Pool Water not rendering correctly in 2017

Anonymous · ‎09-26-2017

Hello All,

I create swimming pools & spas in Revit and have been using my water material in 2014, 2015 & 2016 R versions. And now that I have upgraded to the new 2017 my water is no longer rendering the way it used to render.

I have attached two images of what it used to look like to how it is now.

I have recently reinstalled the entire suite to make sure my materials library is indeed installed. Cant seem to figure out why the water is now doing this. Perhaps 2017 completely changed the "Swimming Pool" water type?

does anybody have any info regarding this issue or have any suggestions I could try to fix the issue?

SallyDong2005 · ‎09-29-2017

Hello @Anonymous,

Are these renderings are rendered by Revit or Cloud Rendering? If by Revit, I would like to suggest to move this topic to Revit forum here https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/bd-p/133 for there may be many Revit experts could be helpful.

Thanks,
Sally Dong

Anonymous · ‎09-30-2017

I had this in the revit forum but it was moved here.

basically i'm just wondering how your swimming pool water renders in revit 2017 (no cloud). it used to look like the first image and now since the upgraded from r16 to r17 it looks like the second pic.

Just wondering if this is an isolated instance affected just me or is everybody's swimming pool water looks like pic two?

anavaidya · ‎10-02-2017

Hi @Anonymous,

If you were using Cloud Rendering, you'll get the same result. But since you are using local rendering, there could be differences due to these reasons:

- Revit 2016 uses MentalRay and Revit 2017 uses Autodesk rendering and since these are different rendering engines the results could be different.

- Also, the look of water depends on the color of the tiles below it (they seem different in the 2 images) and what is being reflected in the water. So if the surrounding environment or sky is different in the two files, there could be differences

- If the lighting or time of day is different in the two files, the look will be different

I hope this helps.

Thanks,

Aradhana Vaidya
Customer Success Engineer, Rendering & Visualization

Anonymous · ‎03-15-2018

Please help!

I am having the same issue.

In Revit 2015 the water looked great, now it is all dark and distorted!

The material thumbnail also looks like it is missing.

Attached screenshots.

SallyDong2005 · ‎03-15-2018

Hi @Anonymous,

Do you mean the rendering in Revit is not correct? If yes, I would like to suggest you post this problem to Revit forum here https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit/ct-p/2003 for there may be more experts could be helpful.

Thanks,
Sally Dong

Anonymous · ‎04-10-2018

Well it doesn't render correctly no.

But the material itself is an issue. The "map" has fallen off the page...

No help on this one?

SallyDong2005 · ‎04-10-2018

Could you try to render it in Revit to check whether the texture image is missing?

Thanks,
Sally Dong

Anonymous · ‎04-10-2018

The screenshot in my previous post shows what the material preview looks like now in 2018, compared with 2015.

The water material thumbnail preview is a black background with the corner of a white square the the bottom right corner. It looks like it fell off the page...

The water renders, but it does not look real at all. It rendered great in 2015.

I am surprised there are not more complaints about this.

I have tried installing on a number of computers now with the same unsatisfactory result.

cbcarch · ‎04-12-2018

Materials have changed drastically from Revit 2015.

Mental Ray rendering engine was dropped, Autodesk switched to Autodesk Raytracer engine in 2017.

I suspect this has something to do with the way your water is rendering.

Also, I checked here on my PC --

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Materials\Textures

and there was no water material map; could be it did not come with the standard install?

In your Project, under Appearance in the Material Editor, what Image is being used?

Cliff B. Collins
Registered Architect The Lamar Johnson Collaborative Architects-St. Louis, MO

barthbradley · ‎04-12-2018

I have a dozen different material assets for Liquid -- all OOTB.

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2018

THIS SHOULD BE FOR 2018.

MY ORIGINAL POST WAS MOVED TO THIS THREAD.

IT IS 2018 I AM HAVING THE ISSUED WITH.....

barthbradley · ‎04-12-2018

What asset does your "Water" material use?

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2018

WATER!!!!

I HAVE TRIED EVERY TYPE OF WATER AND EVERY COMBINATION AND VARIATION OF TYPES!!!

COME ON! SOMEONE MUST HAVE AN ANSWER!

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2018

okay, so after months without anybody able to help me I finally figured out how to fix the problem.

basically, the rendering engine changed in the latest release and doesn't render properly in the lates release. HOWEVER!!!!

I sure wish somebody could have told me this, all you have to do is render on the cloud and all is FIXED!!!

It is as easy as that and I banged my head against the wall for months and distributed jobs without water.

I am still in shock that nobody said to try rendering on the cloud as the engines are better. Really????

cbcarch · ‎04-12-2018

Did you turn the wave height way down? Adjust the color?

I'm assuming you are only talking about the rendered output in Revit 2017 or 2018? ( Not the thumbnail view in the Material editor)

As noted, from 2015 to 2018, the rendering engine has changed from Mental Ray, to Autodesk's own "Raytracer" engine, which will give completely different results, as expected.

ie. a rendering done in 2015 will NOT look exactly the same in 2017 or 2018, due to the new rendering engine.

Cliff B. Collins
Registered Architect The Lamar Johnson Collaborative Architects-St. Louis, MO

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2018

okay, so after months without anybody able to help me I finally figured out how to fix the problem.

basically, the rendering engine changed in the latest release and doesn't render properly in the latest release. HOWEVER!!!!

I sure wish somebody could have told me this, all you have to do is render on the cloud and all is FIXED!!!

It is as easy as that and I banged my head against the wall for months and distributed jobs without water.

I am still in shock that nobody said to try rendering on the cloud as the engines are better. Really????

cbcarch · ‎04-12-2018

Rendering in the Cloud uses yet ANOTHER render engine, which attempts to simulate the materials/textures in the native Revit file. It uses completely different technology--it imports the Revit scene into a proprietary rendering application.

So--"rendering in the cloud" was not necessarily the "only" and "obvious" answer--we were trying to troubleshoot your problem, based on rendering inside of Revit.

That said, as long as you keep purchasing "cloud units"--you can change you workflow to cloud rendering and achieve faster/better results. But you will pay for it once your "free" cloud units run out.

Cliff B. Collins
Registered Architect The Lamar Johnson Collaborative Architects-St. Louis, MO

Anonymous · ‎04-12-2018

The cloud costs money - I may do 50+ test renders getting materials right etc.

I don't want to have to;

A. Pay each time I render a draft quality render

B. Have the horrible water appearance even on draft renders

When it comes to a FINAL FINAL render, I'd end up photo-shopping it anyways, but I don't want to look at this pixelated, below draft quality water along the way...

So... That doesn't really help...

Thanks though.

barthbradley · ‎04-12-2018

@Anonymouswrote:
WATER!!!!

I HAVE TRIED EVERY TYPE OF WATER AND EVERY COMBINATION AND VARIATION OF TYPES!!!

COME ON! SOMEONE MUST HAVE AN ANSWER!

Why are you yelling? Water is not an Appearance Asset. Period. Your screenshot clearly shows that. There are a dozen other Assets that work as well. Search "Liquid".