I am using Viz4, and I am working on an architectural model of a school. I had the file just the way I wanted it a couple of weeks ago. We did some computer swapping in my office and now on this new machine (dual core blah blah blah) the file shows up pitch black. I tried rebuilding my daylight system, I am using advanced raytrace shadows (no mental ray on this version), and I even rebuilt the file by merging each piece individually into a new file. In the new file I can now see everything, but when I render with the same settings as last time ( I write all of my settings down that I change), but with some different colors on the roofing materials and decorative metal wall panels the lighting in the hole scene is darker. The brick is a completely different color along with some of the concrete curbs being shaded differently. I know this is sort of an amalgam of issues. I just wonder if some settings from the previous user of this pc might be affecting my settings or if I am just F.U.B.A.R.ed. I would appreciate any ideas. Please help!

have you checked the gamma settings? (customise/preferences/gamma)

is it a fresh install of viz?

dual xeon 5345 - gtx 570 - 4gb ram - vista business x64 - 3ds max design 2011 x64 - vray 2

I actually did find the gamma settings the other day, however it only seams to affect the onscreen display of the rendering and not the final output on paper.

What kind of exposure are you using with the daylight system?  Is this the same exposure you were using on your old PC when it worked?

Just for experimentation - could you disable your exposure settings and daylight system and just place some standard lights in the scene?  Does your scene look “normal” with the standard lights?

3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)

I am using Linear exposure, because it gave me the best quality shadows without losing the detail of my architectural materials that Logarithmic exposure smoothed out. I have my shadoe density at .35, anti-alias 2 pass w/ 1st pass at 2 2nd pass at 5, blur at 5, ray bias at 1, and jitter at .5. I just don’t see why with the same settings, and only a change in color on the roof, should affect the entire tonal quality of the render. The light even reacts differently, shadows and highlights are in different locations.

If you leave everything else as is and just change the roof back to how it was, does your scene look correct?  If you’re using radiosty or global illumination then that can make big changes in your scene if you make big changes to your materials.

It would help a lot if you could post some screen shots or images that illustrate the problem.

3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)

Yes, when I change the materials back to the original colors everything looks fine. I will have to check the other settings when I get to work tomorrow. I’m finding more everyday what a novice I am at these programs. I thought I knew what I was doing.

Here are three rendered images with the same settings, but with different color schemes. Nothing fancy has been changed in my settings. Most everything is default except for advanced reay-trace shadows in my daylight system, the skylight is turned off (’cuz it doesn’t do anything for my scene), and gamma is at 1.5. All of my materials are set to blinn. I have tried playing with the other types of shaders, but they don’t seem to affect the outcome positively. The attachment named colonial red is the original scheme. ??????????????????????????

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That is pretty weird how the color of the roof is affecting the scene so much.

The overall seen appears very bright.  Are you still using linear exposure control?  I havn’t done a whole lot with daylight, but it is my understanding that logorithmic is the way to go since the daylight system is so bright.  That would be the first thing I’d change.  You should be able to set it properly so that its not washing out your materials.

Are you using the default renderer or Mental Ray?  If default, are you using any advanced lighting or radiosity?  If Mental Ray, are you using any Global Illuminatino or Final Gather?  Then the next question to follow would be is your scene a physically correct size?

3ds Max 2013, Maya 2013
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)

I have tried using the logarithmic exposure. It seams to make all of my materials very smooth. No texture to my bricks and such. I may not know some setting that go along with logarithmic exposure to help fix this smoothing. I do not have mental ray it does not come with Viz 4 and I don’t know much about it so I have not pressed the issue of getting it. I have tried disabling radiosity, but that does not really seem to affect the brightness of the materials that are washed out. Also, my boss is very wierd; what you see as washed out, half of the time, he thinks it is still too dark. All of our models are done in Autocad first and then imported to Viz, so everything is full scale based on floor plans and site plans.

Here is the same scene with logarithmic exposure. Default settings.

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