SkIndigo 1.0.8

Announcements, requests and support regarding SkIndigo - the Sketchup / Indigo exporter.
Richard
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Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:50 am

Post by Richard » Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:43 pm

Mate I just noticed if I change the camera from auto exposure upon export I get this error:
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Richard
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Post by Richard » Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:52 pm

crojack wrote:you don't need to re-name anything or do anything other than open the zip, on the side of your XP window will be a choice that says "Extract all files" click that and direct it to your Plug-ins folder.
Ahhh yep that worked thanks mate!!! I unzipped and then copied over to plugins!

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kwistenbiebel
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Post by kwistenbiebel » Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:28 pm

Hi Richard,

Does Indigo work now for you?
I must admit that installing it was very easy when I did it, but it seems it's not in your case.

Just a few hints to get you going:
1. Try to use the physical camera (for outdoors I mostly use f/16, iso 100, shutter 250 or 300.
2. Try using the material presets at first: double click the mat in your SU material list until the Indigo mat editor pops up . From there you can use the nice preview materials Whaat implemented.


I hope to see some work from your hand here soon ;)
It might turn out you like Indigo more than Maxwell once you get the hang of it. I certainly do as Whaats Skindigo plugin is a lot smoother than the Maxwell plug. :)
You might miss Maxwells multilight feature though...

By the way,
The 'Violet Tonemapper' is a nice thing to install as well but not necessary when you use the corrrect camera settings.

Cheers,
Kwistenbiebel

Richard
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Post by Richard » Fri Apr 04, 2008 1:32 am

Yes thanks mate I'm underway!!!

I worked out that the Indigo folder was messed up to! Turned out to be a file decompressor I was using as a faster altrnative to widows native. It unzipped the folder and at the same time dragged everything out of the contained folders. Therefore absolutely nothing worked.

Absolutely nothing doesn't doesn't work now!

Your right in your suggestion regarding Whaat's work on the plug, it's amazing. As said to the other thread I think there is another workflow needed for blending materials but no ideas this end.

I'm certainly happy with much about Indigo, as to whether it becomes a big part of my work flow? _ I'd suggest so!

Richard
Posts: 79
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:50 am

Post by Richard » Fri Apr 04, 2008 2:33 am

Have to admit mate there is a definate want there for a Multilight type feature. Even just for simple exteriors the trial and error is a real setup killer!

crojack
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Post by crojack » Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:55 am

Richard wrote:Yes thanks mate I'm underway!!!
As said to the other thread I think there is another workflow needed for blending materials but no ideas this end.

I'm certainly happy with much about Indigo, as to whether it becomes a big part of my work flow? _ I'd suggest so!
Glad you got it working.

Can you tell how blending materials is done in Maxwell. I find it also difficult in Skindigo but can't think of another way to do it.

I wonder if maybe there were little mat thumbnails for each "layer" in a blended material? I'm just very visual and find it easier to keep track of things that way. Which is one reason I like Skindigo soo much!

Nothing to do with rendering, but I think Google should hire Whaat to at least design the next Skp material interface (if not all of it), the present Skp one sucks.

gautxori
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Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:25 am

working with updated versions of skindigo

Post by gautxori » Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:48 am

@ Whaat: i'm trying to render a SU model where i had some lights & mats configured with v1.0.8 of skindigo & indigo. I have tried to do the same with v0.9 (just because i'm trying to learn how-to with the prog., & i miss the presets), but it keeps using v1.0.8. It seems the .skp file saves info about the renderer; i think it'd be better to keep this info in the skindigo configuration files.

Regarding these, why do you save the file default-settings.igs in the indigo folder? If it's a settings file for SKindigo, i think it's better to save it in the SKIndigo plugin folder. Even the so-called default.igs (whose name would be more clarifying being skindigo.igs, the name of the file .skp being rendered or any other) would be better saved in a temporary folder inside SKIndigo.

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kwistenbiebel
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Post by kwistenbiebel » Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:50 am

@Gautxori,

He he, using the software 2 days and already making demands? ;)

It's because you didn't change the path to the new indigo (0.9) directory.
Until Whaat updates Skindigo to 0.9, you need to change the path to the indigo 0.9 directory. There is a text file in the Skindigo folder called
'indigo_1_0_8path.txt' or something similar that needs t o be changed.

For your other problem:
read the manual!
You can save a custom .igs file. See render settings panel for that

Richard
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Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:50 am

Post by Richard » Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:39 pm

crojack wrote:
Richard wrote:Yes thanks mate I'm underway!!!
As said to the other thread I think there is another workflow needed for blending materials but no ideas this end.

I'm certainly happy with much about Indigo, as to whether it becomes a big part of my work flow? _ I'd suggest so!
Glad you got it working.

Can you tell how blending materials is done in Maxwell. I find it also difficult in Skindigo but can't think of another way to do it.

I wonder if maybe there were little mat thumbnails for each "layer" in a blended material? I'm just very visual and find it easier to keep track of things that way. Which is one reason I like Skindigo soo much!

Nothing to do with rendering, but I think Google should hire Whaat to at least design the next Skp material interface (if not all of it), the present Skp one sucks.
Mate here is a visual overview of the Maxwell material system that uses weight maps (greyscale) or proportions of the total to blend material layers.
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Richard
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Post by Richard » Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:59 pm

My suggestion (though rough) toward the blended material editor. Though I think this also needs more consideration.

I think it not only needs to consider maps but materials.

It would be nice to be able to use clip maps to allow indigo materials to be blended, for example a building facade (say for context buildings surrounding your scene) you could clipout brickwork, windows, frames etc from one map placed to a plane.

I must say though that with all the current material options the maps have to be included in the SU materials browser.

I can foresee major problems with this in some SU models. If we have a model with 50 materials and some of these are well blended materials all hell could break loose in the material browser!

For Whaat::::

Mate I was considering a quick time saver for the majority of SU users. Unless a bump map is specifically selected could by default the actual colour map be set as the bump map and the user just add gain without the need for map selection???

I'm noticing that Indigo's bump performance is quite good just off the colour map if used for both. So as I suggest could this just be set as the default and the bump map overwritten if one is specifically selected????

I'm thinking of quite a few other things to simplify work flow too and will keep them coming if you don't mind!
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Richard
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Post by Richard » Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:13 pm

My first test render!

No post processing! Had to use auto exposure as a few trials with camera settings by trial and error was making me mad!

Very low detail rough model, just for test!

Lighting with exr. Hey is HDRI yet supported??

Aluminium window frames look crap. Fake cautics on the pool bottom needed lower contrast on image map, water surface I think came out ok. Tiles need less bump (used just the colour map) and blended material to dirty up and reduce repeat.

Thin Glass material works well IMO.

Rotate environment great inclusion Whaat!!!! Lift and drop next please!!
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kwistenbiebel
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Post by kwistenbiebel » Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:42 am

Ooooh :shock:
That looks really nice for first try.
You're fast at it aren't you?

gautxori
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:25 am

Post by gautxori » Sat Apr 05, 2008 12:58 am

@ kwistenbiebel
Regarding my requests, indigo & skindigo are so great, why not ask for a bit more?:razz:

When i asked "why do you save the file default-settings.igs in the indigo folder?" i meant "why do you by default ....". I think it's better to default it to skindigo folder. i might use indigo also for Blender, or 3DMax, & i would not like to mess files from different progs.

It's obvious that SKindigo saves data into the model: if you just open a model, render an image, and try to close, you'll be asked if you want to save the model. Changes are only done by skindigo.

when i run skindigo & indigo v0.9, this is the log file created in folder indigo_v1.0.8 ):
SSE present.
SSE2 not found.
SSE3 not found.
Using base Indigo directory path ''.
Scene file path: 'C:\indigo_v1.0.8/default.igs':shock:
Using working directory path 'C:\indigo_v1.0.8'.
Loading Scene 'C:\indigo_v1.0.8/default.igs'...
Processing included XML file 'C:\indigo_v1.0.8\default-settings.igs...
Using Reinhard tone mapping with pre_scale=4.500000, post_scale=1.000000, burn=6.000000
extra_atmospheric: 0



No mess with the paths; the path is changed.


In fact, to avoid the problem this is how i work:
- If I want to use v0.9, i have the following files&folders structure:
\indigo_v0.9.10 (folder)
\indigo_v1.0.8bkp (folder)

C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo (folder, v0.9)
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo108 (folder, v1.0.8 )
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo_09.rb
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo_1_0_8.rbkp

C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\indigo_1_0_8path.txt
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\indigo_09_path.txt


(Names in violet are changed to avoid acessing them should there be any reference).

- If I want to use v1.0.8, i have the following files&folders structure:
\indigo_v0.9.10bkp (folder)
\indigo_v1.0.8 (folder)
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo09 (folder, v0.9)
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo (folder, v1.0.8 )
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo_09.rbkp
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\SkIndigo_1_0_8.rb
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\indigo_1_0_8path.txt
C:\program files\Google\Google SketchUp 6\Plugins\indigo_09_path.txt


This way, it does not find indigo_v1.0.8 folder when i run skindigo_v0.9

(oh, & i'm reading the manual. In fact,i need a fast & deep course on rendering. Some comments on this will come soon :wink: )

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Whaat
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Post by Whaat » Sat Apr 05, 2008 1:58 am

gautxori,

You are very confused about a lot of issues regarding paths. I don't have time to explain everything right now. However, the best way to check what Indigo version that SkIndigo is using is to go the the 'About Indigo' menu item when Indigo launches.

Even if your scene file path is in the Indigo v1.0.8 folder, it doesn't mean that you are using Indigo 1.0.8. This is because SkIndigo saves the last path that you used to export your SU file and uses it again next time to render your scene. To change this path, use 'Export Scene as.....'

crojack
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Post by crojack » Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:32 am

Thanks for the screenshots Richard.

That is somewhat what I was thinking as to how it works. I like your little mockup. But, I don't understand the wight map aspect of it. Is that the "main" material that all the other materials become a part of? not sure if that makes sense.

nice render, I use the basic color map as a bump quite often unless I need something really specific. But just to give a material a little texture, I think it works great.

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