Adding Lights in IRay

bobmale

Hi. Is there a way to add an equivalent to a Distant Light or Spotlight into an IRay rendered scene? I can add Point Lights to an IRay render with the same results I got in 3Delight, but the other lights do not add anything to the scene. I bought the IRay Ghost Light Kit SKU:36389 but it isn't all that helpful in duplicating the effect of the old Distant Lights. Maybe I'm just not using it right to light up interior scenes where walls and everything else block the IRay light.

What I really miss are my Age of Armour Advanced lights where I include/exclude what could be lit by a particular light.

 

BeeMKay

Lights in Iray behave a bit different than 3DL lights.You can add distant lights to a scene, but they are way to bright (you'd have to dial them down to 15 lms to make them work). Sunlight is either simulated by a HDRI, or if you select the Sun&Sky option in the Environment tab of the Render Settings.

That won't really solve your indoor lighting problems. The Ghost Lights set elements have to be placed inside the room, not outside. Please check out the thread below, there are some experiments regarding Iray indoor lights which might help out a bit.

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/110771/natural-iray-lighning-for-rooms#latest

As for the "include/exclude", I think that is done by canvas in Iray, but I have to admit, I haven't dwelved that far into Iray lighting as of yet.

FeralFey

bobmale said:

What I really miss are my Age of Armour Advanced lights where I include/exclude what could be lit by a particular light.

Yeah, AoA's 3DL stuff is awesome. I'm waiting for him to move over to Iray. And as I understand it, he's beginning to come around. (But I can't speak for him, and therefore cannot offer this as an absolute assurance that he'll make Iray products. I am ever hopeful.)

bobmale

BeeMKay

I started working with the Exposure and by extension Shutter Speed settings for the Render Environment. It's not exactly the best way to go about brightening a scene and tends to leave colours blown out if taken more than a little (at least so far). The Environment tab with the Environment Intensity and Environment Map numbers don't see to do anything visually.

I started checking out the thread you posted and realize I don't even know how to add an IRay shader to a plane. All I can find are the 3Delight shader sets I've picked up over the years.

FeralFey

Here's to hoping AoA does some.

FeralFey

bobmale - OK, I can help you with this. First go to your content folder (not smart content) and navigate down to the Shader Presets and look for the Iray folder. Inside ther Iray folder you should see a Daz Uber folder. This is the magic pot of gold.

You can apply the Iray shaders to anything, not just a plane. (Tip - when adding an Iray shader to something that already has a texture map, remember to click on the shader + the ctrl button. This will bring up a pop up screen. Select "Ignore" and click accept. Leaving it "as is" or selecting "Replace" will get rid of the texure map information.) (Tip/Reminder - when applying these or any other shader, please remember to select both the model (in the viewport or in the scene tab) and the surface you want to apply the shader to (in the shader tab), otherwise the shader will not apply.)

In your situation, you'll want the Emissive shader (about the 10th shader down in the list). Since you're applying it to a primitive plane, you don't need to do the click + ctrl trick. The slider dials in the surface tab that you'll be interested in playing with are the "Luminance" and the "Luminance Units". I would suggest you switch from the default cd/m^2 to either kdmr or cd/cm^2 luminance units, as I find they give better results. Oh, and keep in mind that you might have to experiment with the luminance number. Keeping it on the cd/m^2 will require you to crank up the number, but if you switch it to cd/cm^2, you'll want to back it down. It's a matter of experimenting and see what looks best for what you're trying to light. :)

Hope this helps.

bobmale

Thanks, FeralFey. I found it under: Daz Studio Formats -> Daz Connect -> Shader Presets -> Iray -> Daz Uber

I have a lot of legacy folders from previous builds to confuse the issue. I was also quite surprised to find it under Daz Connect.

This has been a great help. The other shaders in there are nice to have too and covering some of the other issues I have switching scenes to Iray. For an example of mixing things up to get by, I turned a velvet texture on a clothing item into a paint texture not too long ago to get it to render right.