3D Design
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Artifice 3D Design Community Discussion |
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Posted by J. Peter Horne on November 28, 1997 at 09:04:45:
In Reply to: light renderers posted by Rick Abe on November 26, 1997 at 00:54:28:
Mr Rick Abe,
I've read all the following messages to your original message regarding light renderers and I can't determine what platform you are on? I willfully don't support Microsoft, however, if your using DW in a Wintel world there is a renderer that I haven't seen mentioned that fits the needs of what your looking for.
Lightscape 3.0, from Lightscape Technologies (http://www.lightscape.com), does exactly what you request "...i am looking for near photo realism balanced with ease of use...". While I prefer Radiance for producing my final results, I have used Lightscape to fullfil certain looks and needs with good results. It's setup, like DW, with the architect in mind, unlike many other renders with "Hollywood" in mind. It's easy to translate files from DW via a DXF translator. Keep in mind that the DXF file format is quirky at best. There are many levels of rendering quality available and it does a decent job of animation.
All that being said what if your on the mac platform? Can you still use Lightscape. NO...unless, like I do, you run both systems on your mac. I'm sure you've heard of all the various ways of achieving that. I personally use an Orange PC card. This does, however, put you in the same dilemma as with Radiance...two operating systems. I'm sure not what you're looking for.
I would like to point out that setting up a UNIX box can be painstaking at best. Once set up, however, it needs little maintainence (unlike a Wintel solution) and is very fast and flexible.
My humble ;) suggestion is to wait for the DW/Lightworks people. I have good reason to believe that great things are coming in the near future. In the mean time use DW and tweek the images in Photoshop. The results are more than adequate and the time saved can't be beat.
Sincerely,
J. Peter Horne, Associate AIA
Yost Grube Hall Architecture