Hello all,
I am a newbie when it comes to this type of program, but am very interested in it, so I downloaded the 14 day trial for the Pro V14 (which I want to buy the full program). However, I am not getting the same graphics results as what you see either on the website (especially by Cadsoft/Jack) or even the gallery of pictures. I have just started with the building process, so haven't had the time to add lights and all the windows. Do all the lights and windows effect the overall quality of graphics display? I know my video card and computer specs are sufficient. The renders I get seem to be like something stuck out of the late 90s quality. I am not getting patterns in the floors or table- just looks like a clipart picture with no depth or tone to the color- just flat? Another quick thing: Also there seems to be no texture to the surfaces? It looks very simplistic. For instance- the contrete floors I have are supposed to have block type (larger tile type squares) but don't show up at all? Or I am using steel for the railings and table legs and chairs but it just looks gray and not shiny etc. Is the trial's graphics rendering capability lessened compared to the full version? Thanks for your help! Please excuse my ignorance as I am sure there are many with this program!
Matt
Hi Matt! Welcome to the group, first the trial program is the same as full version the only different is that you have not bought it yet and it expired after 30 days if you not buy it.
If you have a graphic program that can convert bmp to png can you upload an example what you done, it will be easier to see what you done.
But I have some questions to you: Do you use Basic or Advanced rendering?
Have you have you set your Rendering options?
I use self this setup:
Global settings: Time 12.00
Radiosity Options.
Quality level: 5 / Number of steps; 1500/ Image Brightness: Depends of object -1 to + 1 / Enable Daylight: For best result I make 2 images of same object one with Daylight and one without daylight then I render inside / Clear sky or overcast /
Ray tracing Options Anti-aliasing 4. You can even change the properties for the material to get better results.
Robert
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T
Hey Robert! Thanks for responding! Yes I do use the advanced rendering- I have played with the settings and gotten some fairly good results; however, the picture that you'll see is no where near the quality of what jack zimmer posted on the website or what the cadsoft picture was (I wasn't sure if those could actually be obtained with this program or if additional programs/upgrades were needed?). Also, I was a little disappointed in catalog resources (are there additional catalogs we can download?). Also, there seems to be some problems (some that I have read about) that I wasn't sure if they have a patch for yet. For instance the problem with hardware acceleration and the rendering. When I render at all with it- the program crashes. When you said change the properties of the material, were you meaning the material such as fabric or walls (such as changing it from dry wall to something more light reflective such as tile or a more glossy surface?) The picture that you see is on the highest quality settings: which looks fairly good quality but as you know, no where near Jacks/cadsofts pictures. Is there a way to achieve that quality in this program-just secrets that I don't know about. I noticed there are patches: what do those take care of and are they difficult to assimilate into the program? Thanks for all your help! (Great pictures and design for yourself!).
Hi Matt,
Rest assured that the trial version is the full version as used by Jack, Robert and everyone else. Most simply download the trail then activate it when purchased. Nothing changes in the program on activation and there are no add-ins involved. The patches available fix some minor things but do not have any effect on the rendering and in fact your download probably includes the latest patch anyway (Version ends with 662). If yours is 637 then apply the appropriate patch.
Hardware Acceleration is very much PC and video driver combination specific, so some will have the probelm but most wont. As far as I understand it, and I am no expert with computers, TFP uses the accelleration more for moving around the object rather than doing the render, so if you have to turn it off for rendering, it should make little difference. With a previous PC I had to turn it off the render and there were no issues, but all three PCs since then have been fine.
There are some extra catalogue items (See the top item in this 'Looking for Help' section of the forum) but frankly I did not find any that were much use to me. You can find 3DS and SKP items on the internet, many free, many a fortune and many that are very large an can potentially chope TFP and your computer so care is needed with those. In over 10 years of daily use of the program I have only ever inported one or two items as I find that you can make almost anything you need within the program. Just because something is called a wall, ceiling or floor for example does not mean they cant be put together to form a piece of furniture. Export and import straight away and it become an object in its own right. I am currently putting together a tutorial on building objects within the program and hope to get if finished soon.
It would probably help to read some of the posts dealing with Advanced Rendering (use the Search) and especially the one at the top of the Tips and Tricks. There are a few specifics however I will include here now, to try to summarise the main things.
First, there is a problem trying to get a balance between interior lights and outside 'daylight'. If the sun shines into a room, and you have the camera inside, the brightness of the sun in effect turns the interior lights off. If you do not need the suns rays showing, then turn daylight off. It will speed rendering and make the interior lights work properly, with a wattage approximating reality. The camera works like an automatic exposure real camera not like our eyes that adjust the brightness better so the rest of the room is not dark. If the background image or sky is visible through a window it will render OK as it is not affected by the sun. There are tricks it get the sun showing too if you need to.
Another thing that will affect the resulting image is the surface of the textures used. If the surface is shiny the effects can be effective but sometimes they need to be toned down. If you double click a texture many other properties are opened up. You have total control over the shinniness, transparency, emmissive factor (glow) etc, as well as scale, angle, position on the object etc. (One of the lighting images below shows how to change theses settings - works for any object). These are the properties that Robert would have been referring to, not the type of wall. It is the properties of texture itself that is used on the surface that has the effect on the image render.
Personally I think your image has come out very well. The reflection of the tiles seems to make it a little confusing to someone who has not seen exactly what you have in the model and maybe the light over the shower area is a bit bright but apart from that I think it is very good. What part about it were you disappoined with?
Rendering is very much affected by the lights, obviously (!!!), but they are VERY adjustable. You can change the wattage, type of light (incandescant, flouro, MV etc), colour and you can add extra 'globes' to the same fitting. This means you can have a light at the ceiling, but can have an invisible globe down near the floor also if you want, to add extra light where it is needed. In the meeting hall image below there is only one 'bulb' in each light but it has been lowered so that it sits midway between the ceiling and floor. When it was in the usual place there was a glow of light on the ceiling which you would not get with recessed flouros. The other images show some of the lighting settings. These are somewhere else on the forum already but some time ago so will put them here again.
Getting a good render does require a bit of experimenting to get the desired result but they are certainly achievable as Jack's, Robert's and many other users images show. Keep experimenting and ask about specifics as they come up, with an image as it says 'a thousand words'. By the way, in Setting/ Program Settings/ Rendering you can set the type of image that TFP produces. By default it saves as a BMP which are too big for general use on the forum, but if you set it to JPG it will produce a compressed image that is ideal. It is easier, and smaller than changing it to PNG.
If you have questions about the results you get just ask and you will find someone will come up with some suggestions to cover it.
Allan
Hi Matt,
In these post, you will find additional info regarding videocards, accelerations and the graphic programs behaviour
http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1026.msg4925.html#msg4925
http://forums.turbofloorplan.com/index.php/topic,1026.msg4927.html#msg4927
Pat
Thank you guys for all your help! It helps make it a lot more fun! I am excited to see how to make certain pieces of furniture with just the equipment in this program Allan--that should be interesting!!
Matt