Escalight - 3ds Max tutorial, Photoshop, Flash, V-Ray, Blender, Free 3D models, etc

by Didik Wijaya
This tutorial needs you to understand basic use of 3dsmax.

After we created necessary object used in this tutorial in Part 1, we will begin to assign Radiosity. After we assign Radiosity, we need to calculate its solution. For complex scene, calculating Radiosity solution maybe very slow process, depend how fast your computer is. Fortunately, you need only to calculate Radiosity solution once, as long as your object is not moving. This is useful when you create walkthrough animation (the only thing that is moving is camera). Of course, if you change parameters in Radiosity, you need to calculate the solution again.

1. Continue your previous tutorial. If not, you can donwload 3dsmax file here (zipped, 17kb, 3dsmax8 format). In this file we have small room. There are 2 short walls divide the area. These walls textured using simple material, just grey color.

2. Add a light to this scene. For example, I add Omni light (Standard Light type) and place it near the camera. Note: Radiosity work best using Photometric light type. This light type will be discussed in another tutorial.

3. Activate Perspective viewport and do a test render (F9). Image below shows the result. As you can see, room is not well lit. Some areas too dark, and the others too bright. If you do not use Radiosity, you can add another light and adjust its intensity, work around until you get desired result. But, using Radiosity you can use only one light, just like room in your house that has one light too.

4. Go to Render>Advanced Lighting>Radiosity. A small window will appear. Click Yes to assign Radiosity.

5. Render window will be available to you (Note: you can always open this window by pressing F10 and click Radiosity tab). When you assign Radiosity, 3dsmax will state this plug-in is Active. You can activate or de-activate Radiosity anytime you want.

Before you render Radiosity, you must calculate Radiosity solution by pressing Start button. Radiosity calculation depends on how complex your scene and how fast your computer. Radiosity calculation for this tutorial should not be very long to wait. As a result, your Radiosity solution is shown in Perspective viewport. A little bit dark, but we will fix that in the next step.

6. Now, we are ready to adjust several parameters. In Radiosity Processing Parameters rollout, Initial Quality=85% enough for most scene. If you change Initial Quality, you need to click Reset All and click Start again to re-calculate Radiosity solution. Increase Initial Quality if you want to get smoother result. Another important parameter is Indirect Light Filtering. Increase this value if your scene has too much noise (dotted). Usually value of 3 or 4 is enough. But, for this simple tutorial, changing Indirect Light Filter has little or no effect. Direct Light Filtering is only useful if you use Shoot Direct Lights. Note: you can interactively adjust these filtering values without re-calculating solution again.

7. Under Filtering is Exposure Control. Click Setup button if you want to change exposure, or in other words setting Brightness and Contrast. Just like you change Levels in Photoshop. There are several option to choose eq: Automatic, Linear or Logarithmic. For this tutorial, use Logarithmic Exposure Control. Note: Exposure Control located in Rendering>Environment, you can open Exposure Control by pressing 8 in keyboard.

8. In Radiosity Meshing Parameters, click on Enabled. If Meshing Parameters is active, 3dsmax will divide your mesh into smaller polygons to calculate Radiosity. How 3dsmax divide your mesh depends how your mesh size and units setting. For example, if you used Centimeters in Unit Setup, Mesh Settings will show like image below. When you need to have smoother result, decrease all Mesh settings values.

9. In Rendering Parameters rollout, activate Regather Indirect Illumination. This option provides best quality rendering but takes more RAM to process. When finished, click Reset All and Start to re-calculate Radisotiy Solution again. When finished, click Render button.

10. Image below shows differences between rendered image without and with radiosity. Finished file can be downloaded here (zipped, 85kb, 3dsmax8 format). In Part 3 of this tutorial, you will learn how to use material specially design to Radiosity, called Advanced Lighting Override Material. You will create a neon effect using this material.

Introduction to Radiosity Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Any question or comments regarding this tutorial should be sent to:
Didik Wijaya, email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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