Topic: Sun settings in 2.5 versus SP2 version of Lumion

[st_george]

I used to experiment today with sun and cloud setting in Lumion 2.5.
When I saw all those sun options in 2.5, I got pretty scared
But after a couple of minutes, it was clear that dragging the sliders left to right and editing sun and cloud options enables easy tuning. Although I still like the more simpler type that was present in SP2.

But the main reason why I opened this topic is I could not change the way my sun "looks". I wanted to set it as a sort of a star shape, with those sun legs around it, like this:



But for some reason I could not achieve that in version 2.5.
Neither do sun made that nice effect when it's been half "hidden" behind an object or a mountain:



Is there some option I am missing that deals with this shape of the sun in 2.5?
Apart from the fact that "Suns list" (Sun types available after clicking on "Presets") option was removed. It was a great feature in SP2.

Thank you for the reply.

[Derekw]

Hi St George. Try 'Lens Flare' in Special Effects.
Good luck.

[peterm]

You can also do it in Build, set suitable values in Camera settings for Sun Glare Streaks and Bloom making sure the Threshold is high enough.

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[st_george]

Thank you for the reply, both of you.

@peterm:
My camera settings are more or less the same like yours. The problem is that when the sun is very low, I can not get that star shaped sun, with those sun legs. Take a look:

Camera settings:




Rendering:



What's wrong? I set all three types of clouds to 0.
The closest the value of "Sun brightness" is to 0, the more I see the sun, but in the same time the sun starts to appear as a cold planet, not a shiny star:





@Derekw: Are those 'Lens Flare' in Special Effects, Movie effects?
If they are, than I can not use them.
My PC configuration is very poor, graphic card is even bellow the requested Lumion minimum, so the only thing I can do is rendering Photos (and only in Email resolution), I can not edit anything in Movies section.
This is my configuration:
ASUS EAH4670/DI/512M.
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1800MHz
motherboard MSI P4M890M3-V (MS-7255)
2x1GB DDR2 266 Mhz

And - yes, I know that I need a better PC in order to use Lumion, but maybe in another universe, when the salaries will be around 10 times larger.

[peterm]

Your Glare Threshold still does not seem high enough, ramp it up to the max then take it down from there and see how you get on, and drop the Bloom down a bit as it smoothes out the flare effect.

Note also: what's your Lumion Settings for Editor Quality?  Would need to be 3 or 4 Star for high to highest to see reasonable flares and bloom etc.

Lighting was changed AFAIK from v1 to v2 so there is expected to be some differences, but you should still be able to get Flares.

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Facebook: LumionNZ
Web: Lumion NZ

[st_george]

Thank you peterm!!
That worked!!
My Settings->Editor quality was set to 3, not 4 stars. And I increased the Glare Threshold and edited all other options in the Camera menu, based on your settings in your last post, and it worked!
I owe you a beer for this!

Just one small thing:
I know I am starting to be annoying with this "but in SP2 it was like this" thing, but I noticed that there is a difference in shape of the landscape between the Build mode, and final render image in version 2.5.
I pasted two images (one is the screenshot from the Build mode, the other is a final rendered image) one above other, and I lowered the opacity of the rendered one so that difference between them can be seen better. Do you see how different the shape of the landscape is?
Why is that?
My Editor quality is set to 4 stars, and I am not running in "Low memory compatibiliy"

[Morten]

In Build mode, the terrain is culled to ensure reasonable framerates. However, you can turn off culling by sacrificing performance:

(F7): See the Terrain without automatic culling at the maximum level of detail.

There are more tips like this one in the Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts thread:
http://lumion3d.com/forum/f-a-q/lumion-2-tips-tricks-and-shortcuts/

[st_george]

Thank you Morten.