Hello Gael and thanks for writting your review!

Well we are preparing a 0.43 alpha. It already took so much time. But it has what is described here http://centileo.com/forum/forum21/74-status-of-preparing-centileo-043-alpha .
Will appear here very soon. Btw 0.43 is even faster.

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I don't know how to post an image of my tests, sorry.

For some reason the image uploads were switched on this and Cinema forum (they were ON from the start). I have fixed the problem. So you may upload now your images, it will be cool to see what you have renderered

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material editor is a bit confusing, I wasn't able to make a simple glass, for example.

You are right. That was my mistake to organize materials as layers on top of each other (when top layers are 100% visible then bottom layers under it are not visible). By default the base layer has mask=1 and it makes invisible Transmission layer regardless of Trasmission mask. How to switch Transmission on (reduce the value of base mask and increase the value of Transmission mask). Shown here http://centileo.com/forum/forum15/53-how-to-create-glass-and-material-layer-organization

We fix this confusing material behavior for upcoming 0.43 version. Instead of masks all the layers of cntlStdMat will have weights relative to each other (pretty much like in Corona or Arnold). So, with this new approach when the weight of the layer is increased then the corresponding property (transmission or reflection or SSS) appears and blends with other material properties.

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I didn't find how to use an opacity on a map, I think anyway it was on a ctlmultimat, if I have readden correctly...I will have to try it. I saw it when I tryed the displacement...

Right, this is possible to apply opacity map using cntlMultiMap. It understands only cntlTexture shader (driven by image file) and in the places where image is black (pixel value < 0.5) the geometry of surface is removed, if it's white (pixel value > 0.5) then geometry is visible. It has no additional noise, and it has unlimited depth complexity (you may place many objects behind each other and they will render correctly without some black pixels after 30's or 60 objects in a row). It's useful for the leaves of trees.

For the needs of better flexibility (like different shader combinations) it is possible to use Transmission layer of cntlStdMat with IOR = 1.

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This shader , displacement is also not so "easy"... THe name of the parameter that forces the displacement is too much technical..."OutofRange2", right ? just use "Z displacement value in cm"

To switch on displacement you need to attach cntlTexture to the slot of cntlMultMaterial and then switch on tesselation in Render Settings -> rollout Displacement Mapping.
outRangeA and outRangeB are used to convert the input values of a texture to any desired range. It is the same shader that can be used for everything from color values to surface displacement values, so the idea was to have no "centimeters" or "meters" there. So, if the shader is used for displacement then these OutRange values internally use selected units of the scene.
Do you recommend us to create a separate shader with everything the same as in cntlTextute but with displacement range renamed to "Negative displacement value", "Positive displacement value" and with proper units?

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I noticed that some 3d objects had been doubled at another area on the frame buffer, that strange...Maybe a problem with instanciations in the framebuffer...

One object appeared two times in the framebuffer or two framebuffer windows were open? It the last one problem then it was fixed in 0.43 few hours ago. It appeared if you hold that button or click it several times in a fraction of second.

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So, right now, as it is in alpha version, it is not really possible to use it in real conditions as it misses many small important tools. I have made some images that show some of the parameters on a very simple Architectural project but even here, the renderer is not yet usable. Hmm, I feel criticizing the renderer, in fact no...I really find it interesting, I just want to talk about the needs, we, 3D users, face everyday.And simplicity, efficiency are the exact words

Dont' forget to criticize us, this is very useful to make it improved. We are doing this work for you. It is important to know what other things you need to improve in our renderer.

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Is there any idea to use both GPU and CPU ?

We will see, right now we are working to support simultanious rendering using several GPUs. Then there we a couple of algorithmic render speed accelerations (regardless of device), later there will be work on more features (post production, scattes, 3rd party plugins, shaders, light sources).
Adding CPU support can be considerered in a longer future (after crucial features will be done). I think it is most important in render farms.

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A suggestion for the future , when it will be sold online, I hope, we won't have to be permanently logged on internet to be able to work with it... We need a box Licence able to be changed from one computer to another thanks to a dongle or something like that... For security reasons, we cannot let the computers plugged to internet...

This is understandable, we work same way for security reasons
The sales system is not yet drawn but we account user needs and will try to find proper solutions. There is some dilemma in this important question, dongle can be an option btw.

Looking forward for your further tests!

Hi Gael,

Thanks for your feedback with images. As you see we need to calibrate things here and there.

I think we need to implement camera perspective correction. Right? Or are you using orthographic camera projection in ARTrender image?

I recommend you to use portals in interior (create centileo area light with dimensions matching the window size and enable checkbox "Is portal").

If you added the lights but the interior is dark then it is probably not enough intensity, please try increasing it. Or they are occluded by the window. If you have windows then keep in mind that if you decrease the number of ray bounces in render settings too much then small amount of bounces may not be enough to reach the light.

Our displacement mapping algorithm is currently in active development. For example, it has some bugs and tesselates not so fast as we want (this should improve a lot). It will also be more featured (vector displacements and et). It seems we should make a specialised shader for displacement with units as cm, meter or km. It should also have some more controls specific for displacement like on/off autobump, shader inherirtance priority for instances and so on.

Displacement works adaptively for each changing camera frame or changing objects.
Btw, you may notice a "retesselate" flag on the IPR window. It switches on/off the automatic retesselation of the whole scene when you change the viewpoint of camera or materials. But this flag doesn't invalidate the previously created displacement solution. So it can be usefull to switch if off temporarilly while you tune the lighting and materials.

I see your issues with licenses. Your needs are totally valid. As I remember the dongles have some additional price. Will need to evaluate all the options...

Btw, what GPU do you have in a laptop? Something like GTX 980M?

Hello,
Here are some new tests of the lights in an inside room.

All the scene has been first converted to the centileo materials and lights from a art render scene configuration.
I made the windows transparent and I put a material wood floor without any special modification.

I tryed first the environment color map with a directlight, no special problem, everything worked as expected.
Next, I added a spot light and impossible to reduce significantly the light intensity except with the radius parameter.

At least, I created 3 aera lights outside the room in front of the windows and I checked "Portal" as u wrote me in your last message.
No result at all, no light through the windows...then, I increased the max ray bounces as u mentioned to 20 but still nothing as u can see on the 3rd image.

Then, I moved the biggest area light inside the room thinking it was due to the window object but the result was still the same, no light.
I turned the "PORTAL" off and I was able to use the intensity parameters but with a large black rectangle in the middle of the image as u can see on the last image.

Concerning the point lights, they have no effect at all...
On the images I let the Centileo render parameter window opened in order for u to see it.
U can see also the parameters of the area and spot light objects.

However, even if there are some problems, I noticed that the light was very clear and contrasted on the objects that will give a very good render in the future.
I made this scene with ArtRender and the result is far from my tastes...Very washed colors, difficult to get a contrasted and clean image... i had to prepare the lights configurations
and the materials to obtain a result but anyway, I wasn't satisfied at all...
Here, with centileo, I saw some strong lights with an interesting impact on the other 3Dobjects...So, I'm looking forwards to the next chapter.
thank you
Gaël

Hello Kirill,
I use meter unit.Yes, o,oo1 had no effect...on the spot light
The area lights with portal ON have no effect inside or outside the room, u can see the result when it is on or off on my image with no other change from me.
I will try the point lights as u say. I didn't create any one directly, I just let the point lights made by the converter, so yes, maybe a problem from the converter itself.
thank you
Gaël

Good evening Kirill,
here are some new tests of the different centileo lights. I made a mistake in my last test with the spot lights. They work fine and the point lights too.
I used the area lights but I'm not sure to understand the "Portal" option as when it is checked on, there is no light from them...
Yes, the light converter has a problem as the point lights made by it are not usable.

However, I find the light nice on objects even if the objects still have no adapted materials. Nevertheless, I started to try the floor material with a wood texture.
I'm still a bit lost on how to use the different options of the standard ctl material... I hope there will be a more clear window dialogue in a next future version.
I'm waiting for your topics as u said just before.

In my examples, I started with pointlights first, next I added some spotlights and at least I enlighted the scene with area lights from the main window and a smaller one close to a wall
over the place of 3 tables. the result is interesting, a bit slow but clean.
On the last photo I tryed some reflection on the wood floor, just a try, but I got confused with all the butons of the material parameters....
thank you
Gaël

hello, sorry, maybe I was wrong.
In fact I thought that the render after 10 mn with Around 20 lights in 800X600 was a little slow...But maybe not...
However it seems that you will accelerate the speed significantly as you mean.
Congratulations.

I will try the materials on this scene later, I have a lot of work and I cannot test so often. Moreover, I don't dare to use Centileo on a real project as I still don't feel confident on how to
use it efficiently and of course many tools are missing.But I hope to do it as soon as possible.

Do u plan to use 3ds Max tools like the new physical camera and sky ? or will u create new ones ? As they are already existing, I hope u can adapt to them easily.
It's quite convenient to avoid double same tools. I would prefer new kind of tools that do not exist already.My 2 cents...But you know better than me what you have to do, eh,eh !

Have a nice evening
Gaël