AC 9 Water rendering tip for LightWorks

Dwight · ‎2004-09-27

Decrease water transparency from 32 - 72 for improved reflection

Dwight Atkinson

Anonymous · ‎2009-10-31

I can see that you are realy a Archicad proffessional, and veteran, and that you are willing to help other people, but that seems to be not very useful for me, as i haven`t understood you. Sorry mate, i have been working in Autocad for about 5 years, and Archicad entered in my life 4 months ago. Therefore, every tip sentece written here, gives me a headache to understand it.

Here what i have done (from what i have understood you): i have duplicated the LS Water material (at Lightworks) and then at his Trancparency category changed to Plain Coverage, and then changed Coverage to 0.72. I tried to render it at Lightworks, and the result was bad. Then i tried changing the Trancparency to Eroded, and changed its options Scale, Coverage and Fuzz to: 0.30, 0.49, 0.10. Again the result was bad after rendering it at Light works.

What am i doing wrong?

Wich material have you duplicated? You said you used a shader, not a texture? How come?
Also, i haven`t understood you this:

It will only show in a LightWorks rendering - you must use a rendering of the water surface made straight on for an image in OpenGL renderings.

Sorry for disturbance once again. If you think i am not worth of further explanations, cause you already explained me, i will understand. Thank for all the help so far.

Anonymous · ‎2009-11-01

nedostizni wrote:
Also, i haven`t understood you this:

It will only show in a LightWorks rendering - you must use a rendering of the water surface made straight on for an image in OpenGL renderings.

What Dwight means here is that once you have achieved a good result with Lightworks, render the water surface straight on (to avoid perspective distortion) then you can apply the result to Internal Engine material texture and you will also have good looking water in OpenGL views.

I hope this helps.

Anonymous · ‎2009-11-02

ok, now i understood it. But i only want to render it at Lightworks, not at Internal or Opengl.

As i already said, i tried Dwight tips from the two screenshots above, and i haven`t got the same result as he. Where am i wrong? I tried duplicated the LS Water material at the Lightworks, and then changed his Trancparency category to Plain Coverage, then changed Coverage to 0.72. I tried to render it at Lightworks, and the result was bad(by bad, i mean that i got someting, that does not look like a water). Then i tried changing the Trancparency to Eroded, and changed its options Scale, Coverage and Fuzz to: 0.30, 0.49, 0.10. Again the result was bad after rendering it at Light works.

Where am i wrong?

Anonymous · ‎2009-11-06

Dwight, i am apologizing for disturbing you again, as you have already pointed to me the solution of this "water problem".
But it seems that some things are not working right. Maybe the problem is with the uncompatibility of the Lightworks parametars at Archicad 9 and 12.

Here, take a look at the example images. I have duplicated the LS-Water at the Lightworks, and made two new materials, with the settings that you created. Then i have assigned this two new materials to a slab (40 height), wich i want to be water. Here are the results:

The first one: image
The second one: image

As you can see, something is not workin as it should at the Archicad 9. Why?

Here are my setting for the Lightworks, wich i have used to render both methods (just in case if you think this is imoprtant for the solution of this problem): image

I am apologizing for disturbance once again. Thanks for all the help so far.

Anonymous · ‎2009-11-07

Hi Nedostizni,

Don't get too hung up on the two dialog boxes Dwight posted up. They are only part of the story!

Your water is missing any sort of surface movement. Try setting the displacement to 'Casting' with the settings similar to those on the attached image.

The Plain Coverage and Eroded settings affect the transparency of the surface. I can't get a satisfactory result using Eroded as this seems to just cut holes in the water surface! Try using Plain Coverage set to around 70 as this seems to be about right for water in a pool.

Also note that you can apply the same water material to the whole slab if you like. The sides and underside are not displayed or rendered if they touch another solid face.

Edit - Also make the water slab the full depth of the pool rather than just a thin surface (you said you made it 40 'high'. I don't know if this means 40mm, 40cm or 40 inches!)

Hope that helps.

Anonymous · ‎2009-11-10

Thanks for the answer Peter. Sorry for not writting it: the slab is 40 centimetres heigh.

I have some problems with the operating system right now, but as soon as i fix that out, i will let you know what i have done with the parametars you gave me. Thanks once again.

Anonymous · ‎2010-02-24

I am apologizing for late reply. Here is what i have got with the materials settings that Peter Clark gave me at his last reply:

1 2

The target images, are the fourth ones at both files (the ones on the right at the bottom). As seen they both look amazing, and i am very satisfied with the result - it looks like a real water.

Thanks Peter, i own you mate.

Anonymous · ‎2010-02-24

No problem!

The water looks great!

The buildings are looking good too - I love the random panel effect on the curtainwalls!

Thanks for posting up the results!

Anonymous · ‎2010-02-25

Glad you like it Peter. Once again, thanks for the water tip.

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AC 9 Water rendering tip for LightWorks

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