Topic: Video and Still Creation Issue

[andy_blake31]

Hello - my students have been trying to create stills and video and we keep getting distorted darkened images. We have Lumion 5 on the lowest settings and it works well when they are creating simple terrains. Is it a spec issue with the MACS we are using? Our MACS are of a low  spec with a rating 3240 (speed measurement) from Lumion. Are there any other settings I can change?

Thanks

Andrew Blake

[peterm]

Hi Andrew

Are you referring to Editor Resolution or Editor Quality settings, or settings for the output of Photos and movies?

Rendering of Photos will give the highest quality for the chosen resolution.  Movie quality will depend on the 5 Stars of quality chosen.

In either case you should not get distortions or darkened images unless certain effects have been used.

1.  What are the specifications of the GPU in the Macs?
2.  Are you running Bootcamp?

Please attach to a post a screencapture of:
1.  The Benchmark
2.  A DXDiag Report.

[andy_blake31]

Hello - we have the software in both MAC with Boot camp and on windows devices - comparing which platform runs the best and we get the same problem on both.

Editor Resolution is set at 1 star and Editor Quality we set at auto or 25% to test - and we get the same distorted imagery for video and stills.

The CPU for both is :-

Windows - Intel Core is i5-4590 CPU @ 3.30 GHz, there is 4.00 GB or RAM
MAC - 2.7 GHz CORE i5, memory is 8Gb 1600 MHz DDR3

More to follow soon.

Thanks

[Morten]

Hi Andrew,

Editor Resolution is set at 1 star and Editor Quality we set at auto or 25% to test - and we get the same distorted imagery for video and stills.

The Editor Resolution and Editor Quality settings do not affect video and still rendering.

The CPU for both is :-

Windows - Intel Core is i5-4590 CPU @ 3.30 GHz, there is 4.00 GB or RAM
MAC - 2.7 GHz CORE i5, memory is 8Gb 1600 MHz DDR3

The GPU means "graphics processing unit" and refers to the graphics card (The CPU is less important for Lumion). What Peter wanted to know is which graphics card the PCs and Macs are equipped with.

The problem you reported seems to indicate that the graphics cards are not meeting the minimum requirements for running Lumion. I would recommend reading this post so you can check for yourself if the hardware (in particular the graphics cards) are suitable for running Lumion.

[andy_blake31]

Hello - thanks for the comment - this is what I actually thought maybe the case - can I just confirm that even though a GPU can allow a user to interact quite freely with a scene, add objects and navigate around etc it may fail on creating stills and video. Getting GPU data now.

[Morten]

Hi Andrew, the symptoms you describe in the docx files are almost always a result of too slow/unsuitable graphics cards.

You can verify this by following the link I provided above.

[peterm]

Hi Andrew

Can you also provide the Benchmark and DXDiag Report.

[andy_blake31]

Hello - how do I pull these off please?

Thanks

Andrew

[andy_blake31]

I think you mean the rating against my Graphics card. Correct

[Morten]

Hi Andrew, click on the Files button in the lower right corner.

At the bottom of the next screen, you should see your system speed.

Click on it.

This will bring up the benchmark screen.

Take a screenshot of this screen and attach it to your next reply.

Then click on the Run DXDiag button, wait for up to a minute, and then attach the dxdiag_Lumion.txt file that appears in the folder to your next reply.

[andy_blake31]

Hello - here is the required info for the windows 8 desktop. I am trying to get the Mac data now - but I think the results should be approximately the same.  The values are low so I think it is as suggested the GPU is not sufficient to create the stills and video.

Mac info to follow I hope.
(Installed using bootcamp)
Thanks

Andrew

[peterm]

Hi Andrew

Thanks for that information. 

Those reports indicate that the Windows PC does not have a dedicated graphics card.  That is, a separate card that runs the graphics for the machine.  It appears to have only an Intel HD Graphics 4600, which is integrated graphics, and not supported by Lumion.   

Can you verify with your IT support on that, thanks.

The Dell OptiPlex 3020 can have a dedicated card, there is one PCI-16 slot available, but I do not see any indications in the DXDiag Report. 


Here's our general guide to hardware requirements:
1.  LUMION 5: Minimum hardware requirements. (same for prior versions)

2.  Lumion Web Site: Specifications.

3.  Passmark: Videocard Benchmarks.


For the Macs, just run the same reports - Benchmark and DXDiag from Lumion installed on one of the Macs.

[andy_blake31]

Hello - I will have the mac results tomorrow morning, a question I have then is why Lumion can produce 3d terrains with lakes etc that my students can navigate through but cannot create stills/video - I assume a still/video requires a lot more graphical processing power than generating the 3d terrain. (My students are asking the same question at the moment, and advice offered on this will be appreciated)

Thanks

Andrew

[Morten]

I assume a still/video requires a lot more graphical processing power than generating the 3d terrain.

Hi Andrew, your assumption is correct.

[peterm]

We sometimes find that members are able to run Lumion without a dedicated graphics card, but this is always on an intermittent basis.  It might be only for a few sessions, is never full quality, usually it's noticed immediately with patterns across the screen, and, through to Lumion not running at all. 

The display in Build Mode which you have been mainly using, is specifically done to allow scenes to run in real-time on the PC.  So it reduces the graphics demands by cutting back on a range of display items in order to allow the scene to be viewed, navigated and worked on.  When scenes are rendered from Photo or Movie Mode, much higher quality and final graphics results are done, which requires much more processing and performance from the GPU (where most of the work is done).  Other 3D software (for example SketchUp, Blender) may use the CPU to do most of the processing, and some use a combination. 

Running Lumion with lower Editor settings can help also to run Lumion.  With the low settings you mentioned of 1 Star and 25% Resolution, there is much less graphics processing required in Build Mode.  For example, 1 Star Quality allows all of the scene to be viewed including Oceans, but does not include Water (it shows as a grey area) and has no shadows.

This may let the integrated card appear to work, sometimes for a scene or parts of a scene.  But invariably, as content is added to the scene, and (as you found) when renderings are required, then the integrated card just does not have the performance required to work with Lumion.  You may get strange image results as first posted, or Lumion will not appear to work correctly or even close down.  The newest integrated cards have better performance, but still no where near what Lumion requires, and what is available from dedicated cards.