SUN needs extra settings for Rendering

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

Hi guys,
The sun is a great tool, but it needs two settings to up the game in rendering.
1 - light intensity multiplier
2 - shadow hardness
3 - shadow intensity

See how hard it is here. OpenGL actually looks smoother due to this:

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I often want to set the sun accurately for the site and but when rendering the shadows are too hard on the edges to look right, and that causes hard contrasts that draws attention to the shadows instead of the objects in the scene.
(Landscape photography is better on slightly overcast days due to this)

I often want to indicate the shadow with out drowning elements in the darkness of it. So to be able to control the shadow intensity would be great. And if I try to light up the shadows with another light then everything can get over exposed since there is no exposure settings for the camera, nor for the sun. So please add that to the sun. (And to the camera :wink: )

Cheers!

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2

Hi Jorgen - it seems to me there was a time when RDK Sun had some ‘cloudiness’ control… maybe early on, in the V4 rdk. Cloudiness is kind of the thing you need, right? More diffuse light, and less of it?

-Pascal

3

For Raytraced that is internally called smooth. Back in the day I apparently wasn’t smart enough to do a secret smooth tweaker advanced setting (like the sun strength factor).

I may be able to add something like that in v6, but no promises since I’m focused on v7 now mostly. It’d be awkward to set, but possible.

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4

@nathanletwory - shall I make a YT for this?

-Pascal

5

I think there already is somewhere: https://mcneel.myjetbrains.com/youtrack/issue/RH-39151

6

No joking here, shouldn’t it also have an Air Quality Index (AQI) setting. If architects want to explore what their building will look like in a real setting (and see if the building details can even be seen at all) this is the rendering setting that matters the most IMO.

G

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7

I suppose one could eventually simulate something like AQI using a volumetric texture to control light absorption.

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8

That would be great, and for V7 please bump it up so it becomes part of the UI so it affects OpenGL too :slight_smile: (And if you just add it to V7 then that is fine too, I guess it is nearing production ready soon)

And while we are at it… a Kelvin override too for the manual override section :slight_smile:
The automatic one is great, but sometimes it is nice to exaggerate the warmness of the sunlight (or coolness for winter illustrations)

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