LumenRT1.3 Reference Manual

|reviewfor sketchup

LumenRT – Reference Manual


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Trademarks

LumenRT, LumenRT Review, Cornucopia, Cornucopia3d, "The Natural 3D Studio", "Natural 3D", "The Art of

Natural 3D", "Solutions for Natural 3D Environments" are trademarks or registered trademarks of e-on software, inc.

Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7

are registered trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.

QuickTime, QuickTime VR, Mac, OS X, OS 9 are registered trademarks of Apple, inc.

Flash and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe, Inc.

SketchUp and SketchUp Pro are registered trademarks of Google Inc.

All other product and brand names mentioned in this manual are used for identification purposes only. They may be

trademarks or registered trademarks, and, as such, remain the exclusive property of their respective holders.

Copyright

LumenRT Program ©2011 e-on software, inc. All rights reserved.

LumenRT Documentation ©2011 e-on software, inc. All rights reserved.

This manual, as well as the LumenRT software described in it is furnished under a license agreement and may only be

used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license agreement. Information in this document is subject to

change without notice and does not represent product specification or commitment on the part of e-on software, inc.

Algorithms used inside this software were developed for visual performance only, and may not constitute a precise

simulation of real phenomena.

Warning: This software and the accompanying documentation are protected by U.S. copyright law as well as by

international intellectual property conventions. Any reproduction, sale, transfer, transcription, storage in a retrieval

system, translation into any language in any form or distribution by any means whatsoever of this software or

accompanying documentation, in part or in full, without the prior written permission from e-on software, inc. is

strictly forbidden. Any such act shall constitute a copyright violation and shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of

the law.

Printed August 2011


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Contents

Getting Started

REAL-TIME ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION 6

KEY BENEFITS .........................................................................................................................7

KEY FEATURES 8

A More Engaging User Experience ....................................................................................8

No Need for Specialized Viewing Software.........................................................................8

Seamless Background Processing.......................................................................................8

TECHNICAL INFORMATION 10

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS .......................................................................................................10

Pre-Processing Machine...................................................................................................10

Navigation/Viewing Machine............................................................................................10

INSTALLATION .......................................................................................................................11

Welcome............................................................................................................................11

Desired Operation.............................................................................................................11

Software License Agreement .............................................................................................11

Required Dependencies.....................................................................................................11

User Information...............................................................................................................12

Required Components .......................................................................................................12

Installation Type ...............................................................................................................12

Installation Progress.........................................................................................................12

ACTIVATION ..........................................................................................................................13

SUPPORT................................................................................................................................14

UPDATING .............................................................................................................................14

LiveCubes

HOW IT WORKS 16

LUMENRT WORKFLOW .........................................................................................................16

Export................................................................................................................................16

Pre-Process.......................................................................................................................16

Share .................................................................................................................................17


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LUMENRT LIMITATIONS....................................................................................................... 17

Model Size ........................................................................................................................ 17

Sun Position and Direct Lighting..................................................................................... 18

Real World Units .............................................................................................................. 18

GETTING STARTED TUTORIAL .............................................................................................. 19

NAVIGATING THE LIVECUBE 22

Basic Navigation Controls ............................................................................................... 23

Extended Navigation Mode Controls ............................................................................... 23

GENERATING A LIVECUBE 26

LUMENRT SKETCHUP PANEL............................................................................................... 26

ANIMATION .......................................................................................................................... 33

SHARING THE LIVECUBE ...................................................................................................... 34

SAVING STILLS AND ANIMATIONS ........................................................................................ 35

Going Further

TUTORIALS 37

OPTIMIZING LARGE MODELS ................................................................................................ 37

MATERIALS .......................................................................................................................... 40

IMPROVING YOUR LIVECUBES 43

SKETCHUP MODELING AND SCENE OPTIMIZATION .............................................................. 43

Smoothing Curved Surfaces ............................................................................................. 43

Add Wall and Floor Thickness ......................................................................................... 43

Avoid Degenerate Faces .................................................................................................. 43

Avoid Very Large Surface Areas ...................................................................................... 43

Eliminate Orphaned Geometry to Avoid Unusually Large Pedestals .............................. 44

Use Groups, Components and Layers .............................................................................. 44

Use Real World Units....................................................................................................... 44

Use Fewer Polygons......................................................................................................... 44

Export Only Part of the Scene.......................................................................................... 44

Add Thickness to Carpeting/Flooring .............................................................................. 45

Keep Models above the Ground Plane............................................................................. 45

Clean Ground Plane Intersections ................................................................................... 45

Use Planar Faces for Water and Glass Materials ........................................................... 45

Avoid Using Fake Reflection Maps for Transparent Materials ....................................... 46


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Aim the Sun to Increase Interior Lighting.........................................................................46

Initial Camera Position Is First Scene Tab or Current Camera View ..............................46

Use Perspective Camera Views.........................................................................................46

Reduce the Number of Reflective/Transparent Materials .................................................46

MATERIALS ...........................................................................................................................47

Water.................................................................................................................................47

Bump .................................................................................................................................47

Specularity ........................................................................................................................48

Reflective Materials ..........................................................................................................49

Texture Maps.....................................................................................................................49

TROUBLESHOOTING 50

Light Appears Around Wall Corners ................................................................................50

Dark Shadows Appear at the Bottom of a Wall or in Corners ..........................................50

Pre-Processing Takes Forever..........................................................................................50

Window Glass Is Blinking when Navigating in LiveCube.................................................51

Pedestal is too Big Compared to the Model......................................................................51

Playback Performance in the LiveCube is Slow or Choppy..............................................51

Some Faces Are Missing ...................................................................................................51

Flickering Polygons ..........................................................................................................52

Object Surfaces are not Smooth ........................................................................................52

Splotchy Looking Shadow Artifacts...................................................................................52

Water Material is not Rendering with Ripples or Caustics...............................................52

No Bumps (or Not Enough Bumps) on Objects .................................................................53

Noisy Looking Areas .........................................................................................................53

I Can’t Find my LiveCube File .........................................................................................53

How Do I Launch the LumenRT Application? ..................................................................53

How Do I Avoid Having my LiveCube Files Overwritten? ...............................................53

Animation Playback Pauses at Regular Intervals .............................................................53

Video Board Suddenly Not Supported...............................................................................53

Overly Saturated Indirect Light ........................................................................................54

Some Pictures Are Missing ...............................................................................................54

LiveCube Refuses to Run on another System ....................................................................54

LICENSE AGREEMENT 55


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SSeeccttiioonn 11

GGeettttiinngg SSttaarrtteedd


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Real-Time Architectural Visualization

LumenRT is e-on software's revolutionary product for the visualization of architectural projects in

real-time 3D with photo-real illumination.

Thanks to LumenRT, architects no longer have to choose between high-quality images and real-

time visualization: They can walk or fly through their designs and experience the true quality of

light in fully interactive 3D!

LumenRT real-time environments can even be packaged into convenient, self-contained

executables that can be run on any computer without requiring additional software.

Designed to provide high fidelity visualization with accurate lighting, shadows and reflections,

LumenRT is the ideal solution for:

• Creating a virtual interactive showroom

• Demonstrating and sharing design concepts

• Visualizing 3D models in client presentations

• Exposing your projects in fully real-time photo-realistic 3D


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Key Benefits

LumenRT’s output is fully interactive and will run on any computer without special viewing

software making it easy to share designs and collaborate with anyone.

• High fidelity, photo-realistic 3D Viewing

• Accurate lighting, shadows and reflections

• Fast interactive 3D viewing performance

• Runs on any machine – no special viewing software required

• Incredibly simple, push-button operation

• Automated rendering output from SketchUp/SketchUp Pro.

• Display greater details with accurate lighting and shadows

• Share models with anyone effortlessly

• Explore and interact with models in real-time

• Gain deeper insights on model features and aesthetics

• Create interactive 3D walkthroughs and presentations that will impress your clients


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Key Features

A More Engaging User Experience

The combination of LumenRT’s vivid output and rich navigation capabilities allow your clients and

co-workers to experience and interact with designs in a much more immersive and exciting manner.

LumenRT creates very high-fidelity output complete with accurately simulated lighting, shadows,

and reflections. This output can be navigated interactively in a self guided fashion using either the

game-like, walk-though mode, or explored using a 3D style orbit mode similar to how programs

like SketchUp operate. In addition, LumenRT LiveCubes can employ animation paths which allow

you to direct and present the viewing experience in a predictable, predefined manner. The

animation mode is also useful for self-running, kiosk style presentations.

No Need for Specialized Viewing Software

With LumenRT, no special viewing software is required. Instead, LumenRT LiveCubes are shared

using a simple self-extracting zip file facility. The LiveCubes run automatically on any PC or Mac

platform when executed. Just click and run – it’s a simple as that.

Seamless Background Processing

The LumenRT rendering process is fully automated and requires no user intervention. Models are

exported directly from inside SketchUp to the LumenRT application which runs as a background

process. LumenRT uses the SketchUp geometries and materials along with the lighting, viewing

and animation parameters directly from the model file.


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Listed below is the detailed feature list for LumenRT:

Export

• One-click, seamless export from SketchUp to LumenRT

• Export models and animations

• High degree of material correlation with automatic bump mapping

• Animated water materials

• User adjustable materials directly inside of SketchUp

• User selectable atmospheres and ground materials

• Sketchup billboard objects (always facing the camera) are also supported

Rendering

• High fidelity simulation of indirect lighting

• Real-world shadows and reflections

• User selectable rendering quality level

• Rendering process runs in the background allowing user to continue working on other tasks

• Outputs a graphics “LiveCube” that runs on any platform

Navigation

• Simple, multi-mode navigation (animated, walk-thru, and orbit modes)

• Does not require special viewing software -- runs on any platform with a modern graphics card


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Technical Information

System Requirements

LumenRT is a 32 & 64 bits application, designed for the Windows® 32/64 bits XP, Vista and 7 as

well as Intel Mac OS X platforms. A 64 bit system is highly recommended for authoring

LiveCubes (32 bit systems are fine for playback). LumenRT is either CPU or GPU intensive

depending on the task being performed. The pre-processing phase is CPU intensive while the

navigation/viewing process is GPU intensive.

Performance of the software is directly related to the power of the system running it. LumenRT is

optimized to make the best of all the processors/cores on your system. The power of your video

board directly impacts the frame-rate during real-time 3D play-back.

LumenRT Review for SketchUp requires SketchUp 7 or 8 (free or Pro version).

Pre-Processing Machine

This is the machine on which you will export your scene from SketchUp. So basically it should be

able to run SketchUp, but you'll need a lot of power to process the scene in order that it doesn't take

ages to compute.

• Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32/64 or Mac OS X v10.6+ 32/64 (64 bit recommended)

• nVidia GeForce 8800 or newer or ATI Radeon 4000+ or newer video board, with at least

512MB VRAM

• 2GHz Intel processor or faster (multi-core CPU recommended)

• 2GB of free RAM (4GB recommended)

• 4GB of free Hard Disk space.

Navigation/Viewing Machine

This is the machine on which you or your client will navigate and explore the model. The more

complex your model is, the more graphic power it will require.

• Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32/64 or Mac OS X v10.6+ 32/64

• nVidia GeForce 8800 or newer or ATI Radeon 4000+ or newer video board, with at least

512MB VRAM

• 2GHz Intel processor or faster

• 1GB of free RAM (4GB recommended)

• 200MB of free Hard Disk space.


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Installation

The installation program, which is described below, is located on your installation DVD/download.

The initial start and updating the software is described separately.

Follow these steps to install LumenRT onto your

computer:

• Place the installation DVD into your computer's

DVD drive. It should auto-start (Windows) or its

symbol should appear in the Finder (Mac OS). If

not, open the DVD manually.

• Double click the Install LumenRT link on the

auto-start screen or double-click on the Setup

application file.

The software will now be installed.

Welcome

Clicking on Next will take you to the license

agreement window.

Desired Operation

Select the version of LumenRT that you want to

install: 32 or 64 bits.

Software License Agreement

Read the license agreement carefully. These terms

must be agreed to in order to continue with the

installation.

Required Dependencies

LumenRT will first install the required dependencies.

Press Next when this completes.


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User Information

Enter your Name and the name of your Company (if

applicable).

Enter your Serial Number. You can either type these

into the corresponding fields manually or copy and

paste them from an e-mail. If you enter the license

numbers manually, simply enter them as they appear in

the registration information including all digits and

letters, skipping the dashes. If you have received an e-

mail containing the license numbers, simply copy the

entire contents of the email and copy it into the first

field.

Please note that this number is confidential, and should

not be communicated to third parties.

You will be asked for this serial number or your

product installation code to download data from our

website.

Required Components

You will have the choice of installing LumenRT for

different version of SketchUp you have on your

computer. Select the location of your main SketchUp

application folder.

Installation Type

During the installation process, you will have the

choice of installing all of the software, or only parts of

it. Since only what is necessary is actually installed on

your hard-drive, we recommend you choose the

Typical installation mode.

Installation Progress

The installation can be canceled at any time as long as

the progress bar is visible by clicking on Cancel.

If the installation is canceled, the installation process

must be restarted completely, as described above.


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Activation

At the end of the installation you will see the activation

screen. You must activate your copy of LumenRT before

you can start using it. If by any chance you don't see this

panel after the installation, it will appear again on your

first start of LumenRT.

Your product installation code should be prefilled on this

dialog. To activate a license, press the Activate online

now! button to automatically connect to the e-on

software product activation page and activate your copy

of LumenRT.

Once you got your activation code, copy and paste it into

the field, and click Finalize activation.

If your computer doesn't have access to the internet, you

will have to use another computer (with internet access)

to complete the registration process.

During installation, the Activation screen displays

immediately after the screen where you enter the serial

number. You have two options. You have to copy the

INST- code displayed and go to another machine, log

into your e-on account and register the product using that

Installation Code at this time. You will receive an

Activation code which you must copy and bring back to

your machine running LumenRT and enter the

Activation code. Then press Finalize Activation to

continue the installation.

If you dont' wish to activate at this time, select Activate

Later on this Activation screen and the installation will

complete. When you start LumenRT and start a render,

the Activation Screen will again display and you will

have to activate at this time to use the product using the

procedure outlined above.


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Support

If you experience difficulties installing or using the software, the first thing we recommend is that

you visit our website and read through the frequently asked questions to see if there is already an

answer to your problem in there.

If not, please visit www.cornucopia3d.com/forum.

As a registered client of e-on software professional products, you benefit from the following

standard support services:

• Phone-based installation troubleshooting for 90 days following your purchase,

• Knowledge Base and Frequent Question resources,

• Web-based Technical Support,

• Registered User Forums,

• Free Software Updates

Updating

No software is ever perfect. This is why e-on software regularly releases software updates through

its website. These updates can provide new features as well as bug fixes. Keeping your software

up-to-date by regularly downloading and installing these updates is recommended for optimal

performance.

LumenRT updates can be downloaded at www.e-onsoftware.com and are accessible from your

account.

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/


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LLiivveeCCuubbeess


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How It Works

LumenRT Workflow

The process for creating and sharing the interactive LumenRT LiveCube is very simple and

straightforward. The workflow is divided into 3 basic steps: (see the illustration below):

Export

The export process transfers the model from SketchUp to LumenRT. This is done by using the

LumenRT export plug-in located directly inside the SketchUp user interface. Invoking the plug-in

will automatically send the model complete with all geometries, materials, lighting, and animation

paths to the LumenRT renderer.

Your computer may appear to lag while this process is performed. You can check the status bar at

the bottom of SketchUp to monitor progress (although SketchUp may freeze up temporarily while

the export completes). The export process is faster when you re-export a model that was just

exported.

You can export the entire model, or only part of it. If you wish to export only part of your model,

simply select the part to export and run the menu command Plugins | e-on software LumenRT |

Export Selected.

Pre-Process

The pre-processing phase is what creates the actual LumenRT LiveCube. In this step, LumenRT

computes the scene lighting and shadows and bakes this into the LiveCube to produce a vivid, life-

like 3D model.

This rendering step is very compute intensive and can range anywhere from several minutes to

several hours to complete depending on the computing platform, model complexity, and desired

output quality. We have tried to make the progress indicator as linear as possible, however, due to

the great differences in scenarios supported by LumenRT, this is not always possible.


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Share

After the render process completes, LumenRT creates the final LiveCube output (stored as a folder

in the Documents/e-on software/LumenRT folder).

The LiveCube allows users to "walk-around" inside a 3D scene containing the high-fidelity model.

You can share LiveCubes with anyone on a Windows or Macintosh platform. To share a LiveCube,

simply publish it by pressing the Publish button in the help panel. You can share published

LiveCubes by sending the self-running executable file via email or ftp in the same way a self-

extracting zip file can be shared. LiveCube recipients simply click the file and it runs automatically.

You can also export screenshots and canned animations from the LiveCube. This feature is not

available in the LiveCubes that you publish for sharing with clients. The animation path is based on

the camera motion that was setup in SketchUp.

LumenRT Limitations

While LumenRT is a very powerful and easy-to-use tool, there are practical limits to what it can do

in terms of its current functional capabilities as well as limits imposed by computing and graphics

hardware. Keep in mind the following when considering the usage of LumenRT:

Model Size

Models that contain more than 500,000 faces

(e.g. cities, models with lots of 3D vegetation

models) are not recommended for LumenRT

processing.

LumenRT can certainly process large models of

any size, but chances are most graphics cards will

not be able to smoothly navigate the LiveCube

output unless a very high-end graphics card is

used.

Also, the LumenRT pre-processing time depends strongly on the total surface area of the model. A

warning will appear whenever you try to process models with a total surface area over 4,000 square

meters (roughly 40,000 sqft) as the time required to process such models may become prohibitive.

For very large scenes, you should consider using the Auto-scale lighting feature (see page 26).


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Sun Position and Direct Lighting

The LumenRT sun position is fixed according to

the sun position in the SketchUp model file.

There currently is no facility in LumenRT to alter

the sun position or add other direct light sources.

Real World Units

LumenRT lighting is based on real world units.

To maximize realism and ease navigation, it’s

critical that models are built at the full real world

unit scale (e.g. 1:1 not 1:2 or 1:4).


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Getting Started Tutorial

The best way to learn LumenRT is to create your own LiveCube. This tutorial will provide a quick

overview of how to create your first LumenRT LiveCube from SketchUp.

Step 1 – First LiveCube

To start this tutorial, load the Getting Started

Tutorial/LumenRT Tutorial - step 1/SketchUp/

LumenRT Tutorial - step 1.skp SketchUp scene

from CD. This is a very simple and crude model

of a single-room house with a pool. The scene

was designed to show you how you can easily

create a LiveCube and then improve its visual

impact with a few simple tricks.

First, we will export the model to LumenRT to

see what it looks like. Click the LumenRT icon

or select the menu command Plugins | e-on

software LumenRT | Export Full Model. This

will bring up the LumenRT interface where you

can select the LiveCube output quality and

environment. Select the Nice Weather

atmosphere, a Grass pedestal and set quality to

Review, then click Generate. LumenRT will

now export the model and then initiate the pre-

processing phase. This process is very CPU

intensive but will run in the background so that you can continue working on other tasks. Here, the

model is very simple, so pre-processing and generating the LiveCube should only take a couple of

minutes.

When pre-processing is complete, the LiveCube will appear on screen. The initial start or “home”

position of the LiveCube will either be the first keyframe of the animation or the current camera

position of the scene if no animation is present. Click in the window to start moving around and

exploring the LiveCube. Press the left mouse button to walk forward. Move the mouse left and

right to look around. The F1 key displays the help menu and explains each of the navigation keys

and navigation modes. As you explore, notice how light flows in through the door and bounces

around the little room. In the next step, we will change the opaque blue window into a glass pane.


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Step 2 – Glass Window

Close the LiveCube and go back to SketchUp.

Select the window pane and assign it a blue glass

material from the standard materials. Because the

material has some transparency to it, it will be

identified as glass by LumenRT. Regenerate the

LiveCube. Tick the Overwrite Files checkbox if

you want to overwrite the previous LiveCube, or

untick it to preserve the previous LiveCube (a

version number will be automatically appended

to the new LiveCube name). When the LiveCube

launches, notice how the window pane now

appears as transparent glass with realistic

reflections. Notice also how more light streams

into the room through the window. In the next

step, we will turn the blue surface in the pool into

water.

Step 3 – Water Pool

Go back to SketchUp and assign a material from

the water collection to the blue plane in the pool.

Any material with the word "Water" in it will be

identified as water and LumenRT will

automatically add gentle ripple and caustic

effects. Generate the new LiveCube and check

out the water in the pool. If you want to speed up

the process, you can export your model in Draft

quality. Because this mode does not general

indirect ligthting, the pre-processing phase is a

lot faster. Draft mode is very useful when you

want to fine tune your materials. In the next step,

we will improve the look of the tiles around the

pool.


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Step 4 - Materials

First, we will add shininess to the tiles around the

pool. In SketchUp, edit the tile material and add

"s=20% z=30%" to the material name, so it reads

"Tiles s=20% z=30%". This sets the specular

highlights to moderately high and shiny values.

You can check the result by generating a

LiveCube. Using Draft mode to speed up the

process is recommended. Notice the highlights

on the pool tiles. Now we will tweak the pool

material further to increase the "bumpiness" of

the tiles. Add "b=-100%" to the material name to

invert the bumps on the material and increase the

amplitude of the bumps (the material name

should now read "Tiles s=20% z=30% b=-

100%"). Regenerate the LiveCube. Using

statements like these, you can customize the way

your materials look in LumenRT LiveCubes.

Once you are satisfied with your materials,

generate a Review or better quality LiveCube to

enjoy full quality lighting.

Step 5 – Time of Day

Now we will change the time of day to see how

this influences lighting. In SketchUp, adjust the

time of day to 7:15 AM and regenerate the

LiveCube. Notice how the amosphere of the

scene has changed because of the change in

lighting.

Conclusion

That’s it!! You have created your first LumenRT

LiveCubes and learnt how to improve the looks

of your materials. Now you can try generating

LiveCubes of your own models. However, we

recommend you read on in order to get a better

understanding of how LumenRT works and how

to avoid common errors. If you run into any

issues, please refer to the Troubleshooting

section page 50.

The next section will describe the navigation and

viewing features of LumenRT in greater detail.


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Navigating the LiveCube

In LumenRT, the mouse is the primary device used to navigate the LiveCube in a manner similar to

walking through a 3D video game or orbiting inside a 3D application.

You can view a quick tutorial on navigating LiveCubes through the help pannel (F1 then click the

Navigation Tutorial button) or here: http://www.lumenrt.com/navigationtutorial.

LumenRT offers three different navigation modes for viewing and exploring LumenRT LiveCubes:

Walk-Thru Mode (the default mode, activated by

pressing the F3 key) is like a first person video

game. The user operates the mouse controls to

“wander” through the model as if he/she was

walking through the scene. Pressing the left

mouse button will cause the camera to walk

forward. You will see a small circle in the scene

as you walk which indicates the heading. The

speed of walking increases if you keep the mouse

button pressed. Simply release mouse button to

reset speed.

The camera is fixed to a height of 1.6 meters

above the ground (about the eye level of an

average-sized adult). You can move up or down

using the Page Up and Page Down keys. The

camera will revert to its standard height as soon

as you start walking again.

Walk-thru mode is sensitive to obstacles such as

walls which will halt movement (and display a

halt icon) until the user clicks and releases the

mouse to walk-thru the wall. Features such as

stairs will cause the movement to simulate

walking up or down the flight of stairs. Users can

move up or down to different floors by using the

elevator up/down keys to lightly fly up or down

to a different floor.

Orbit Mode (activated by pressing the F4 key)

operates very much like a typical 3D application

such as SketchUp. Controls such as pan, zoom

and rotation changes the camera viewpoint in the scene.

Animation Mode (activated by pressing the F2 key) is an optional form of navigation that becomes

available if the SketchUp scene contains an animation path which is derived from the SketchUp

http://www.lumenrt.com/navigationtutorial


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scene tabs. In this mode, the animation will begin as soon as the LiveCube is launched. Animation

mode also allows a slide show style of navigation similar to a PowerPoint presentation by moving

forward or backward to various scene snapshots using the arrow keys.

You can stop animation playback anytime by pressing the left mouse button which will switch to

walk-thru mode and start walking from where the camera is (and restore the default height).

Basic Navigation Controls

The basic navigation controls are the first level set of controls.

The LumenRT help screen displays each of the basic

movements such as using the mouse to navigate. The help

screen is available by pressing the F1 key.

Extended Navigation Mode Controls

The extended controls allow refined movements and operation

according to the three navigation modes:

• Animation Mode

• Walk-Thru Mode

• Orbit Mode

The extended controls help screen is displayed by clicking the “More Controls” button on the help

screen.


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Basic Controls Key Description

Help F1 Displays the help screen.

Toggle Full-

Screen/Window Mode Alt + Enter

This will toggle full screen or window operating

mode.

Exit Esc The escape key (esc) pauses operation of the

LumenRT viewer window.

Return to Start Home The home key (home) will return the camera to the

start position.

Animation Mode F2 This is the default startup mode when an

animation is present in the exported file.

Walk-Thru Mode F3

Walk-Thru mode is the default mode for the

LumenRT viewer when an animation is not

present.

Orbit Mode F4

Orbit mode operates like a standard 3D application

where the camera can be placed at any angle and

height by panning, zooming and rotating.

Inline Help

Inline Help

on-screen

button

Displays the LumenRT help documentation.

Publish

Publish

on-screen

button

Publishes the LumenRT LiveCube as a self-

executing compressed file suitable for sharing with

others.

Save Animation

Save

Animation

on-screen

button

Generates a canned animation file of the camera

movement inside the LumenRT LiveCube.


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Animation Mode

Controls Key Description

Pause Space Tapping the space bar will pause the

animation.

Previous/Next Keyframe Left/Right Arrow

Keys

Use the left/right arrow keys to jump to

specific keyframes.

Start/End Home/End Go to the animation start/end.

Switch to Walk-Thru

Mode Left mouse

Click the left mouse button to switch into

walk-thru mode.

Walk-Thru Mode

Controls Key Description

Look Right/left Mouse Left/Right Moving the mouse left/right with no buttons

pressed orbits the camera.

Walk Mouse Down Left Left mouse down hold – walks forward.

Run Forward/Backward Middle Mouse

Button

Shuttle the middle mouse button to run

forward or backward.

Pan Right/Left Left/Right Arrow

Keys

Use the right/left arrow keys to move

sideways.

Elevator Up/Down Page Up/

Page Down

Press and hold the page up/page down keys to

jump to another floor above or below –

release the keys when you are above the

desired floor.

Orbit Mode Controls Key Description

Orbit Right/left Mouse Down Left Hold and drag the left mouse button to orbit

around the scene.

Zoom In/Out Middle Mouse

Button or

Up/Down Arrow

Keys

Shuttle the middle mouse button to zoom in

and out. Alternatively, you can use the

up/down arrow keys.

Pan Right/Left Left/Right Arrow

Keys

Use the right/left arrow keys to pan sideways.

Raise/Lower Camera

Height

Page Up/

Page Down

Press and hold the page up/page down keys to

raise and lower the height of the camera.


26

Generating a LiveCube

LumenRT SketchUp Panel

To export a model as a LumenRT LiveCube, go to the SketchUp Plugins menu and select

LumenRT | Export Full Model or Export Selected and a LumenRT dialog will appear. Each of the

dialog export options are described below:

Background: This selects which

type of Sky/Atmosphere to use.

Pedestal: This selects which type

of ground plane to use underneath

the model. If none is selected, the

model will simply lay on top of an

infinite ground plane.

Quality: Indicates which of 4

quality settings to use. Draft

generates a fast preview in under a

minute. Review quality generates a

fast (typically 15 minutes

depending on system performance

and scene complexity) medium

quality output suitable for test

viewing. Superior generates a nice

high quality output and takes about

an hour. Extreme generates the

highest quality output and can take

two hours or more.

Auto-scale lighting: This option

becomes available when using a

non-draft quality level. It is useful

for improving the performance of

lighting calculations on large

models (e.g. models greater than

4,000 square meters or 40,000

square feet) with a tradeoff of

reduced quality. When checked, the internal scale of the model is reduced to accelerate the lighting

calculation and the result is rescaled back to its original size. The quality of the lighting produced

will obviously be lower, but in many cases, the quality of the result remains acceptable.

You should not use this option for models that require a strong discrepancy in lighting quality, as

the overall quality of the lighting will probably be reduced too strongly on the parts where quality


27

is an issue (for instance, rendering a building with a large surrounding garden – while quality will

be perfectly acceptable for the garden, lighting inside the building may suffer dramatically).

Generate: After making your selections, hit the Generate button to begin the export and render

process.

Overwrite Files: Checking this box will direct LumenRT to overwrite previously existing

LiveCube folders with the same name. If unchecked, LumenRT will create a new LiveCube folder

incremented by a numbered suffix (e.g MyModel_01).


28

Background

The background options set the type of atmosphere used to render the LiveCube scene. Each

background option contains a sky map which sets the appearance of the sky (e.g. clear, cloudy, etc)

and the intensity of the direct lighting shadows produced by the sun.

In LumenRT, there are two types of light. Direct lighting, also known as diffuse light, is light

produced directly from the sun and typically produces dark shadows -- for example, the shadows

on the ground where a wall obstructs the sun.

Indirect lighting, also known as ambient light, is light that is reflected off of surfaces in the scene

and produces very feint shadows – for example, the shadows you see in the corners of a room

interior.

LumenRT produces output that contains both direct and indirect lighting. Brighter, sunnier

atmospheres contain higher percentages of direct light and produce darker shadows than cloudier or

neutral atmospheres which produce very feint direct shadows.

Bad Weather: Thick, gray cloudy sky with a mostly ambient atmosphere. This atmosphere

produces very light direct shadows.


29

Blue Sky: Bright blue clear sky with no clouds. Direct shadows are very strong.

Neutral White: Plain white atmosphere for a showroom type look. There are no direct lighting

shadows produced.


30

Nice Weather: Cloud filled sunny summer sky with dark direct lighting shadows. Beautiful puffy

clouds cover the sky.


31

Pedestal

Pedestals provide a platform on which the SketchUp models rest in the LiveCube scene. The

pedestals also show any direct ground shadows cast by the scene model. To eliminate ground

shadows, or if your model already includes some form of “base”, you can select the No Pedestal

option.

Asphalt: Parking lot material on a square pedestal.

Grass: Green grass on a square pedestal.

Sandy: Sand material on a square pedestal.

White: Plain white material on an octagonal pedestal.

Difference in Export Rendering Quality

LumenRT offers a choice of rendering mode thresholds which vary by the degree of rendering

quality offered and the amount of time needed to complete the render. In general, you should

choose a rendering quality level that will deliver the quality you need with the least amount of

rendering time.

There are four export rendering quality modes available in LumenRT:

Quality Mode Rendering Time Indirect Lighting/Shadow Quality

Draft Under 1 minute No indirect lighting

Review ~ 15 minutes High quality with indirect lighting

Superior ~ 1 hour Superior lighting quality

Extreme Very slow For complex scenarios

Rendering time is an approximate time for a 100K face model running on a quad-core 3 GHz machine.


32

Draft quality generates a very fast preview that will render in under a minute. It contains no indirect

lighting or indirect shadows. Draft mode is very useful as a quick test render, particularly for

checking animation paths, the direction and intensity of direct lighting from the sun as well as

material options. In most cases, you will not want to distribute Draft quality renders to others.

Review generates a medium quality render that will complete in 30 minutes or less depending on

scene complexity and the power of your system. It contains full indirect lighting and shadows that

may appear rough or splotchy in some cases. Review quality will work just fine for many final

productions, particularly for outdoor or exterior renders.

Superior generates a high quality render that will complete in around 1 hour or less depending on

scene complexity and the power of your system. It contains high quality, smooth indirect lighting

and shadows.


33

Extreme generates a very advanced lighting simulation that should be reserved for difficult lighting

scenarios where artifacts appear in the other modes (for instance, when no direct light penetrates

the volume).

In most cases, you will never need to use this rendering mode unless you have a complex indoor

scene with lots of indirect lighting and no direct light.

The pre-processor automatically generates a log file that is placed in the same folder as the

LiveCube, inside the Scene sub-folder. The file is called LumenRT.log.

Animation

Animation in LumenRT allows full motion

replay of a predefined camera animation path.

This is very useful when you want to include a

showroom style or kiosk type of guided walk-

thru.

Animation paths are created in SketchUp by

using SketchUp scene tabs and setting the

associated animation path properties. Each scene

tab in SketchUp represents a single camera key

frame. When aggregated together, the scene tabs create a full-motion camera animation path.

For more information on how to create scene tabs and animation paths in SketchUp, please visit

http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=151692

If the SketchUp model contains scene tabs, LumenRT will automatically create an animation path

derived from these tabs in a fashion similar to how SketchUp creates animations. The animation

timing and hold frames are controlled by whatever timings are used in the SketchUp model.

The animation path created in LumenRT is a close approximation of the actual SketchUp animation

path although there may be some minor differences.

The initial start or “home” position of the LiveCube will either be the first keyframe of the

animation or the current camera position of the scene if no animation is present.

You can save the camera animation by clicking the Save Animation button in the Help panel (see

page 35).

http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=151692


34

Sharing the LiveCube

The process of sharing LiveCubes with clients and co-

workers is very simple and straightforward. It does not

require any special viewing software or even a copy of

LumenRT. Instead, a compressed, self executing copy of

the LiveCube is created which is capable of being shared

with anyone on a PC or Mac platform

The compressed, self-executing file is very similar to a

self-extracting zip file. By simply clicking on the file, the

LiveCube will run automatically (you need to manually

unzip the file on the Mac platform).

The source LiveCubes are found in your Documents/e-on software/LumenRT folder. Click the

LumenRT.exe icon to run the LiveCube.

To create a sharable LiveCube, select the

Publish option button from the LumenRT

help screen (Key F1). This will save the

compressed file to a location of your choice.

You can select the target platform for the

LiveCube from the drop-down box

(Windows LiveCube, Mac LiveCube or

both). Then, just e-email or FTP the

shareable LiveCube to anyone you wish.

Also, as useful aid to help your clients

understand how to navigate inside the LumenRT LiveCube, you can provide them with the

following video link:


Adding Your Logo over a Published LiveCube Splash Screen

To add a custom logo in a published LiveCube, add a corresponding jpeg image file named

UserLogo.jpg to the root of your exported source LiveCube folder (next to the LumenRT launcher

file), located in Documents/e-on software/LumenRT. This has to be done before clicking the

Publish button from the LumenRT navigator help screen. This will add your logo to the published

LiveCube splash screen upon start.



35

Saving Stills and Animations

LumenRT lets you capture screenshots of the LiveCube anytime simply by pressing the F5 key.

The screenshots are automatically anti-aliased and saved as Jpeg files in the LiveCube folder.

Screenshots are automatically numbered in sequence.

You can also save a canned animation file of the LumenRT camera animation. This file can then be

played back in any animation player. The movement is based on SketchUp camera views and

delays (see above section on Animation, page 33).

You can export the camera animation as a

.AVI (on Windows) or .MP4V (on Mac)

animation file.

To generate the animation file, simply press

the Save Animation button in the Help

panel (press F1 to display this panel).

Select the destination file from the File

Selection dialog and press Save to save the

animation file. Each frame will be

sequentially rendered, anti-aliased and

saved into the animation file. Depending on

the duration of the animation and the power of your system, this process may take a while.


36

SSeeccttiioonn 33

GGooiinngg FFuurrtthheerr


37

Tutorials

Optimizing Large Models

When creating LumenRT Live Cubes, it’s important to ensure that SketchUp models are fully

optimized for efficient rendering and navigation performance. This tutorial demonstrates how to

optimize models containing a large number of faces and components for use with LumenRT. The

key optimization factors involve the effective use of layers and hiding unnecessary geometries and

components.

You can follow along with this tutorial by downloading the demonstration model “Big House” by

master SketchUp modeler Andres from the 3D Google Warehouse.

Step 1

Load the model into SketchUp

Step 2

Examine and interrogate model info by displaying the model information window – Window |

Model Info. Notice that this is a large model with over 100K faces which translates to well over

500K polygons (faces are exported as triangle polygons in LumenRT). The large poly count

indicates that this model may experience rendering and navigation performance issues in

LumenRT. So let’s try and optimize this model a bit.


38

Step 3

Purge the model of any orphaned

components and materials by

clicking the Purge Unused button on

the Model Info window. This will

clean up the model by getting rid of

any unused component definitions

and materials.

Step 4

This model contains very high poly

trees and vegetation where the object

components such as leaves are

modeled as separate geometries. This

will obviously cause a major increase

in the polycount. Our choices here

are to replace the veg with low poly

billboard type veg or just move the

veg to another layer and not export it

at all. Let’s do the latter.

It’s always a good idea to organize

your model into layers that can be

turned on and off. Here, we create a

new layer called “Veg” (in the

Layers window) and then we move

all the veg objects into this layer by

selecting them and then changing their layer in the Entity Info window. Turn visibility off for the

new Veg layer in the Layers window.


39

Step 5

Turn off any other unnecessary

layers and hide unnecessary

components/geometry. In this case

we are going to hide the cars in the

garage.

Step 6

Check for any stray geometry by

zooming the model to fit the

viewable area (right click Zoom

Extents). The model should fit nicely

in the viewable area. If the model

does not fully zoom up, then you

have some stray geometry in the

scene. Either delete or hide the stray

geometry.


40

Materials

Materials are a key factor for making high quality scenes in LumenRT. Using the right texture

maps along with the proper material settings can dramatically improve the appearance and increase

realism.

LumenRT material modification takes place directly inside of SketchUp, using the SketchUp

Material Editor Dialog. Materials are either treated automatically (in the case of water and

transparent materials) or by setting material properties as attributes encoded in the SketchUp

material name.

You can follow along with this tutorial by downloading the demonstration model “Gables House

with Interior” by master SketchUp modeler BmrCT from the 3D Google Warehouse.

Step 1

Load the model into SketchUp. This

model (which has been slightly

modified with the addition of a pool)

contains a nice variety of materials

including brick, wood, water, glass,

and stone.


41

Step 2

Do a quick test render in LumenRT

by exporting the model using draft

quality. Plugins | LumenRT | Export

Full Model and then select Draft

quality.

While the quality of the lighting and

shadows is very low in draft mode,

you can still get a good idea of what

each material will look like.

Step 3

Examine the model in LumenRT and

take note of the appearance of each

material. Does it look right? Do the

materials need bump or specular

highlights added? Do the glass and

water materials look correct?

After making some mental notes,

return to SketchUp to edit and

enhance the materials.

Step 4

Brick and Stone materials are

automatically pre-set in LumenRT to

contain a small amount of bump

(5%). In this case, we will increase

the exterior Brick bump amount to

15% which will provide sharper

details and reliefs.

Step 5

Select the brick material in the

SketchUp material editor. To do this,

we locate the brick material of the

house by using the paint bucket tool

and holding the “alt” key down to

select the exterior brick in the scene.

This will then highlight the material

in the SketchUp material editor.


42

Increase the brick bump amount by

appending the key “b=15%” to the

end of the material name.

Step 6

Shiny materials such as plastic and

leather will look more realistic by

adding specular highlights. In this

case, we add specular highlights to

the leather seats in the living room.

Select the Red chair material and lets

add 30% specular with a shine of

50% (s=30%z=50%).


43

Improving Your LiveCubes

SketchUp Modeling and Scene Optimization

While LumenRT can process any type of SketchUp model, it’s important to adhere to proper

practices when constructing models in order to achieve optimal results. In general, if models are

well constructed in SketchUp (e.g. air tight models, properly joined components, etc), then they

will look good in LumenRT.

Listed below are several tips for creating your models in SketchUp in order to optimize the final

result in LumenRT.

Smoothing Curved Surfaces

In SketchUp, all curved surfaces appear with

some level of smoothing applied. However, these

surfaces will appear to be unsmoothed in

LumenRT unless they are converted into groups

or components. If you run across any condition

as shown in the figure below, convert the object

into a component or group to ensure that

smoothing is properly applied.

Add Wall and Floor Thickness

Adding thickness to walls and floors will

improve the quality of shadows and light,

especially for interior renders. If walls or floors

are constructed primarily of single planar faces

with no thickness, lighting artifacts such as light

leaks may occur.

Avoid Degenerate Faces

Avoid overlapping faces or putting two faces

together with opposite normals or else LumenRT

will remove one of the two faces.

Avoid Very Large Surface Areas

Because LumenRT computes indirect lighting

over the entire model, if your model

encompasses large surface elements such as

roads, parking lots, gardens, etc. the processing

time will become extremely long as LumenRT computes lighting for these elements.


44

A warning will automatically be displayed during processing if the surface area of your model

exceeds 4,000 square meters (roughly 40,000 sqft). While LumenRT is perfectly capable of

handling large surface areas, you can greatly speed up the processing by not including large

unecessary elements.

Eliminate Orphaned Geometry to Avoid Unusually Large Pedestals

Delete or clean up all orphaned geometry or else the pedestal

will be way too big in the scene compared to the model and

processing times will suffer.

Use Groups, Components and Layers

Keeping your model well organized by using groups,

components, and layers provides greater ease and flexibility

when deciding which sections of the model to export. Also, it's

generally better to separate each part of the model in order to

remove or change materials easily.

Use Real World Units

LumenRT lighting is based on real world units.

To maximize realism, it’s critical that models are

built at the full real world unit scale and

proportions (e.g. 1:1 not 1:2 or 1:4).

Use Fewer Polygons

Hiding unnecessary layers and getting rid of

unneeded geometry will help to reduce the model

size and improve overall interactive performance.

Export Only Part of the Scene

LumenRT only exports visible layers and non-

hidden geometries so switching layers off and

hiding geometries will reduce the model size

upon export. Also, there is an option under the

LumenRT Plugin Export menu in SketchUp to

export only a selected portion of the model for a

more concise and efficient export.


45

Add Thickness to Carpeting/Flooring

Carpets and floors will look better in LumenRT

if they have a bit of thickness (1cm is a good

thickness for example).

Keep Models above the Ground

Plane

Everything should be modeled above the

SketchUp ground plane. Anything below the

ground plane will not be visible in LumenRT.

Clean Ground Plane Intersections

Avoid polygons that penetrate far underneath the ground plane. This can result in bad looking

shadows around the intersecting corner or edge.

Use Planar Faces for Water and Glass Materials

For a swimming pool, lake, or any water plane,

use a planar face, and not a cube. Applying water

to a cube or other non single plane object may

produce odd results (double reflection, photons

going through the floor, etc). The same is true

when creating a glass or window surface -- it is

better to have a single planar face instead of a

cube.


46

Avoid Using Fake Reflection Maps for Transparent Materials

Do not simulate reflection on glass with maps.

LumenRT will handle reflections automatically

for any material that contains

transparency/translucency (i.e. materials that are

not fully opaque).

Aim the Sun to Increase Interior

Lighting

Aim the sun to have light enter any rooms

through windows for a more dramatic effect.

Initial Camera Position Is First

Scene Tab or Current Camera

View

When exporting from SketchUp to LumenRT,

the initial start or “home” position of the

LiveCube will either be the first keyframe of the

animation or the current camera position of the

scene if no animation is present.

Use Perspective Camera Views

LumenRT uses real world perspective cameras so

it’s important to use perspective cameras in

SketchUp as well. SketchUp parallel or two-point

perspective cameras will not look right in

LumenRT.

Reduce the Number of

Reflective/Transparent Materials

Reducing the number of reflective and/or

transparent materials will also improve

interactive performance since these types of

materials are very GPU intensive.


47

Materials

Materials are one of the primary factors for making a scene in LumenRT look good. Using the right

texture maps along with the proper material settings can dramatically improve the appearance and

increase realism.

LumenRT material modification takes place directly inside of SketchUp, using the SketchUp

Material Editor Dialog. Materials are either treated automatically (in the case of water and

transparent materials) or by setting material properties as attributes encoded in the SketchUp

material name. Listed below describes how materials are treated and adjusted for LumenRT.

Water

Water materials are designed to render materials

for objects such as pools, ponds, and fountains.

Any material containing the string “Water” (not

case sensitive) in the SketchUp material name

will create a pulsating, water ripple effect in

LumenRT.

For example, a material with the name

BlueWater will have the LumenRT water effect

applied automatically. The water produced in

LumenRT will also contain nice reflections

increasing realism, but also taxing overall

performance.

Bump

Bump adjusts the amount of bumpiness at the

surface of the material. The bigger the value, the

bumpier the surface.

Any material containing the string “b=xx%”

where xx is a number will have bump applied if

the material uses a texture map. LumenRT

automatically creates a grayscale version of the

color map to generate the bump.


48

Positive values will make the bump appear above the surface while

negative values will make the bump appear below the surface.

SketchUp materials starting with the name Stone, Brick or Roofing will

have a bump of 10% applied.

For example, a material with the name “Wood b=25%” will have a 25%

bump applied to the material in LumenRT. If you want to reverse the

bump, use a negative number: “Wood b=-25%”.

Specularity

Specularity describes the surface quality of the material (shiny or dull).

The specular highlights create spots of light on the surface of the object,

in the direction of the light sources. The

smoother the surface, the more concentrated and

bright the spots will be (e.g., think of polished

marble). The highlights are built with two

parameters: the intensity of the light spots that

appear on the surface and the size of the spots.

To add specular highlights to a material such as a

shiny metal material, there are two settings that

must be created in the material name.

1. Specular Intensity: s=xx%(lower numbers are less bright, higher

numbers are brighter)

2. Specular Size: z=xx% (lower numbers are duller, higher numbers are

more shiny)

For example, a material with the name:

StainlessSteels=50%z=60% will create a shiny steel surface.

Plastics=25%z=20% creates a dull plastic material

WoodFloors=30%z=50% creates a wood floor with a nice waxy sheen

You need not specify both values if not necessary.


49

Reflective Materials

Reflective materials include objects such as glass

and mirrors.

Any material that contains some level of

transparency (e.g when the SketchUp material

opacity is less than 100%) will contain some

degree of reflectiveness. This will produce real-

time reflections in LumenRT such as the sky

reflecting on a pane of glass. In LumenRT, the

Index of Reflectiveness (IOR) is set to a value of

1.5 (glass) for all reflective surfaces.

Texture Maps

For materials that use texture maps, make sure

that there is sufficient resolution in the map. A

good rule of thumb is that maps should at least

have a dimension of 256 x 256 pixels.


50

Troubleshooting

For the latest information on troubleshooting and solving LumenRT issues, please visit the

LumenRT and Architectural user forums at http://www.cornucopia3d.com

Listed below is a list of common problems you may have using LumenRT along will suggested

solutions:

Light Appears Around Wall Corners

Sometimes it may happen that you see bright

areas of light appear in corners or near the floor

where there shouldn’t be any. This phenomenon

is known as "light leak" and is an artifact usually

caused by using walls or floors that are

insufficienlty thick. To correct this problem,

make your walls and floor thicker (using a more

ambient atmosphere such as the neutral white

atmosphere may reduce this effect slightly).

Dark Shadows Appear at the Bottom of a Wall or in Corners

If very dark and splotchy looking shadows

appear at the base of a floor plane wall

intersection, in most cases this is caused by the

wall extending under the floor. Try trimming the

wall exactly to the intersection of the floor plane

to eliminate this problem. Likewise, if splotches

appear around an object, you probably have faces

of that object extending "inside" the object, and

you should trim the faces so that they do not

penetrate inside the object.

Pre-Processing Takes Forever

The mathematics involved in processing the illumination of a scene are very complex and time

consuming, especially if the scene itself is complicated. Because LumenRT computes indirect

lighting over the entire scene, if your scene encompasses large surface elements such as roads,

parking lots, gardens, etc. the processing time will become extremely long as LumenRT computes

lighting for these elements. You can greatly speed up the processing by not including large

unnecessary elements or using the Auto-scale lighting option which will greatly improve

performance with a tradeoff of reduced lighting quality.

Also, if pre-processing appears to take abnormally long to process an otherwise reasonably sized

model, make sure that no other processor intensive applications are running (because LumenRT

http://www.cornucopia3d.com/


51

runs in the background, it will yield processing power to the other applications) and that your

computer is not switching into power saving mode during processing.

Window Glass Is Blinking when Navigating in LiveCube

If the windows in the LiveCube scene are

blinking during navigation or animation, it most

likely is caused by duplicated glass panes in your

windows which causes multiple reflections

bouncing off the glass. Although LumenRT

attempts to correct this automatically, there are

some cases when you will have to remove the

second glass pane manually. Making sure to

create windows using a single planar face instead

of a cube is a good way of eiliminating this problem.

Pedestal is too Big Compared to the Model

Check to ensure that no small orphaned polygons

are floating around the scene perimeter. Delete or

hide these if possible.

Playback Performance in the

LiveCube is Slow or Choppy

If the LiveCube playback and navigation

performance appears slow or choppy, first ensure

that you or your clients are using a suitable

modern graphics card. Slow-downs can occur if the scene contains a large number of faces (e.g.

greater than 200,000) or if the scene has many reflective/transparent materials. Reducing the

number of polygons exported (e.g. turning off layers, hiding components) and reducing the number

of reflective materials will improve performance significantly.

Some Faces Are Missing

If some faces are missing from the scene, check

to ensure that the polygons are not overlapping

with other polygons containing opposite normals.

Also, make sure that the area in question is

receiving enough light. Faces that are found to be

in pitch dark may be removed automatically by

LumenRT in order to speed up playback.


52

Flickering Polygons

If you find that some polygons are blinking or

flickering in the LiveCube it could be caused by

a visual artifact phenomenon known as “Z-

fighting” when 2 polygons are overlapping and

are at almost exactly the same distance and

position from the camera. In this situation, the

renderer doesn’t know which polygon to display

first (since they are both at the same location) so

the display just alternates back and forth between

both polygons. To correct this, avoid coincidental

overlapping polygons (increase the space

between the polygons).

Object Surfaces are not Smooth

Make sure when creating curved surfaces in

SketchUp that they are made into a component,

or group, and that the smooth normal option is

checked in the SketchUp “Soften Edges” option.

Splotchy Looking Shadow Artifacts

If shadow artifacts appear, particularly near

object corners and intersections, try using a

higher quality render setting (e.g. from Review to

Superior or Extreme). In addition, re-aiming the

sun or opening up the room to allow more light

in can help to lessen shadowing artifacts. Also,

make sure that light is able to find it way into

your rooms. Leaving doors open is a good way of

letting light in (and it also helps navigation).

Another cause for this could be that the scene is

simply too large (check that there are no

orphaned polygons floating around the scene

perimeter).

Water Material is not Rendering

with Ripples or Caustics

Make sure that the word “water” (case

insensitive) appears somewhere in the material

name and that the water material is transparent in

SketchUp.


53

No Bumps (or Not Enough Bumps) on Objects

Check to make sure that the material is using a

texture map and that the bump settings are set in

the material name (e.g. WoodFloorb=50%). You

can increase the amount of bumps by raising the

"b=xx%" value. Values beyond 100% are

possible.

Noisy Looking Areas

In some cases, if the area being viewed in

LumenRT is too dark, there may be some noise

in the picture. Allowing more light to reach this

area will solve the problem (e.g. by opening

doors).

I Can’t Find my LiveCube File

Please check in your Documents/e-on

software/LumenRT folder.

How Do I Launch the LumenRT Application?

LumenRT operates as a SketchUp plug-in. In SketchUp, go to Plugins�e-on software LumenRT to

start the export and rendering process.

How Do I Avoid Having my LiveCube Files Overwritten?

Please uncheck the “Overwrite Files” checkbox when exporting from SketchUp to LumenRT.

Animation Playback Pauses at Regular Intervals

The model probably contains too many polygons – more than your graphics card can handle.

However, you can try switching to full screen mode (alt + return key) to see if this improves

performance (avoids screen synchronization problems). Otherwise, you will need to slim down the

model.

Video Board Suddenly Not Supported

If you lock your computer session shortly after launching a LumenRT process, and before the

LumenRT pre-processing window appears, the application will not be able to start correcly and will

report your video board as not supported (because it fails to create the required contexts due to

locking your session).


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Overly Saturated Indirect Light

If the colorful light that is bounced onto walls

feels a little too colorful and saturated to be real,

this is probably because some of your materials

in the scene use colors that cannot exist in reality.

For instance, if you want to create a red wall,

chances are you will create a 100% red color,

with no green or blue, which, when looked at

from a physical point of view, means that the

material is bouncing back 100% of the red light

that it received. In reality, this never happens. For instance, good quality paints will only bounce

back about 80% of the light they receive. Although LumenRT attempts to automatically limit this

effect, the result of "impossible" colors may feel fake because of the way LumenRT accurately

simulates the physics of light. Turning down the saturation of your colors is a good way of

avoiding this.

Some Pictures Are Missing

Pictures that are imported directly into SketchUp

without being assigned to a material will not

appear in the LiveCube. If some pictures appear

to be missing, make sure that they are assigned to

faces using a material.

LiveCube Refuses to Run on

another System

You cannot copy a LiveCube folder to another

system and run it there. If you want to run a LiveCube on another system, you need to Publish the

LiveCube first (see page 34).


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56

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LumenRT1.3 Reference Manual

Documents

Transcript of LumenRT1.3 Reference Manual