Bouncy bouncy bouncy!

[portisgreg]

Hi all,

I'm just trying to get to grips with Mental Ray, I've been trying to light the interior of a room using only sunlight through some windows (fairly standard), but I'm struggling to figure out how to get the light to bounce further into the room so it creates more light in the darker areas.

I know i can just raise the brightness in the environment panel but that seems like cheating to me. ;)

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Greg

[Brian Bradley]

Hey Greg,

It would help a lot if you gave us an idea of how you have set your scene up and what Materials you are using? Also are you using GI or FG or both?

Regards
Bri

PS Don't forget to add which ver of Max/MR you are on

[portisgreg]

Thanks brill

just so ya know...

My Max capability = 5
my Materials = 2
my lighting = 1
my mental ray capability = -2
;)

thanks for your reply, sorry i should've said, i'm on max8 and whatever version of Mentalray that comes with.

I've got a bay window area with 3 free area photometric lights in each window (casting shadows), a very low level free area photometric light (not casting shadows) just behind the camera to give a bit of fill, and a direct spot outside for the sun (casting shadows).

Materials are all just standard, i havent got onto mr shaders yet I'm afraid. :(

I'm just using GI, final gather was making it all blotchy.

I can't insert the image for some reason but its looking a bit crap really. I havent finished all the materials yet, i wanted to do the lighting first but even so, its really dark and the oak on the doors has gone orange!? Its meant to show an interior design so it needs to be bright enough to do that.

[Brian Bradley]

Hey Greg,

Don't sweat the lack of MR knowledge, it all comes together
slowly but surely.

Just as a crazy experiment to see how much light it is
possible to get into the room, as you are using GI, crank
up the energy multiplier for your direct spot (in the 'mental
ray indirect illumination' rollout at the bottom of the lights
parameters. Give it some silly number and see if it blows
out your scene, which if light is getting into the room
properly, it should.

Regards
Bri

[portisgreg]

Ok, I've cranked up the Global Energy Multiplier to 500 from 2although i don't think this is light-specific, i assume this will affect all the lights in the scene? So I've also turned off all the other lights, just to see if light is coming in from outside and it definitely is, in fact it seems that most of the light is coming from the direct spotlight outside. Cranking up the Global energy Multiplier hasn't changed anything though, the scene looks the same to me.

Any ideas?

Greg

[Brian Bradley]

Hey Greg,

Wow, your scene should look like the Sun has gone Nova with
those settings!!!!!

Are you in a position to post up the scene and let me take a
look at it? Something is obviously a little scewy but asking
questions on a forum is a little like working in the dark (sorry:o )

If you cannot attach it in the forum send it as a zip file
to brian@mentalboutmax.com.

If you cannot share the scene then we could do with
being able to see some renders of what your getting.

Just so I am getting a clear picture, has turning the
multiplier up made no difference to the internal light levels??

Regards
Bri