Gile[s] Is Great, But...

... no matter how hard i try i can't seem to get a realistic looking lighting of a submarine interior.

Now this is probably due to my lack of understanding on how to use the program, or my missing the main concept of doin things in Gile[s], so don't take this in any way as a condemnation of the program.

I am all but set to license this bad boy... it's a great execution (how'd you get the radiosity lightmapping code to run so fast :) ), but everything I do with the demo looks artificial, and it seems to throw shadows all over the place...

So far I've been quite impressed with Skitchy's LightBulb (a lot of people never gave it the look it deserved) and I only have one problem with it (indicated by the red arrows).



It takes a lil longer than I'd like, but the output has a realistic quality to it that works for me...

... one that I'm finding hard to duplicate in Giles[s] which, is a lot faster at lightmapping, and with the promised x import, looks very inticing...



I think I'll wind up licensing Gile[s] anywho... different tools for different situations (Gile[s] for brighter more radiant settings, LightBulb for darker, enclosed interiors), plus...

... I'm sure that once I learn what I'm supposed, I too will be geting stuff similar to some of the great output that I've seen on the boards (imagodespira, filax)

...

so please... any hints as to what I'm doing wrong would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks

--Mike

in gile(s) turn the blur bitmap feature ON....

thanks S... will give it a try.

[added]
that was the post processing auto blur checkbox option... right?

--Mike

I haven't used Giles yet, though I do intend to. From the screenshots, it looks as though your ambient light settings are much lower in Giles ( assuming that's the lower one. )

Try using vertex lighting on the cylinders in Gile[s], or assigning a new lightmap to them. There are many ways of improving the appearance of lightmaps in Giles.

You need to increase the lightmap size (in giles) you can see the size of the lumels (lightmap pixels) is far larger in Giles than those created by LightBulb.

Personally I think Giles creates nicer lightmaps (the Global illumination is very nice), but that Lightbulb render you have there looks really good - shame about the fragmenting on the pillars though (as you point out).

Thanks Guys!!!

trying out all the suggestions now...

Yeah B-Moon, even though both of them were rushed, and are by no means a final quality effort, the one done with LB does capture the enclosed atmosphere of a sub interior.

Although, from some shots I've seen on the Gile[s] board, I'm hoping that I can get the same, if not similar results.

Thanks Again for the help...

--Mike

The shot from LightBulb does look really great :)

To help you out with getting the quality right, a Lightmap Wizard will be available in the next update of gile[s]. That will give you excellent results with a minimum of problems.

aaahhh... good... words from da man himself.

yes... a wizard, for slow users like me... cooool...

hey, don't forget the x-import in the next version ( :) ), right now i'm saving from Truespace as 3ds and bringing it into Gile[s] (not a real problem)...

seriously, THANKS Fred for taking the time to give a response here... looks like the suggestions are yielding results, and i'll probably be whipping out the wife's card soon...

... you've done a great programming job with Gile[s].

--Mike

Thank you :) It does take a bit of time to get into the same frame of mind as gile[s], but the next few versions will increase the ease of use by a great deal.

Yeah... it seems like Gile[s], while not as picky in requiring the user to choose the right settings, does require a different mindset...

Gile[s] is not a "place the lights and away you go" sort of affair...

... it seems as if the user needs to be able to 'see' the results that he/she is looking for ahead of time, and know (or learn) enough to be able to pre set the scene elements accordingly before starting the lightmapping run...

... that's where I was having my problems. Now that the concept is a lil better understood, things are starting to look better.

With a lil more practice, I'll be ready to go up against Filax's Egypt demo :)

Anyway, lemme go ahead and get a license before Fredborg starts raising the price any :)

It looks like this Gile[s] thing is not gonna let me get any rest until I can do something worth looking at with it...

Thanks Again Fred, and everyone for the help...

--Mike

check out the tips in the giles forum for help on how to minimise having to render...tweak...render

Did you know it had render selected? very fast...