What is going on with lights?

[dpasa]

I made a very simple interior to show my client an idea for the kitchen Unfortunatelly I can't make any nice rendering because they all get very dark. See the attatched image.

1. I fill the room with lights and still no change, like if someone stole the lamps :-)
2. Also I checked that all lights are marked "ON" and increased the dimmer option.
3. Behind the scene there are at least four-five double glass doors used as daylights.
4. I can't find a way to define what kind of lighting I want. I need spot ligths under the beam and near the column and some other spot lights to for the two boxes.

Question 1: How can I create different light sources? There is no template for a spot light.
Question 2: Why can I enter all the possible values for a light source (lamp, lumens, wattage) and use random numbers?
Question 3: Can someone send me an example of a spot light fixture to see how I can describe the way of lighting?

I am getting very close to my deadline and I still have eight of those renderings to do.
Please help!!!!

[fernando]

in a quick Analise
i notice that your lights are working fine
the problem is possibly their wattage is to small
check it in the lighting family parameter's

[dpasa]

Lamps I use in light properties dialog is 500W and still nothing.
I don't see any difference

[dpasa]

I have posted a similar situation under Revit/Rendering EDIT - THREADS HAVE BEEN MERGED. -but I think it is a general question too. I can't find a template for spot lights. Also I can't find a way to control lights (beam, angle, etc)
I made a room of 4.00m X 5.00m and placed a light. No matter if I change the wattage or the number of lamps or lumens, I always get the same result.
Image 1 = Normal. Initial values: Lumens = 2400 , Wattage = (2)20
Image 2 = lumens x 10
Image 3 = Wattage x 10 + lumens x 10

Anyway, I think that it is impossible to have all this light for 20m2 and still not to have a bright room.

[frame]

The ceiling lights may be embedded in a floor above. If the light source is inside some geometry, the light will not get out.

[hand471037]

That's because Accurender in Revit only has point lights. There are no spot lights. You can fake it by enclosing/masking the light fixture in such a way to generate a cone of light, or you can use the free-floating 'studio' light family (which is just a fake light source) and place it close to the wall where the 'spotlight' is hitting/washing.

Or, you can export and use Viz, which will allow for spotlights and area lights.

As for the room brightness I don't think Accurender actually uses any kind of real-world guidelines. It does use lighting terms for it's settings, but as you've found, it doesn't really relate to real-world values very well. Again, to get what you want you're probably going to need a different rendering package that better represents light- that either fakes it better (Viz) or doesn't fake it at all (Radiance)...

[Wes Macaulay]

to get what you want you're probably going to need a different rendering package that better represents light- that either fakes it better (Viz) or doesn't fake it at all (Radiance)...:twisted: Well that's a dig and a plug if I ever heard one!

[hand471037]

nah, it's the honest truth. :)

It's like Watercolor vs. Oil Painting.

The vast majority of rendering engines, Viz, Metal Ray, et. all, Fake the light. They produce wonderful renderings, don't get me wrong, and they look fantastic, and some are very very fast about it. I too use the 'fake' solutions, I use Accurender in Revit heavily for nice fast design renderings, and Yafray with Blender, which is a lot like Metal Ray, when I want a fast and nice looking rendering with that 'soft' Global Illumisonty look. By 'faking' things, it can go faster, be more forgiving, and make it easy to generate very nice looking images. But it's still fake, in that it's just an image and not really telling you anything about the actual design performance.

Only 'Physcially-based' Rendering engines, of which Radiance is one, actually try to calculate what the light would *really* be doing. Problem with this approach is that it's slower, less forgiving, and harder to make very nice looking images. But the images that you generate can actually be used for analysis, and give you real design feedback. And can also be quite stunning, for the quality of light can be amazing. But again, by simply being slower and hard to use, they aren't the mainstream solutions at all.

Different tools for different tasks. I imagine that I'll always use both; a quick fake solution that allows for a certain graphic 'look' & a slower non-fake solution that allows for a different look.

[sjsl]

Have you used the daylights button on the rendering design bar small window w/four panes? Select it and then each ext. door and window becuase I don't see any outside light coming in these opjects.

[tatlin]

Accurender in Revit does have spot lights.

The templates are called "Spot Lighting Fixture.rft, Spot Lighting Fixture ceiling based.rft, Spot Lighting Fixture wall based.rft" and are located under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\Revit 6.1\Imperial Templates

There are also families in the library that use spot lights.


That's because Accurender in Revit only has point lights. There are no spot lights.
Sorry Jeff, AR in Revit has point, spot and linear light sources, in addition to daylights and the Sun. AR for acad and rhino have a few more light types like goniometric (.ies), area, unidirectional (sunlike) and maybe a few others.



As for the room brightness I don't think Accurender actually uses any kind of real-world guidelines. It does use lighting terms for it's settings, but as you've found, it doesn't really relate to real-world values very well.
Try using the Adjust Image button. I think what could be happening is AR is re-adjusting the exposure on you.

[hand471037]

Accurender in Revit does have spot lights.

Try using the Adjust Image button. I think what could be happening is AR is re-adjusting the exposure on you.

whoops. you're right it does have spots. Sorry.I only really use Accurender for exterior renderings these days, interior stuff I do with Radiance. I get so wrapped up in stuff sometimes I forget things. I always just think of point lights & the sun w/ Accurender, because I'm spoiled by Radiance, where lights and lighting is just another material, or a glazing spec, and anything can be a light source. ;)

But on the second half of your post, with the auto-exposure, that's dead-on, and what I was getting at with my rambling about 'real' vs. 'fake' renderings. Accurender is always trying to give you a 'good' image, and auto-adjusts the exposure for you. That's why your not seeing the changes, because Accurender doesn't give you the 'real' values for what your rendering, it gives you the 'nice' image- which 99% of the time is what you want. :)

[Wes Macaulay]

The ceiling lights may be embedded in a floor above. If the light source is inside some geometry, the light will not get out.Yah - that happened to me once - modelled up a fancy enclosure and spent half an hour trying to figure out why the light wasn't illuminating anything... til it "dawned" on me. Oooh did I feel dumb!

[gravelin]

That is what I've found about spotlights :
they're controlled by a tilt angle in the vertical reference plane middle from front/back.(Red in the picture)
when the angle is > 180 it's lighting the ceiling.
To rotate the spot (as blue arrow in the picture) do it in the ceilling plan.