Global Illumination button there.. SO I don't know why you said it disapered??

I suggest you do not used baked ambient shadows if you plan to render raytracing. Under the same panel, open the Advanced settings tab and uncheck the "use precalculated ambient shadows" By doing so, you make sure that the ambient shadow are calculated accurately in the ray tracing calculation

Do use mostly Showcase material as they will render in ray trace faster and give you better result (specially glass materials and metals)

Once you have find the perfect settings, you can save them and reused them for other rendering.
Have a look at this video to find out how: http://youtu.be/dVcYaXbNMiY

2- When creating my own environments more than 90% of the time I get a crash right as it says it is finishing. The odd thing is it makes the necessary files and places them in the temp directory.

I think the image you are using is probably to heavy for your graphic card. Most of the time, the HDR image you download from the internet are super heavy. Depending on your graphic card, you might want to reduce the size of the HDR image before you upload it in your background. I suggest you used an image of 5K max (5000px across) to start with. It should give you high enough resolution for what you are trying to do. Have a look at this video for guideline: http://youtu.be/ar0VivUjXqI

Let me also suggest that you register to my YouTube channel as I post tips and tricks in Showcase on a regular basis.

I hope this is helpful.
Marion

[ScottAPara]

I think there may be some misunderstanding here. Yes there are presets for the interactive render settings but I can not find any of the presets I most use in 2012 like "global illumination good or ultimate". I also find it tough to find good documentation as to how to set up the new render settings to mimic global illumination good or ultimate. Are these settings stored somewhere that I can port them over someway to 2013 from 2012? Will the HDR light studio also work with 2014? How can someone apply to be on the beta testing team for showcase?

[scottpara]

Marion,

Can you please point me to where I can find these settings of global illumination good and ultimate? Is this something that might be coming back in 2014? I saw you had said DOF will be available in 2014, is this done in post processing after the render is complete or will it be live and active in the viewport?

Thanks for your help,
Scott

[MarionLandry]

DOF is live in the viewport.. and render with Raytrace AMAZING! I will post YouTube video on how to use it shortly on my YouTube channel. Stay tuned.
For the raytrace setting, I suggest you let it render until you are satisfied.. You can increase the trace depth and Precision under the Ray Trace Setting menu, Advanced Settings. I would also suggest you uncheck the option "use Precalculated ambient shadows" as by doing so Ray Tracing will calculate accurate Ambient Shadow and give you better results.
Hope that helps
Marion

[scottpara]

Marion,

Thanks for the reply. I know that showcase is not a modeling tool. What I was speaking of was that with some geometry formats we have the ability to extract patches as new objects. I was wondering if this function would be added to FBX format.

As far as rending goes, if we just let renders go until we are satisfied we will find it difficult to be able get an exact duplicate of renders. When we had setting such as global illumination good or ultimate as presets I could duplicate a render with the exact same results. Hopefully this explains my problem

Will there be an HDR Light studio plugin for showcase 2014 as there was for 2013.

Can't wait to see the DOF.

Thanks for your help
Scott