Topic: More Interior Scenes with Artificial Lighting!

[cbcarch]

Attention all Lumion artists:

Please post some interior scenes with artificial lighting ( better if NO daylighting is used )
so we can see the new lighting in action.

The reason for the request is show we can show our management and other project stakeholders
good examples of how Lumion can be used in interior scenes with artificial lighting, both as a design/iteration tool, and for presentations to clients.

Thanks in advance! 

[Morten]

Here's a raw test rendering from Lumion (all lights, materials and models are from Lumion - the wall and floor meshes were imported from SketchUp).

[cbcarch]

Here's a raw test rendering from Lumion (all lights, materials and models are from Lumion - the wall and floor meshes were imported from SketchUp).

Thanks! Looks good. keep 'em coming!

[yak]

Placing Lights in Lumion is not the same as throwing a few plants or people into the landscape. Lumion does not have any tools to accurately and precisely place lights. 

Under a valance ?
In a table lamp ?
In a recesses cove around the perimeter of a ceiling?
Florescent task lighting such as in a warehouse ?
etc. etc.

Currently its more practical to have another program do that, such a Sketchup. SketchUp users already have a variety of add on programs to choose from that use SketchUp to do the actual placement. There are also many Lighting programs to choose from such as Vray that use SketchUp as its IES placement tool. There is no need really for Lumion to add its own IES lights, in my opinion. Whats really needed is a cross platform approach that's capable of reading the IES light data. After all IES lights are a standard that the lighting industry established. All that's needed is to get everyone on board to use the standard, where all users can simply use the existing data. After all were it not for existing model export standards such as DWG, DXF, 3DS, FBX, OBJ, DAE, ........Lumion would not exist today.

For this reason I will continue to rely on SketchUp and Vray for interior presentation pics.

[cbcarch]

Yes, placing lights in Lumion seems a bit "arbitrary"--as is placing any geometry which needs to be very accurately placed. Coming from other software such as Revit, we are accustomed to modeling the lights (placing families) and snapping them very precisely to exact positions.

The problem is that Lumion is a "scene" software, into which you place your accurately modeled building which is produced in Revit or _________ (fill in your 3d app).

So--because lights from Revit or other apps do not work in Lumion, we must use Lumion lights
so the program will work as intended.

What would be very beneficial is a script or plug-in which would import the lights from the native 3d app, and CONVERT the light source to a Lumion light, and give the user a choice of which type it gets converted to.

The same goes for Materials. A script that would convert Mental Ray or Vray materials to Lumion materials, with a prompt allowing the user to select individually or perhaps a "mapping" feature which lists the imported materials in one column, and the Lumion materials in another column. The user sets the "mapping" up once, and then all materials are converted.

A Change Management System is also needed--bi-directional linking, as in 3dsMax with Linking FBX files. This allows changes made in the native 3d app to be automatically updated upon "reload" of the Link.

[arch_bd]

here you have a quick model, just testing interior lights
regards

[newman]

I think request of importing IES light  in L. is a dream only - that could put an end of real time rendering that is main value of Lumion. And now with primitive Lumion lights when i set in a scene about 20 lights, fps drops from 20 to 3 with GTX 560 Ti on a board. IMHO Lumion needs in more flexible light adjustments. Icons of menu are obscure. You can only guess what types of light are in light menu. To select necessary type you must try several times. And what is more - all of them are the same type of light with some pre-setted parameters, but all of that must be opened for user manipulating and tuning. And Achilles' heel of Lumion -  very coarse adjustment of placement items including point of light, target angle and so on. It seems to me that it is not a result of programming problems but position of authors in the interface field, where they search their own original way that simplify dialogue as they mistakenly trust. OK, to push button and drop into scene some unknown light is simple but then you spend long long time in attempts to suit light atmosphere to forethought view.

[cmeed]

Some very valid points here. My own addition to this discussion comes from a 'Television Set designer' point of view. Placing lights is unbelievably cumbersome. Contrary to someones view above I would like to put all my lights into my scene using Lumion, as i don't know what I want until I see what looks good. I will mainly not be using the sky and the 'outside world' for light, for me I design for a studio.
I would love an easier way to place lights, generally everyone can get the lights into the area they need. So a way of 'nudging' them using the arrow keys to finesse there placement could work. I know that in UDK they use a grid or unit to nudge along,  4 6 8 units. something like that not entirely sure. or just lock an axis - like in sketchup
Fundamentally using Lumion's interface is initially easy. things are laid out easy enough to remember and use, but as you come to know it more you find that 'ergonomic' feel quickly disappears as you just want a shortcut. - i want to move a light then change its power then move it again -  all becomes movement after movement for the cursor. shortcuts for everything. I had never touched a 3d program before sketchup 5years ago but within a very short space of time i had all my own shortcuts, suddenly it came alive.
Since starting to evaluate Lumion I've found the experience very rewarding and production quality and speed has gone up greatly despite, what seem, disparaging comments above.
Please Keep up the good work..... and make things reflect
to keep me on topic heres my contribution to this discussion - artificial lighting - TV Set - Show 'The Buzzer'

[Morten]

Placing Lights in Lumion is not the same as throwing a few plants or people into the landscape. Lumion does not have any tools to accurately and precisely place lights.  

Yes, placing lights in Lumion seems a bit "arbitrary"--as is placing any geometry which needs to be very accurately placed.

And Achilles' heel of Lumion -  very coarse adjustment of placement items.

Hi yak, newman and charch, just double-checking but are you guys using Lumion 2.1 Build 3?

Position type-in has been available for a while now (Granted, rotation type-in is not yet supported).

You can also move lights horizontally with snapping turned off, by pressing the Shift key while you move the light(s).

[Morten]

And now with primitive Lumion lights when i set in a scene about 20 lights, fps drops from 20 to 3 with GTX 560 Ti on a board.

Actually, the IES lights in Lumion are not that primitive. Sure, the IES lights are capped at 180 degrees and asymmetrical IES profiles are currently not supported. But as far as I know, most real-time 3D engines don't have IES lights at all, so I'd be grateful if you could post some links to other real-time 3D engines that have implemented more advanced IES lights?

Regarding performance, if Shadow cache is off it means that it is a fully dynamic light which is updated every frame. To prevent the frame rate from dropping, you either need to select all lights and turn Shadow cache on (eg, 512x512 pixels for each light), or you should press F8 to turn shadow textures off.

Icons of menu are obscure. You can only guess what types of light are in light menu. To select necessary type you must try several times.

This has already been discussed a number of times. Remko has previously mentioned that he would consider adding an object replacement function, so that you can replace any number of selected objects with another object, and that would include lights.

[BMcIsaac]

This has already been discussed a number of times.

Not many software vendors stick this close to their forum. I personally have never witnessed the growth of a product this close to the development team.
....and things actually get done.

I for one have the patience to wait for these things cause you have already shown you are good at sortng through the priorities and providing "just in time" new features.
Thanks Morten!...Thanks to all the team for getting the job done!

[yak]

IES profiles are currently not supported. But as far as I know, most real-time 3D engines don't have IES lights at all, so I'd be grateful if you could post some links to other real-time 3D engines that have implemented more advanced IES lights?

There is another tool required to light scenes apart from IES lights. There are only 2 IES lights in this scene. Lightplanes provide all the other sources of light. Lightplanes provide highlight and ambiance and help the designer draw the viewer into the presentation.

[Morten]

Lightplanes provide highlight and ambiance and help the designer draw the viewer into the presentation.

Hi yak, have you got a link to a page that explains this functionality in more details?

[yak]

I should have underlined the word lightplanes  as opposed to the concentrated light fill sources, you refer to. Lightplanes would provide an even light source over the entire surface of the lightplane, .....and in future releases I hope these lights don't leak out under wall and floor intersections. 

[Morten]

Lightplanes would provide an even light source over the entire surface of the lightplane

Ah, I see what you mean now: Area lights vs Point lights.

and in future releases I hope these lights don't leak out under wall and floor intersections.  

Adjust the Shadow Slope Offset slider in Weather -> Lighting to prevent this from happening.