White rendering as gray

[dzatto]

Having a bit of a problem. It's been slow so I haven't rendered in a while. I'm using the same settings, but anything I set to white (using the stock white plaster material that is on the OOTB walls for the gyp board), it turns out light gray, not white.

What gives?

[neje]

I resorted to giving it some self illumination or luminescense.
I think part of the problem is that we percieve white but it actually looks grey. Renderers often complain that their white ceiling looks grey but unless lights are lower and shining upward, ceilings are often grey.
As these renderers are emulating real world, that's what you get.
My old boss preferred the old acad renderer over the new one because the colours were more vibrant (read - not as realistic).

[rdaynard]

Try changing the diffuse color to more of a pure white, and fading the map slider to allow it to come through. I've found that a lot of AutoCad's "white" materials often have a diffuse color that's more gray than white.

[dzatto]

Thanks guys. I'll try your tips. Weird thing is that I've rendered the same material before and it came out correctly.