"Semi-hip" roof

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Bent,

So glad that we found the problem!  Fraustrating when things like that happen for no apparent reason and tricky sometimes to diagnose the problem.

The render has come out really well and an interesting design too. Are you planning to landscape the foreground? If would be nice to see it if you do.

Re the fact that the version was so old - You said you downloaded the trail first, then switched when you received the CD. Did you install the CD version?  In other words the CD you were supplied was the 624 version - is that right?  I just want to clarify that so that I can alert IMSI to the fact that these old version are still being distributed apparently. Hopefully it is just an isolated one that has 'slipped through the cracks'.  There were a number of different issues with that first release. Most were quite minor but there was one major one that thankfully was in a little used part of the program so most did not come across it before the patch was released only a week or so later.

Allan

[bentliv]

Hi Allan
Yes, that's correct. I installed the received CD, so that was clearly the old 624-version. But everything is now working, so I'm happy. But if you want to alert IMSI about old versions being sent out, this was clearly the case with the one I got.

Bent

[Allan Chesney]

Thanks Bent for the confirmation. Actually a new version is probably not far away, as Envisioneer (parent program) had an update a couple of months back and TFP usually follows shortly after, but I will let them know anyway, just in case yours was not an isolated incident.

All the best with your project.

Allan

[Robert W - "robban"]

Hi Bent
Great result even it was little difficult to get ther! Hope you put your image in the gallry in thes forum

Happy Estern to you all

Robert

[bentliv]

Robert/Allan
Yes, I can put the final result in the gallery when finished. But before that, another slight rendering problem, that I'm sure you came across already:

The attached image is a rendered view seen from inside of the new construction on the terrace. As you can see, the ceiling is all black. I suspect this is the same bug as makes the walls go black if not made all outside surfaces. This consruction has no inner ceiling, only the back side of the roof. I suppose that I could come around this by adding a ceiling, but I don't really want a flat ceiling, I want the full height of the roof. I have a feeling that you might have come across this one before..

Looking forward to your comments.

Thanks again

Bent

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Bent,

It may be a similar problem to the walls issue but there are a number of things you can do and a number of questions.

First: What quality setting did you use? Ceilings will sometimes be black if they do not get enough light and the lower quality settings sometimes terminate the radiosity phase early. If not done on quality 5, I would try that first! You may not have to do any of the things below if that is all it is.
 
If that does not solve the problem then some other things may:

1.  I presume you have already set the roof Underside to white if that is what you want? (it defaults to darkish timber which is what it appears to be)

2.   You can still put a ceiling in - it does not have to be flat.  Just set the ceiling type to Cathedral and set the slope to the same as your roof. This MAY however still render black as the ceiling expects artificial light. Actually you can see there is not a ceiling as there is light reflecting over the top of the wall as it is allowing for the thickness of the roof. The eaves (soffit) is also hanging in mid air too, so it really does need a ceiling.

3.   You could try additional artificial lights in that area to throw light on it but they would have to be VERY bright to light it up in daylight. The fittings themseves can be hidden if you do not want them to show, by making them very small or changing the light fitting textures to transparent.

HOWEVER,

4.   If your image is actually rendered from 'inside', as your latest image could be, you should not get a black wall or ceiling problem. The question is, are you inside or out? in other words, is there an invisible wall (Room Divider) across the outer edge, or is the balcony area just extended roof, so we really are outside? Hope you can follow what I am saying - the render will vary if the camera is 'inside', behind walls or enclosed by an invisible wall. You could experiment (on a copy!!) and enclose the area on the outside back to the walls with the Room Divide tool. If you do this it will convert exterior surfaces of affected walls to interior, so you would have to set the 'left (or right) Interior side' of the walls to your exterior surface.  With this area 'enclosed' as a room the rendering characteristis will be for interior which will remove the black wall/ceiling issues but you will then have other challenges getting a balance between daylight and artificial lights.

There are some other issues, possibilties, but I needs some comments on the above first (especially 4).

It is looking really good - the window in the end wall especially is very effective.

Allan