Autodesk LIGHTSCAPE, Manual

Page: 222 / 362

Rendering 14
214
Lightscape
Creating Images
Lightscape produces images that can be output in a
variety of standard file formats. The following file
formats are currently supported:
Rendering with OpenGL
You can produce an image of your radiosity solution
very quickly using OpenGL rendering. However,
keep in mind that rendering occurs at—and can be
limited by—the color depth of your display device.
This color depth may be less than 24 bits per pixel,
reducing the quality of your output.
Note: You can avoid hardware limitations by ray
tracing with the lsray utility. This batch processing
utility runs in software only and, therefore, does
not depend on your display hardware. It can always
output images with 24-bit color per pixel (or 48-bit
color per pixel in the TIFF and RGB file formats). For
more information on the batch processing utilities,
see “Rendering Large Jobs” on page 220.
Image Resolution
You can choose from a variety of commonly used
image resolutions provided by Lightscape, or you
can specify a custom resolution. When you set the
resolution, the Graphic window resizes itself
accordingly.
Note: When you resize the window, the aspect
ratio (proportion) may change and the view may
be altered. Resize the Graphic window before
setting your views so that you can see exactly what
will be rendered.
To take advantage of accelerated OpenGL display
capabilities, the image must fit within the bounds of
the Graphic window. Images that have a higher reso-
lution than the window’s dimensions are broken into
tiles. Each tile is the maximum size that fits within
the window while maintaining the original aspect
ratio of the image.
For example, if you create an 1800 x 1200 image
(larger than the maximum Graphic window size),
Lightscape breaks up the image and renders it as
four tiles of 900 x 600 pixels each. Once it has gener-
ated the image for every tile, Lightscape creates the
final high-resolution image by combining these tiles.
Antialiasing
Use antialiasing to smooth out jagged edges. This
improves image quality and provides better results
when the model contains features smaller than a
single pixel.
Although a single still image requires antialiasing to
achieve high quality, the antialiasing level can be
lower than that required for animation frames. It is
much easier to see aliasing in animations, particu-
larly if the model contains many thin (less than a
pixel) features, such as cables or railings. You can
obtain satisfactory single images with an antialiasing
level set to 3 or 4; however, animation frames may
require a level of 6 or 7.
To render a radiosity solution:
1.
Choose File | Render.
The Rendering dialog appears.
File Extension: Format:
.bmp Windows native file format.
.tga Targa, TrueVision format.
.tif TIFF—24-bit and 48-bit.
.rgb RGB—24-bit and 48-bit, native
Silicon Graphics file format.
.jpg JPEG.
.png Portable Net Graphics.
.eps Encapsulated PostScript.