'luxball' Default Material Preview Scene

[Poncho]

Is it possible to integrate the luxball 3d code into luxrender, so that when pressing render it start right away, now you have to wait very long to load, but it's always the same, so why reload that every time?. this might also prevent people accidentally changing the luxball (geometry for example) during material editing.

[Abel]

now you have to wait very long to load, but it's always the same, so why reload that every time?

In LuxBlend there are a few buttons on the right of the render and render anim buttons. If you unselect the one saying .lxo, the geometry will not be exported but instead an existing geometry file will be used, provided that a file with the expected name exists. The downside is that you will have to name the rendering the same as the previous luxball rendering, so also the previously rendered image will be overwritten.

[Rhys]

Hi is this the latest scene?
Just took a look inside the ball, seems the outer ball is bleeding into the inner ball, wont this cause transperant materials to not look correct? Some part is intersecting while other parts are not intersecting.
Also having 'nothing environment' to reflect is not very good for very shiny materials/chrome etc.
Also it seems very much like the maxwell scene.

Edit
Also the bottom is intersecting:

These intersections fit in with whats going on here:



May I modify some things?

[Rhys]

Actually I think I'll do a revamp of this?
-Remodel the ball while preserving a useable uv map, ready for when image textures are availabe in the matdb?
-modify the base (slightly) so its not so much maxwell?
-some nicer reflections those strips are not very nice looking imo, also no more 'nothing'?
-keeping image texture free as current.
-any more i decide needs fixing

Will I be wasting my time?

[dougal2]

This has been the subject of much discussion and debate in the past, however I agree that the modelling in the existing scene is far from optimal because IIRC it was imported from a different CAD program.

If you are going to keep basically the same model, but re-made with good and efficient geometry then I'd like to see the result. Currently the exported luxball scene weighs in at about 12MB.

[Rhys]

Alright this is what ive got modelled in blender.
Model

with texture

Except the problem is now, the .lxo file is 24mb,
Total scene is around 300 000 faces, my ball is 150 000, Wheres the rest coming from?
I think its all these fonts.

I Think maybe having a group of different numbers and instancing them.


Edit:
deleting all the numbers except the ones visible to the camera only brings it down to 20mb.

[Rhys]

Alright, went back a couple of steps and reduced the ball and stand to 55 000 faces, The whole scene being around 220 000 still though (because of the fonts).

The .lxo file is back down to 13mb now.

Edit:
Do the numbers mean anything?, otherwise I'll instance them.

[Rhys]

So, scene now exports to 6.5mb.

This render has a older lighting layout, just shows a texture applied

Latest scene with blue-mirror material. Exposure has been bumped up a lot, since the reflection of the emitter is bright, needed compensating. More balanced lighting since the wood render above.

[Poncho]

I'm not sure what is better, but yours compared to the original have the holes different. (orange is original)

[dougal2]

the numbers are supposed to provide some unique non-repeating reflections for reflective materials. I think if you can instance them (you can do it randomly, they don't have to be the same numbers as before) you will certainly reduce the export size quite considerably.