Replacement Huge CamLightRig

[Caliban 2]

I have been working with Lord_Quillian2 on a replacement for the Maxis huge lightrig.
In case you don't know the huge lightrig that comes with BAT is seriously flawed. Not only are the lights positioned differently from the other rigs, making for inconsistant lighting, but it also has badly set shadow maps which cause very bad render artefacts.



Examples rendered by Lord_Quillian2 of EmergentFungus's great One Canada Square building. The left is lit by the Maxis rig and the right by our replacement.

As you can see the Maxis huge lightrig causes the whole building to be plunged into darkness and the corner to be strangely illuminated as if rounded (this is due to the bad shadow map settings, such as the bias, making the renderer misinterpret how the shadow should fall)

Our new huge lightrig works basically as a 250% scale big lightrig but with carefully corrected shadow parameters for the best tradeoff between quality and memory usage.

Why you should use the fixed huge lightrig

As can be clearly seen in the example above, the fixed huge lightrig addresses all the problems inherent in the current Maxis one and produces large buildings that are lit in keeping with the other BAT lightrigs.


When you should use the fixed huge lightrig

If you model is using the Maxis huge lightrig that came with the BAT you should use this fixed version instead.
If you are unsure which lightrig you are using, you can check by doing the following.

Note: If you are unsure whether the scene is currently using the appropriate size lightrig press the Reset Lights and Cameras button first.

Select XRef Scene... from the File menu. This will pop up the XRef Scenes window.

You should see one file listed in the XRef Files section. If this file is TB2_CameraLightRigHuge.gmax you need to use our replacement (TB2_CameraLightRigHuge_fixed_v1.gmax)


How to use the fixed huge lightrig

1) Download the new rig (attached), unzip and put in the gMax gamepack directory BAT/scenes/CamLightRigs.
Default location would be c:/gMax/gamepacks/BAT/scenes/CamLightRigs

2) Go to the Display tab of the Command Panel and untick Helpers from Hide by Category

3) Select XRef Scene... from the File menu. This will pop up the XRef Scenes window

4) Click the filename in the XRef files to highlight it and press Remove

5) Now press Add. In the Open File dialogue navigate into folder CamLightRigs and select file TB2_CameraLightRigHuge_fixed_v1.gmax

6) Press Bind and select the helper TB2CameraHandle. You can do this either by clicking on it, or, if the scene is dense with geometry and you can't easily click on the helper, by using the following. After pressing Bind click the Select by Name icon. Untick Helpers under List Types then press Invert. You should now only have 1 (unless you use helpers alot) option in the list, which will be TB2CameraHandle. Just double click it (or select it and press Pick) to complete the bind.

7) Finally close the XRef Scenes window.


The bind stage is very important as it is this that makes the model (well lights and cameras really) rotate for the different views.

[geoff_diamond 43]

*bows down before Cal and LQ*

 

(oh and EF too for the brilliant One Canada model - one of my favorite bldgs in the world!)

 

You guys rock... i can't wait to play with this!

[DuskTrooper 316]

COOL!  Thanks, dude!

[dominion12345 5]

Thank you Caliban and Lord_Quillian2 for taking the effort to make this rig.

I'm going to use it for certain in the future.(still making props now)   THANK YOU.

[Cobb32118 244]

Thank you Caliban and LQ!  Definitely a must.  You two are amazing. 

[Cobb32118 244]

Caliban,

 

When I hit reset lights and cameras, gmax put your huge light rig fix in the field already, and then TB2CameraHandle was already in the Parent box.

 

 

So am I ready to render without trying to bind?

 

It already looks like your new light rig is making my model much better from the preview.  I just want to make sure I'm doing it right before I give up the computer for another 45 hours.  Thanks!

[fstpaced 37]

hey, i'm having trouble understanding the directions to install rig.. there are things you tell me to push that isnt even here... or witch rollout do i use... you should be alittle more detailed... sincei have installed the rig that best i understood, i get a code failed code six... and i know that it isn't me memory... have plenty of that and speed to...never had this problem til now...

 

[Caliban 2]

Date: 5/10/2004 1:37:36 PM
Author:

hey, i'm having trouble understanding the directions to install rig.. there are things you tell me to push that isnt even here... or witch rollout do i use... you should be alittle more detailed... sincei have installed the rig that best i understood, i get a code failed code six... and i know that it isn't me memory... have plenty of that and speed to...never had this problem til now...

quote>

Sorry, been too busy to check the forums for a few days.

Looking at the model file in the export problems/serious questions about model height of model and a few other things thread you appear to have successfully replaced the rig.

I'm not sure which items you are refering to when you say they don't exist?

I'm sorry to say that the export problem is indeed memory. From the other thread you say you have 1Gb. That isn't enough to export a very large building (even with virtual memory on). I don't know why BAT is so memory intensive, and can only say what my testing and other posts have shown.

[Equinox 1,218]

Great job, man!  This will help on rendering people's monster lots, and also ... EmergentFungus, that looks amazing.

[fosterk 4]

Thanks for this! Really helping on the marina project.

[SC4BOY 21]

At what size do u think this should be a concern? Do you have some hieght/width/depth parameters in mind?

[Cobb32118 244]

So does anyone still have the above-mentioned file, or know where one can get it?  The attachment seems to have disappeared, and it doesn't look like Caliban, Emergent Fungus, or Lord_Quillian have posted on ST for a while.

I think this is the solution to a problem I already posted in another thread. If I try to make anything above 300 sim-meters, I get very poor lighting effects. So if anyone still has this and could post it, I'd be your best friend!

I lost all my files in the great hard-drive crash of '05, so I'm trying to piece it all back together.

[realdimension 6]

Here is the camlightrig!

[cogeo 960]

Can someone please answer the questions below:

- Is this automatically selected when making a new scene (after installing it), or I have to specifically tell gmax to XRef/Bind it?

- Should I use it for tall buildings only, or for wide/deep ones as well?

- Can someone revert to the default camera?

- What happens if I use it for "small" buildings as well, and btw, when should a building regarded as "small".

- Is it generally "more luminous", meaning that for existing scenes (using the default camlightrig) someone should also change the textures (use darker ones) so as to offset the effect of the extra lumination?

I would greatly appreciate any help!

[Cobb32118 244]

Originally posted by: cogeo Can someone please answer the questions below:

- Is this automatically selected when making a new scene (after installing it), or I have to specifically tell gmax to XRef/Bind it?

- Should I use it for tall buildings only, or for wide/deep ones as well?

- Can someone revert to the default camera?

- What happens if I use it for "small" buildings as well, and btw, when should a building regarded as "small".

- Is it generally "more luminous", meaning that for existing scenes (using the default camlightrig) someone should also change the textures (use darker ones) so as to offset the effect of the extra lumination?

I would greatly appreciate any help!quote>

 

Cogeo, yes this is automatically selected when you hit "reset lights and cameras" if your building is taller than about 300 sim-meters (if my experimentation was accurate).

I'm not sure if the light rig is so much "more luminous" as just coming from a more appropriate angle. All I know is that as soon as my building went above 300m, the previews all looked terrible. That's why I bumped this ancient thread to try to get the rig back. Someone with a better technical understanding of the BAT can probably tell you exactly what this rig is doing.

Bixel had a copy of it handy for me. And thank you realdimension for reposting it.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Moved from BAT - Workshop Archive.