object light

[Marco Tomaselli]

hi..

i don´t know how to objects working like a light...and i see this in other place...anybody know?

sorry,my english is bad...if you don´t understand...say it for me.

thanks

[mymental]

Marco I believe you are talking about Final Gathering.
You can start by taking a look at all the tutorials we have under the final Gathering section.

http://www.mymentalray.com/mymr_tutorials/tutorials.htm


Enjoy :)

[Cracadoo]

I think that Marco Tomaselli wanted to ask how to make a object that glows, anyway i know i want to ask that :). You know, object that glows like neon tube. By that, I don't mean simple self illumination, but to make object that emit light, and possibly have glow similar to the glow effect in 3ds max.
Best regards

[JeffPatton]

If the question is about a glowing object, then you can use the glare camera shader, or add a glow in post.

Example glow scenes (and many others)can be downloaded here:
Max7 files: http://jeffpatton.net/Max7/index.html
Max6 files: http://jeffpatton.net/Max6/index.html

If the question is about true object lights (meshes that can emit light & photons), then the only solution I know of is the ctrl_geolight. More Max specific info here:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=104578&page=214&pp=15
as a side note, it seems to work a bit better in Max9 now. Although I'm picking up some shadow artifacts from my object lights...at least it seems to reliably render in Max now.

Jeff

[Cracadoo]

http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/6757/errorav5.th.jpg (http://img458.imageshack.us/my.php?image=errorav5.jpg)
That dosent seems to work.
Thanks for effort, Jeff... You are THE JEFF PATTON ?!? OMFG!!!
I guess that it's been expected from you to come on this forum. You should know that your scenes/tutorials have been mutch help for me, and for anyone else that wanted to learn, or at leest uderstand MR. In the name of all MR noobs, thanks for making it.
Best regards

[JeffPatton]

Hey man, thanks for the kind words. Always good to hear those files have helped someone learn the mental beast. :D

As far as the geoshader goes, make sure you download the correct version. If you just pulled the file from that original info, keep in mind that's old information and you'll need to make sure you have the most up to date versions of those files for Max9.

(tip) I'd always run by maxplugins.de and download the files from there since they do an outstanding job of keeping up to date files.

Check the bottom of this page for a link to the updated geo shader:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=104578&page=236&pp=15

Cheers!

[tragicanimation]

For the glow effect in MR you can just use PartiVolume although it is fairly render intensive. If it proves unusable because of render time you can use the Glow(lume) shader instead.

[shikuku]

is there any tips or detail guide in controlling adjustment of all numerical values in the geoshader properties to achieve certain effects?

[Cracadoo]

Thanks again, now I'll see if it works. :wave:
edit: Wow, it works just fine. I had some weird stuff going on with glowing object (black polygons), but i have raised self illumination, so now i have it working. Thanks a lot!!!
Here is the test image
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/6919/geomshaderny8.jpg

[F3LIC3]

Hi Cracadoo!
Can you post your scene with the geolitght, or a small explanation, because I would like to see the setup.
I can't get it to work correct...
It would be really nice!

[Cracadoo]

Np, F3LIC3
I assume that you have downloaded files necessary. Links are in the posts above.
Here is the file.
Bye

[JeffPatton]

In my tests there seems to be an issue with using more than one mesh as a light source. It's not a huge issue since I can combine the meshes into one object...but if I wanted to have multiple animated geolights, that may be an issue. Anyone else find that it quits working if you have more than one mesh object?

Here's an example using the infamous "Howard B" room..:)
http://jeffpatton.net/Temp/Obj-light2.jpg

Jeff

[shikuku]

Wow~ A sample guide like this is definitely usefull~ Thanx to Jeff and all

[frun2]

Cool, great example and Shaders, thanks Jeff and all.

cheers

[Cracadoo]

It seems like I dont have problem with two glowing geometry object's. Maybe it's becouse of simplicity of the scene, i dont know. Anyway, here is the image. I've just added teapot in geolight parametars instance tab, and it have worked fine. FG is set to draft, diffuse bounces set to 3, logaritmic exposure control brightness is set to 65, contrast to 70, Phisycal scale default 1500. It looks like everything is working fine.
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4918/geomshader2objectsew0.jpg

[JeffPatton]

To me, that looks like FG only is working and not the actual object lights. I may be wrong, but it just fades to black too quickly. It should have a soft falloff if it's actually using your meshes as area lights.

So turn off FG and see if it still illuminates the scene (it should), if not, then it's not working properly.

[hot chip]

@jeffpatton:

where can i download the geolight shader. The crtl_objectlight shader ist not the same as the goe_light from your example.

[JeffPatton]

Since my older files seemed to work, I just used them again instead of checking maxplugins.de for newer versions. I've attached the files I'm using to this reply.

[hot chip]

@jeffpatton: thank you :)

i have a little problem, my geolight-objekt is not an the same position as my mesh-objekt. Why !?

[JeffPatton]

I'm not sure, I just noticed the same thing in a scene for the first time. Didn't happen in my previous tests! Maybe it's time for me to try the updated ctrl shaders.

[hot chip]

i have found the little bug of light position. First i make the light and mesh-objekt and at last i must create the geo-shader objekt in the center of my mesh-object. This workflow works! i hope it can understand my brocken english. :)

[JeffPatton]

Ahhh, that would explain why it worked for me in my previous tests. The geo-shader object was the last thing I added to those scenes.

Thanks for the tip.

[mustan9]

How does the MrGeomLightShader plug-in work?

Is there a tutorial for it somewhere.

[frun2]

Hello!!!

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=104578&page=214&pp=15

If you look the Post number: #3210, you will have a tutorial how work this plugin.

:p

Carlos Calvo, Artist
www.tragnarion.com

[Marco Tomaselli]

wow....thank you all...

its good to know....i will test...

thanks

[gringer]

Hi,

I've followed the steps from Jeff as listed on the CGtalk forums about setting up the geo light. I'm pretty darn sure I did everything right... the thing is, I can't get it to work... period. No matter how many renders I try. It seems to always be illuminating the scene from location of the omni only.

Q. Does everything in the scene need to have a material on it for this to work at all?

Cheers :D

[shikuku]

why had no one mention about the available glow(lume) shader?

[thengineer]

I think because the glow (lume) shader doesn't really emit light/photons.

[Creator]

And yah the geolight doesn't take the color of the mesh.

[SreckoM]

Well it just won't work for me, is there any way I could render visible lights in Mental Ray and Max???

[mmikee]

Well it just won't work for me, is there any way I could render visible lights in Mental Ray and Max???

Check the "show in renderer" check box for the mental ray area
lights.

[junz]

i have found a bug when using 3ds max 9 sp2 with geolight it's dosen't work with logarithmic or mia_exposure simple
here are my test scene it's work fine with exposure

[hot chip]

hi

i have a worklfow. Take off the max logarithmic controll and use the "shader list" shader from Max in to the camera lens slot. Then added the mia_exposure_simple and now my trick. Added the distortion Shader from Lume and "pins cushion"= off, "barrel"=off and "amount"=1.


mfg
hot chip

[junz]

thx for the info hot chip.. it works
but i found some bug again..

Bug when using geo light than in the scene have similar object like teapot01, teapot02,.. or other object on the scene make sure u create the teapot01and ground palne first and apply geo shader to it.. it's work good and work with exposure ctrl too (make the geo object first and apply the instance);
but if u cerate other teapot or other object on the scene than apply the goeshader it's will light up the geo in other place randomly and it's dosen't work with exposure ctrl

bug some case objpresent check work some case not use it when u get atifact in the source of geo light

here is my mi,dll, and dlo

[fco3d]

I can't make it work with Win xp64 and max9, there is any code update??
thanks in advance

[rezviktor]

There is a big problem with the geolight: it doesn't emit photons! The photons always come from the original light, not from the mesh, no matter in what order I set up the scene. By the way, there's a similar problem with mr area lights in max, the photons only come from the center of the light... Maybe the two issues have something in common. Anyone has any ideas to solve these?