LumenRT Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual
e-on software, inc.

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LumenRT 2, LumenRT 2 Review, Cornucopia, Cornucopia3d, "The Natural 3D Studio", "Natural 3D", "The Art of Natural 3D", "Solutions for Natural 3D Environments" are trademarks or registered trademarks of e-on software, inc. Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are registered trademarks of Microsoft, Inc. QuickTime, QuickTime VR, Mac, OS X, OS 9 are registered trademarks of Apple, inc. Flash and Photoshop are registered trademarks of Adobe, Inc. SketchUp and SketchUp Pro are registered trademarks of Google Inc. All other product and brand names mentioned in this manual are used for identification purposes only. They may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and, as such, remain the exclusive property of their respective holders. Copyright LumenRT 2 Program 2012 e-on software, inc. All rights reserved. LumenRT 2 Documentation 2012 e-on software, inc. All rights reserved. This manual, as well as the LumenRT 2 software described in it is furnished under a license agreement and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license agreement. Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent product specification or commitment on the part of e-on software, inc. Algorithms used inside this software were developed for visual performance only, and may not constitute a precise simulation of real phenomena. Warning: This software and the accompanying documentation are protected by U.S. copyright law as well as by international intellectual property conventions. Any reproduction, sale, transfer, transcription, storage in a retrieval system, translation into any language in any form or distribution by any means whatsoever of this software or accompanying documentation, in part or in full, without the prior written permission from e-on software, inc. is strictly forbidden. Any such act shall constitute a copyright violation and shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Printed January 2012
Contents
Getting Started
WHATS NEW 7
Enhanced LumenRT 2 Live Cube Real-Time Engine ..........................................................7 Adjustable Sun.....................................................................................................................7 Fast Occluded Shadows for Standard Quality Output ........................................................7 LumenRT 2 Material Editor ................................................................................................7
REAL-TIME ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION KEY FEATURES
8 10
KEY BENEFITS .........................................................................................................................9
A More Engaging User Experience ..................................................................................10 No Need for Specialized Viewing Software.......................................................................10 Seamless Background Processing .....................................................................................10
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
12
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS .......................................................................................................12 Pre-Processing Machine...................................................................................................12 Navigation/Viewing Machine............................................................................................12 INSTALLATION .......................................................................................................................13 Welcome ............................................................................................................................13 Desired Operation.............................................................................................................13 Software License Agreement .............................................................................................13 Required Dependencies.....................................................................................................13 User Information...............................................................................................................14 Required Components .......................................................................................................14 Installation Type ...............................................................................................................14 Installation Progress.........................................................................................................14 ACTIVATION ..........................................................................................................................15 SUPPORT ................................................................................................................................16 UPDATING .............................................................................................................................16
LiveCubes
HOW IT WORKS 18
LUMENRT 2 WORKFLOW ..................................................................................................... 18 Export............................................................................................................................... 18 Pre-Process ...................................................................................................................... 18 Share ................................................................................................................................ 19 LUMENRT 2 LIMITATIONS .................................................................................................... 19 Model Size ........................................................................................................................ 19 Real World Units.............................................................................................................. 20 GETTING STARTED TUTORIAL .............................................................................................. 21
NAVIGATING THE LIVECUBE
24
Basic Navigation Controls ............................................................................................... 26 Extended Navigation Mode Controls ............................................................................... 26
GENERATING A LIVECUBE
29
LUMENRT 2 SKETCHUP PANEL ............................................................................................ 29 ANIMATION .......................................................................................................................... 37 SHARING THE LIVECUBE ...................................................................................................... 38 SAVING STILLS AND ANIMATIONS ........................................................................................ 39 MATERIALS .......................................................................................................................... 40 Water ................................................................................................................................ 40 Bump ................................................................................................................................ 41 Specularity........................................................................................................................ 41 Reflective Materials.......................................................................................................... 42 Texture Maps.................................................................................................................... 42
Going Further
TUTORIALS 44
OPTIMIZING LARGE MODELS ................................................................................................ 44 MATERIALS .......................................................................................................................... 47
IMPROVING YOUR LIVECUBES
50
SKETCHUP MODELING AND SCENE OPTIMIZATION .............................................................. 50 Smoothing Curved Surfaces ............................................................................................. 50
Add Wall and Floor Thickness ..........................................................................................50 Avoid Degenerate Faces ...................................................................................................50 Avoid Very Large Surface Areas.......................................................................................50 Eliminate Orphaned Geometry to Avoid Unusually Large Pedestals ...............................51 Use Groups, Components and Layers...............................................................................51 Use Real World Units........................................................................................................51 Use Fewer Polygons .........................................................................................................51 Export Only Part of the Scene...........................................................................................51 Add Thickness to Carpeting/Flooring ...............................................................................52 Keep Models above the Ground Plane..............................................................................52 Clean Ground Plane Intersections....................................................................................52 Use Planar Faces for Water and Glass Materials ............................................................52 Avoid Using Fake Reflection Maps for Transparent Materials ........................................53 Aim the Sun to Increase Interior Lighting.........................................................................53 Initial Camera Position Is First Scene Tab or Current Camera View ..............................53 Use Perspective Camera Views.........................................................................................53 Reduce the Number of Reflective/Transparent Materials .................................................53
TROUBLESHOOTING
54
Light Appears Around Wall Corners ................................................................................54 Dark Shadows Appear at the Bottom of a Wall or in Corners ..........................................54 Pre-Processing Takes Forever..........................................................................................54 Window Glass Is Blinking when Navigating in LiveCube.................................................55 Pedestal is too Big Compared to the Model......................................................................55 Playback Performance in the LiveCube is Slow or Choppy..............................................55 Some Faces Are Missing ...................................................................................................55 Flickering Polygons ..........................................................................................................56 Object Surfaces are not Smooth ........................................................................................56 Splotchy Looking Shadow Artifacts...................................................................................56 Water Material is not Rendering with Ripples or Caustics...............................................56 No Bumps (or Not Enough Bumps) on Objects .................................................................57 Noisy Looking Areas .........................................................................................................57 I Cant Find my LiveCube File .........................................................................................57 How Do I Launch the LumenRT 2 Application? ...............................................................57 How Do I Avoid Having my LiveCube Files Overwritten? ...............................................57 Animation Playback Pauses at Regular Intervals .............................................................57 Video Board Suddenly Not Supported...............................................................................57
Overly Saturated Indirect Light ....................................................................................... 58 Some Pictures Are Missing............................................................................................... 58 LiveCube Refuses to Run on another System.................................................................... 58
LICENSE AGREEMENT
59
Section 1
Getting Started
Whats New
Listed below is a description of the new features and capabilities within LumenRT 2.
Enhanced LumenRT 2 Live Cube Real-Time Engine

The LumenRT 2 Live Cube graphics engine has been greatly improved and offers higher quality graphics such as better anti-aliasing and motion blur as well as faster performance on all platforms. There is also a new toggle switch (F7 key) which enables/disables higher-end graphics features (e.g. real-time reflections, anti-aliasing, soft shadows and motion blur) so that Live Cubes can run and display on less capable graphics cards.
Adjustable Sun
LumenRT 2 allows the sun position to be adjusted or animated dynamically, in real-time, directly inside the LumenRT 2 Live Cube. The arc position from sunrise to sunset is determined automatically from the Sketchup model during export. The sun position is moved interactively by using the G and H keys.
Fast Occluded Shadows for Standard Quality Output

LumenRT 2 includes a new Standard quality mode which contains fast ambient occlusion shadows. While not as high in quality as the higher quality LumenRT 2 illumination modes (e.g. Full Lighting, Superior, and Extreme), Standard mode produces very nice output with dramatically reduced baking times (approximately 5 minutes or less for a standard sized model). Standard quality mode is also the default quality mode used when exporting scenes containing an adjustable sun.
LumenRT 2 Material Editor

LumenRT 2 material modification now takes place directly inside of SketchUp using the new LumenRT 2 Material Editor. The LumenRT 2 Material Editor is accessed by going to the Sketchup menu Plugins | e-on software LumenRT 2 | Edit Materials. The LumenRT 2 Material Editor contains all of the active materials used in the Sketchup model and allows users to adjust bump, specular highlights, and set reflective properties such as water, glass and mirror.
Real-Time Architectural Visualization
LumenRT 2 is e-on software's revolutionary product for the visualization of architectural projects in real-time 3D with photo-real illumination. Thanks to LumenRT 2, architects no longer have to choose between high-quality images and realtime visualization: They can walk or fly through their designs and experience the true quality of light in fully interactive 3D! LumenRT 2 real-time environments can even be packaged into convenient, self-contained executables that can be run on any computer without requiring additional software. Designed to provide high fidelity visualization with accurate lighting, shadows and reflections, LumenRT 2 is the ideal solution for: Creating a virtual interactive showroom Demonstrating and sharing design concepts Visualizing 3D models in client presentations Exposing your projects in fully real-time photo-realistic 3D
Key Benefits
LumenRT 2s output is fully interactive and will run on any computer without special viewing software making it easy to share designs and collaborate with anyone. High fidelity, photo-realistic 3D Viewing Accurate lighting, shadows and reflections Fast interactive 3D viewing performance Runs on any machine no special viewing software required Incredibly simple, push-button operation Automated rendering output from SketchUp/SketchUp Pro. Display greater details with accurate lighting and shadows Share models with anyone effortlessly Explore and interact with models in real-time Gain deeper insights on model features and aesthetics Create interactive 3D walkthroughs and presentations that will impress your clients
Key Features
A More Engaging User Experience

The combination of LumenRT 2s vivid output and rich navigation capabilities allow your clients and co-workers to experience and interact with designs in a much more immersive and exciting manner. LumenRT 2 creates very high-fidelity output complete with accurately simulated lighting, shadows, and reflections. This output can be navigated interactively in a self guided fashion using either the game-like, walk-though mode, or explored using a 3D style orbit mode similar to how programs like SketchUp operate. In addition, LumenRT 2 LiveCubes can employ animation paths which allow you to direct and present the viewing experience in a predictable, predefined manner. The animation mode is also useful for self-running, kiosk style presentations.
No Need for Specialized Viewing Software

With LumenRT 2, no special viewing software is required. Instead, LumenRT 2 LiveCubes are shared using a simple self-extracting zip file facility. The LiveCubes run automatically on any PC or Mac platform when executed. Just click and run its a simple as that.
Seamless Background Processing

The LumenRT 2 rendering process is fully automated and requires no user intervention. Models are exported directly from inside SketchUp to the LumenRT 2 application which runs as a background
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LumenRT 2 Reference Manual process. LumenRT 2 uses the SketchUp geometries and materials along with the lighting, viewing and animation parameters directly from the model file. Listed below is the detailed feature list for LumenRT 2:
Export
One-click, seamless export from SketchUp to LumenRT 2 Export models and animations High degree of material correlation with automatic bump mapping Animated water materials User adjustable materials directly inside of SketchUp User selectable atmospheres and ground materials Sketchup billboard objects (always facing the camera) are also supported
Rendering
High fidelity simulation of indirect lighting Real-world shadows and reflections User selectable rendering quality level Rendering process runs in the background allowing user to continue working on other tasks Outputs a graphics LiveCube that runs on any platform
Navigation
Simple, multi-mode navigation (animated, walk-thru, and orbit modes) Does not require special viewing software -- runs on any platform with a modern graphics card
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Technical Information
System Requirements
LumenRT 2 is a 32 & 64 bits application, designed for the Windows 32/64 bits XP, Vista and 7 as well as Intel Mac OS X platforms. A 64 bit system is highly recommended for authoring LiveCubes (32 bit systems are fine for playback). LumenRT 2 is either CPU or GPU intensive depending on the task being performed. The pre-processing phase is CPU intensive while the navigation/viewing process is GPU intensive. Performance of the software is directly related to the power of the system running it. LumenRT 2 is optimized to make the best of all the processors/cores on your system. The power of your video board directly impacts the frame-rate during real-time 3D play-back. LumenRT 2 Review for SketchUp requires SketchUp 7 or 8 (free or Pro version).
Pre-Processing Machine
This is the machine on which you will export your scene from SketchUp. So basically it should be able to run SketchUp, but you'll need a lot of power to process the scene in order that it doesn't take ages to compute. Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32/64 or Mac OS X v10.6+ 32/64 (64 bit recommended) nVidia GeForce 8800 or newer or ATI Radeon 4000+ or newer video board, with at least 512MB VRAM 2GHz Intel processor or faster (multi-core CPU recommended) 2GB of free RAM (4GB recommended) 4GB of free Hard Disk space.
Navigation/Viewing Machine
This is the machine on which you or your client will navigate and explore the model. The more complex your model is, the more graphic power it will require. Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32/64 or Mac OS X v10.6+ 32/64 nVidia GeForce 8800 or newer or ATI Radeon 4000+ or newer video board, with at least 512MB VRAM 2GHz Intel processor or faster 1GB of free RAM (4GB recommended) 200MB of free Hard Disk space.
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Installation
The installation program, which is described below, is located on your installation DVD/download. The initial start and updating the software is described separately. Follow these steps to install LumenRT 2 onto your computer: Place the installation DVD into your computer's DVD drive. It should auto-start (Windows) or its symbol should appear in the Finder (Mac OS). If not, open the DVD manually. Double click the Install LumenRT 2 link on the auto-start screen or double-click on the Setup application file.
The software will now be installed.
Welcome
Clicking on Next will take you to the license agreement window.
Desired Operation
Select the version of LumenRT 2 that you want to install: 32 or 64 bits.
Software License Agreement

Read the license agreement carefully. These terms must be agreed to in order to continue with the installation.
Required Dependencies
LumenRT 2 will first install the required dependencies. Press Next when this completes.
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User Information
Enter your Name and the name of your Company (if applicable). Enter your Serial Number. You can either type these into the corresponding fields manually or copy and paste them from an e-mail. If you enter the license numbers manually, simply enter them as they appear in the registration information including all digits and letters, skipping the dashes. If you have received an email containing the license numbers, simply copy the entire contents of the email and copy it into the first field. Please note that this number is confidential, and should not be communicated to third parties. You will be asked for this serial number or your product installation code to download data from our website.
Required Components
You will have the choice of installing LumenRT 2 for different version of SketchUp you have on your computer. Select the location of your main SketchUp application folder.
Installation Type
During the installation process, you will have the choice of installing all of the software, or only parts of it. Since only what is necessary is actually installed on your hard-drive, we recommend you choose the Typical installation mode.
Installation Progress
The installation can be canceled at any time as long as the progress bar is visible by clicking on Cancel. If the installation is canceled, the installation process must be restarted completely, as described above.
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Activation
At the end of the installation you will see the activation screen. You must activate your copy of LumenRT 2 before you can start using it. If by any chance you don't see this panel after the installation, it will appear again on your first start of LumenRT 2. Your product installation code should be prefilled on this dialog. To activate a license, press the Activate online now! button to automatically connect to the e-on software product activation page and activate your copy of LumenRT 2. Once you got your activation code, copy and paste it into the field, and click Finalize activation. If your computer doesn't have access to the internet, you will have to use another computer (with internet access) to complete the registration process. During installation, the Activation screen displays immediately after the screen where you enter the serial number. You have two options. You have to copy the INST- code displayed and go to another machine, log into your e-on account and register the product using that Installation Code at this time. You will receive an Activation code which you must copy and bring back to your machine running LumenRT 2 and enter the Activation code. Then press Finalize Activation to continue the installation. If you dont' wish to activate at this time, select Activate Later on this Activation screen and the installation will complete. When you start LumenRT 2 and start a render, the Activation Screen will again display and you will have to activate at this time to use the product using the procedure outlined above.
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Support
If you experience difficulties installing or using the software, the first thing we recommend is that you visit our website and read through the frequently asked questions to see if there is already an answer to your problem in there. If not, please visit www.cornucopia3d.com/forum. As a registered client of e-on software professional products, you benefit from the following standard support services: Phone-based installation troubleshooting for 90 days following your purchase, Knowledge Base and Frequent Question resources, Web-based Technical Support, Registered User Forums, Free Software Updates
Updating
No software is ever perfect. This is why e-on software regularly releases software updates through its website. These updates can provide new features as well as bug fixes. Keeping your software up-to-date by regularly downloading and installing these updates is recommended for optimal performance. LumenRT 2 updates can be downloaded at www.e-onsoftware.com and are accessible from your account.
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Section 2
LiveCubes
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How It Works
LumenRT 2 Workflow
The process for creating and sharing the interactive LumenRT 2 LiveCube is very simple and straightforward. The workflow is divided into 3 basic steps: (see the illustration below):
Export
The export process transfers the model from SketchUp to LumenRT 2. This is done by using the LumenRT 2 export plug-in located directly inside the SketchUp user interface. Invoking the plug-in will automatically send the model complete with all geometries, materials, lighting, and animation paths to the LumenRT 2 renderer. Your computer may appear to lag while this process is performed. You can check the status bar at the bottom of SketchUp to monitor the export progress (although SketchUp may freeze up temporarily while the export completes). The export process is faster when you re-export a model that was just exported. You can export the entire model, or only part of it. If you wish to export only part of your model, simply select the part to export and run the menu command Plugins | e-on software LumenRT 2 | Export Selected.
Pre-Process
The pre-processing phase is what creates the actual LumenRT 2 LiveCube. In this step, LumenRT 2 computes the scene lighting and shadows and bakes this into the LiveCube to produce a vivid, life-like 3D model. This rendering step is very compute intensive and can range anywhere from several minutes to several hours to complete depending on the computing platform, model complexity, and desired output quality. We have tried to make the progress indicator as linear as possible, however, due to the great differences in scenarios supported by LumenRT 2, this is not always possible.
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Share
After the render process completes, LumenRT 2 creates the final LiveCube output (stored as a folder in the Documents/e-on software/LumenRT 2 folder). The LiveCube allows users to "walk-around" inside a 3D scene containing the high-fidelity model. You can share LiveCubes with anyone on a Windows or Macintosh platform. To share a LiveCube, simply publish it by pressing the Publish button in the help panel. You can share published LiveCubes by sending the self-running executable file via email or ftp in the same way a selfextracting zip file can be shared. LiveCube recipients simply click the file and it runs automatically. You can also export screenshots and canned animations from the LiveCube. This feature is not available in the LiveCubes that you publish for sharing with clients. The animation path is based on the camera motion that was setup in SketchUp.
LumenRT 2 Limitations
While LumenRT 2 is a very powerful and easy-to-use tool, there are practical limits to what it can do in terms of its current functional capabilities as well as limits imposed by computing and graphics hardware. Keep in mind the following when considering the usage of LumenRT 2:
Model Size
Models that contain more than 500,000 faces (e.g. cities, models with lots of 3D vegetation models) are not recommended for LumenRT 2 processing. LumenRT 2 can certainly process large models of any size, but chances are most graphics cards will not be able to smoothly navigate the LiveCube output unless a very high-end graphics card is used. Also, the LumenRT 2 pre-processing time depends strongly on the total surface area of the model. A warning will appear whenever you try to process models with a total surface area over 4,000 square meters (roughly 40,000 sqft) as the time required to process such models may become prohibitive. For very large scenes, you should consider using the Auto-scale lighting feature (see page 29).
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Real World Units

LumenRT 2 lighting is based on real world units. To maximize realism and ease navigation, its critical that models are built at the full real world unit scale (e.g. 1:1 not 1:2 or 1:4).
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Getting Started Tutorial

The best way to learn LumenRT 2 is to create your own LiveCube. This tutorial will provide a quick overview of how to create your first LumenRT 2 LiveCube from SketchUp.
Step 1 First LiveCube

To start this tutorial, load the Getting Started Tutorial/LumenRT 2 Tutorial step 1/SketchUp/ LumenRT 2 Tutorial - step 1.skp SketchUp scene from CD. This is a very simple and crude model of a single-room house with a pool. The scene was designed to show you how you can easily create a LiveCube and then improve its visual impact with a few simple tricks. First, we will export the model to LumenRT 2 to see what it looks like. Click the LumenRT 2 icon or select the menu command Plugins | e-on software LumenRT 2 | Export Full Model. This will bring up the LumenRT 2 interface where you can select the LiveCube output quality and environment. Select the Nice Weather atmosphere, a Grass pedestal and set quality to Full Lighting, then click Generate. LumenRT 2 will now export the model and then initiate the pre-processing phase. This process is very CPU intensive but will run in the background so that you can continue working on other tasks. Here, the model is very simple, so pre-processing and generating the LiveCube should only take a couple of minutes. When pre-processing is complete, the LiveCube will appear on screen. The initial start or home position of the LiveCube will either be the first keyframe of the animation or the current camera position of the scene if no animation is present. Click in the window to start moving around and exploring the LiveCube. Press the left mouse button to walk forward. Move the mouse left and right to look around. The F1 key displays the help menu and explains each of the navigation keys and navigation modes. As you explore, notice how light flows in through the door and bounces around the little room. In the next step, we will change the opaque blue window into a glass pane.
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Step 2 Glass Window

Close the LiveCube and go back to SketchUp. Select the window pane and assign it a blue glass material from the standard materials. Because the material has some transparency to it, it will be identified as glass by LumenRT 2. Regenerate the LiveCube. Tick the Overwrite Files checkbox if you want to overwrite the previous LiveCube, or untick it to preserve the previous LiveCube (a version number will be automatically appended to the new LiveCube name). When the LiveCube launches, notice how the window pane now appears as transparent glass with realistic reflections. Notice also how more light streams into the room through the window. In the next step, we will turn the blue surface in the pool into water.
Step 3 Water Pool

Go back to SketchUp and assign a material from the water collection to the blue plane in the pool. Any material with the word "Water" in it will be identified as water and LumenRT 2 will automatically add gentle ripple and caustic effects. Generate the new LiveCube and check out the water in the pool. If you want to speed up the process, you can export your model in Draft quality. Because this mode does not general indirect ligthting, the pre-processing phase is a lot faster. Draft mode is very useful when you want to fine tune your materials. In the next step, we will improve the look of the tiles around the pool.
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Step 4 - Materials
First, we will add shininess to the tiles around the pool. In SketchUp, bring up the LumenRT 2 Material Editor (Plugins | e-on software LumenRT 2 | Edit Materials) and edit the tile material by adding 20% Specular Amount and 30% Specular Shine. This sets specular highlights to moderately high and shiny values. You can check the result by generating a Draft quality LiveCube. Notice the highlights on the pool tiles. Now lets tweak the pool material further to increase the "bumpiness" of the tiles. Using the LumenRT 2 Material Editor, add a 100% bump to the tile material to invert the bumps on the material and increase the bump amplitude. Regenerate the LiveCube. Using modifications like these, you can customize the way your materials look in LumenRT 2 LiveCubes. Once you are satisfied with your materials, generate a Full Lighting or better quality LiveCube to enjoy full quality lighting.
Step 5 Time of Day

Now we will change the time of day to see how this influences lighting. In SketchUp, adjust the time of day to 7:15 AM and regenerate the LiveCube. Notice how the amosphere of the scene has changed because of the change in lighting.
Conclusion
Thats it!! You have created your first LumenRT 2 LiveCubes and learnt how to improve the looks of your materials. Now you can try generating LiveCubes of your own models. However, we recommend you read on in order to get a better understanding of how LumenRT 2 works and how to avoid common errors. If you run into any issues, please refer to the Troubleshooting section page 54. The next section will describe the navigation and viewing features of LumenRT 2 in greater detail.
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Navigating the LiveCube

In LumenRT 2, the mouse is the primary device used to navigate the LiveCube in a manner similar to walking through a 3D video game or orbiting inside a 3D application. You can view a quick tutorial on navigating LiveCubes through the help pannel (F1 then click the Navigation Tutorial button) or here: http://www.lumenrt.com/navigationtutorial. LumenRT 2 offers three different navigation modes for viewing and exploring LumenRT 2 LiveCubes:
Walk-Thru Mode (the default mode, activated by pressing the F3 key) is like a first person video game. The user operates the mouse controls to wander through the model as if he/she was walking through the scene. Pressing the left mouse button will cause the camera to walk forward. You will see a small circle in the scene as you walk which indicates the heading. The speed of walking increases if you keep the mouse button pressed. Simply release mouse button to reset speed.
The camera is fixed to a height of 1.6 meters above the ground (about the eye level of an average-sized adult). You can move up or down using the Page Up and Page Down keys. The camera will revert to its standard height as soon as you start walking again. Walk-thru mode is sensitive to obstacles such as walls which will halt movement (and display a halt icon) until the user clicks and releases the mouse to walk-thru the wall. Features such as stairs will cause the movement to simulate walking up or down the flight of stairs. Users can move up or down to different floors by using the elevator up/down keys to lightly fly up or down to a different floor.
Orbit Mode (activated by pressing the F4 key) operates very much like a typical 3D application such as SketchUp. Controls such as pan, zoom and rotation changes the camera viewpoint in the scene.
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Animation Mode (activated by pressing the F2 key) is an optional form of navigation that becomes available if the SketchUp scene contains an animation path which is derived from the SketchUp scene tabs. In this mode, the animation will begin as soon as the LiveCube is launched. Animation mode also allows a slide show style of navigation similar to a PowerPoint presentation by moving forward or backward to various scene snapshots using the arrow keys.
You can stop animation playback anytime by pressing the left mouse button which will switch to walk-thru mode and start walking from where the camera is (and restore the default height).
Time of Day is adjusted by using the G and H keys to set the sun position to an earlier or later time respectively. Please note that the time of day controls are only active if the LiveCube was rendered using the Adjustable time of day option during export.
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Basic Navigation Controls

The basic navigation controls are the first level set of controls. The LumenRT 2 help screen displays each of the basic movements such as using the mouse to navigate. The help screen is available by pressing the F1 key.
Extended Navigation Mode Controls

The extended controls allow refined movements and operation according to the three navigation modes: Animation Mode Walk-Thru Mode Orbit Mode
Additionally, if the LiveCube was rendered using Adjustable Time of Day, the time of day controls will appear on the extended controls help screen. The extended controls help screen is displayed by clicking the More Controls button on the help screen.
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Basic Controls Key F1 Alt + Enter Description
Help Toggle FullScreen/Window Mode Exit Return to Start Animation Mode
Displays the help screen. This will toggle full screen or window operating mode. The escape key (esc) pauses operation of the LumenRT 2 viewer window. The home key (home) will return the camera to the start position. This is the default startup mode when an animation is present in the exported file. Walk-Thru mode is the default mode for the LumenRT 2 viewer when an animation is not present. Orbit mode operates like a standard 3D application where the camera can be placed at any angle and height by panning, zooming and rotating. When pressed, will toggle between standard display mode (high quality) and fast display mode (lower quality reduced anti-aliasing and reflections)
Esc
Home
F2
Walk-Thru Mode
F3
Orbit Mode
F4
Toggle Display Quality
F7
Inline Help
Inline Help
on-screen button
Displays the LumenRT 2 help documentation.
Publish
Publish
on-screen button
Save Animation
Publishes the LumenRT 2 LiveCube as a selfexecuting compressed file suitable for sharing with others.
Save Animation
on-screen button
Generates a canned animation file of the camera movement inside the LumenRT 2 LiveCube.
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Animation Mode Controls
Key
Description
Pause Previous/Next Keyframe Start/End Switch to Walk-Thru Mode

Walk-Thru Mode Controls
Space Left/Right Arrow Keys Home/End Left mouse

Key
Tapping the space bar will pause the animation. Use the left/right arrow keys to jump to specific keyframes. Go to the animation start/end. Click the left mouse button to switch into walk-thru mode.
Description
Look Right/left Walk Run Forward/Backward Pan Right/Left Elevator Up/Down
Mouse Left/Right Mouse Down Left Middle Mouse Button Left/Right Arrow Page Up/ Page Down
Moving the mouse left/right with no buttons pressed orbits the camera. Left mouse down hold walks forward. Shuttle the middle mouse button to run forward or backward. Use the right/left arrows to move sideways. Press and hold the page up/page down keys to jump to another floor above or below release the keys when you are above the desired floor.
Description
Orbit Mode Controls
Key
Orbit Right/left Zoom In/Out
Mouse Down Left Middle Mouse Button or Up/Down Arrow Left/Right Arrow Page Up/ Page Down
Key
Hold and drag the left mouse button to orbit around the scene. Shuttle the middle mouse button to zoom in and out. Alternatively, you can use the up/down arrow keys. Use the right/left arrow keys to pan sideways. Press and hold the page up/page down keys to raise and lower the height of the camera.
Description
Pan Right/Left Raise/Lower Camera Height

Time of Day Controls
Earlier/Later
G/H
Press G or H to move the sun to an earlier/later time respectively.
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Generating a LiveCube
LumenRT 2 SketchUp Panel
To export a model as a LumenRT 2 LiveCube, go to the SketchUp Plugins menu and select e-on Software LumenRT 2 | Export Full Model or Export Selected and a LumenRT 2 dialog will appear. Each of the dialog export options are described below:
Atmosphere: This selects which type of Sky/Atmosphere to use. When checked, the Adjustable time of day checkbox generates an atmosphere with a movable sun inside the LumenRT 2 Live Cube. Pedestal: This selects which type of ground plane to use underneath the model. If none is selected, the model will simply lay on top of an infinite ground plane. Quality: Indicates which of 5 quality settings to use. Draft generates a fast preview in under a minute. Standard creates a higher quality output with basic shadows. Full Lighting quality generates a fast (typically 15 minutes depending on system performance and scene complexity) medium quality output suitable for test viewing. Superior generates a nice high quality output and takes about an hour. Extreme generates the highest quality output and can take two hours or more. Auto-scale lighting: This option becomes available when using a non-draft quality level. It is useful for improving the performance of lighting calculations on large models (e.g. models greater than 4,000 square meters or 40,000 square feet) with a tradeoff of reduced quality. When checked, the internal scale of the model is reduced to accelerate the lighting calculation and the result is rescaled back to its original size. The quality of the lighting produced will obviously be lower, but in many cases, the quality of the result remains acceptable.
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LumenRT 2 Reference Manual You should not use this option for models that require a strong discrepancy in lighting quality, as the overall quality of the lighting will probably be reduced too strongly on the parts where quality is an issue (for instance, rendering a building with a large surrounding garden while quality will be perfectly acceptable for the garden, lighting inside the building may suffer dramatically).
Generate: After making your selections, hit the Generate button to begin the export and render
process.
Overwrite Files: Checking this box will direct LumenRT 2 to overwrite previously existing
LiveCube folders with the same name. If unchecked, LumenRT 2 will create a new LiveCube folder incremented by a numbered suffix (e.g MyModel_01).
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Background
The background options set the type of atmosphere used to render the LiveCube scene. Each background option contains a sky map which sets the appearance of the sky (e.g. clear, cloudy, etc) and the intensity of the direct lighting shadows produced by the sun. In LumenRT 2, there are two types of light. Direct lighting, also known as diffuse light, is light produced directly from the sun and typically produces dark shadows -- for example, the shadows on the ground where a wall obstructs the sun. Indirect lighting, also known as ambient light, is light that is reflected off of surfaces in the scene and produces very feint shadows for example, the shadows you see in the corners of a room interior. LumenRT 2 produces output that contains both direct and indirect lighting. Brighter, sunnier atmospheres contain higher percentages of direct light and produce darker shadows than cloudier or neutral atmospheres which produce very feint direct shadows.
Adjustable Time of Day: When this option is checked, LumenRT 2 will generate a clear blue sky atmosphere with a dynamic sun, allowing you to change the time of day in the Live Cube using the G and H keys. The sun position is calculated from the actual time zone, date and geo-position used in the Sketchup model.
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Bad Weather: Thick, gray cloudy sky with a mostly ambient atmosphere. This atmosphere produces very light direct shadows.
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Blue Sky: Bright blue clear sky with no clouds. Direct shadows are very strong.
Neutral White: Plain white atmosphere for a showroom type look. There are no direct lighting shadows produced.
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Nice Weather: Cloud filled sunny summer sky with dark direct lighting shadows. Beautiful puffy
clouds cover the sky.
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Pedestal
Pedestals provide a platform on which the SketchUp models rest in the LiveCube scene. The pedestals also show any direct ground shadows cast by the scene model. To eliminate ground shadows, or if your model already includes some form of base, you can select the No Pedestal option.
Asphalt: Parking lot material on a square pedestal. Grass: Green grass on a square pedestal. Sandy: Sand material on a square pedestal. White: Plain white material on an octagonal pedestal.
Difference in Export Rendering Quality

LumenRT 2 offers a choice of rendering mode thresholds which vary by the degree of rendering quality offered and the amount of time needed to complete the render. In general, you should choose a rendering quality level that will deliver the quality you need with the least amount of rendering time. There are five export rendering quality modes available in LumenRT 2:
Quality Mode Draft Standard Full Lighting Superior Extreme Rendering Time Indirect Lighting/Shadow Quality
Under 1 minute ~ 5 minutes ~ 15 minutes ~ 1 hour Very slow
No indirect lighting Fast occluded shadows High quality with indirect lighting Superior lighting quality For complex scenarios
Rendering time is an approximate time for a 100K face model running on a quad-core 3 GHz machine.
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Draft quality generates a very fast preview that will render in under a minute. It contains no indirect lighting or indirect shadows. Draft mode is very useful as a quick test render, particularly for checking animation paths, the direction and intensity of direct lighting from the sun as well as material options. In most cases, you will not want to distribute Draft quality renders to others.
Standard generates a fast, quality render using an occluded indirect lighting calculation for
shadows. This is the primary, final quality mode used for scenes which have the adjustable time of day switch enabled. Standard mode quality renders will complete in around 5 minutes depending on scene complexity and the power of your system.
Full Lighting generates a medium quality render that will complete in 15 minutes or less depending
on scene complexity and the power of your system. It contains full indirect lighting and shadows that may appear rough or splotchy in some cases. Full Lighting quality will work just fine for many final productions, particularly for outdoor or exterior renders.
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Superior generates a high quality render that will complete in around 1 hour or less depending on scene complexity and the power of your system. It contains high quality, smooth indirect lighting and shadows.
Extreme generates a very advanced lighting simulation that should be reserved for difficult lighting scenarios where artifacts appear in the other modes (for instance, when no direct light penetrates the volume).
In most cases, you will never need to use this rendering mode unless you have a complex indoor scene with lots of indirect lighting and no direct light. The pre-processor automatically generates a log file that is placed in the same folder as the LiveCube, inside the Scene sub-folder. The file is called LumenRT.log.
Animation
Animation in LumenRT 2 allows full motion replay of a predefined camera animation path. This is very useful when you want to include a showroom style or kiosk type of guided walkthru. In addition, the sun position is fully animatable which allows the creation of time-ofday renders. Animation paths are created in SketchUp by using SketchUp scene tabs and setting the associated animation path properties. Each scene tab in SketchUp represents a single camera key frame. When aggregated together, the scene tabs create a full-motion camera animation path.
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LumenRT 2 Reference Manual For more information on how to create scene tabs and animation paths in SketchUp, please visit http://sketchup.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=151692 If the SketchUp model contains scene tabs, LumenRT 2 will automatically create an animation path derived from these tabs in a fashion similar to how SketchUp creates animations. The animation timing and hold frames are controlled by whatever timings are used in the SketchUp model. The animation path created in LumenRT 2 is a close approximation of the actual SketchUp animation path although there may be some minor differences. The initial start or home position of the LiveCube will either be the first keyframe of the animation or the current camera position of the scene if no animation is present. You can save the camera animation by clicking the Save Animation button in the Help panel (see page 39).
Sharing the LiveCube

The process of sharing LiveCubes with clients and coworkers is very simple and straightforward. It does not require any special viewing software or even a copy of LumenRT 2. Instead, a compressed, self executing copy of the LiveCube is created which is capable of being shared with anyone on a PC or Mac platform The compressed, self-executing file is very similar to a self-extracting zip file. By simply clicking on the file, the LiveCube will run automatically (you need to manually unzip the file on the Mac platform). The source LiveCubes are found in your Documents/e-on software/LumenRT 2 folder. Click the LumenRT 2.exe icon to run the LiveCube. To create a sharable LiveCube, select the
Publish option button from the LumenRT 2 help screen (Key F1). This will save the
compressed file to a location of your choice. You can select the target platform for the LiveCube from the drop-down box (Windows LiveCube, Mac LiveCube or both). Then, just e-email or FTP the shareable LiveCube to anyone you wish. Also, as useful aid to help your clients understand how to navigate inside the LumenRT 2 LiveCube, you can provide them with the following video link: http://www.lumenrt.com/navigationtutorial
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Adding Your Logo over a Published LiveCube Splash Screen

To add a custom logo in a published LiveCube, add a corresponding jpeg image file named UserLogo.jpg to the root of your exported source LiveCube folder (next to the LumenRT 2 launcher file), located in Documents/e-on software/LumenRT 2. This has to be done before clicking the Publish button from the LumenRT 2 navigator help screen. This will add your logo to the published LiveCube splash screen upon start.
Saving Stills and Animations

LumenRT 2 lets you capture screenshots of the LiveCube anytime simply by pressing the F5 key. The screenshots are automatically anti-aliased and saved as Jpeg files in the LiveCube folder. Screenshots are automatically numbered in sequence. You can also save a canned animation file of the LumenRT 2 camera animation. This file can then be played back in any animation player. The movement is based on SketchUp camera views and delays (see above section on Animation, page 37). You can export the camera animation as a .AVI (on Windows) or .MP4V (on Mac) animation file. To generate the animation file, simply press the Save Animation button in the Help panel (press F1 to display this panel). Select the destination file from the File Selection dialog and press Save to save the animation file. Each frame will be sequentially rendered, anti-aliased and saved into the animation file. Depending on the duration of the animation and the power of your system, this process may take a while.
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Materials
Materials are one of the primary factors for making a scene in LumenRT 2 look good. Using the right texture maps along with the proper material settings can dramatically improve the appearance and increase realism. LumenRT 2 material modification takes place directly inside of SketchUp using the LumenRT 2 Material Editor. Materials are either treated automatically (in the case of water and transparent materials) or by setting material properties as attributes using the LumenRT 2 Material Editor. The LumenRT 2 Material Editor is accessed by going to the Sketchup menu
Plugins | e-on software LumenRT 2 | Edit Materials.
The LumentRT Material Editor contains all of the active materials used in the Sketchup model. Each material is accessible from the Material drop-down control or by using the LumenRT 2 Material Picker to select materials from objects in the scene. Listed below describes how materials are treated and adjusted for LumenRT 2.
Water
Water materials are designed to render materials for objects such as pools, ponds, and fountains. Any material containing the string Water (not case sensitive) in the SketchUp material name or has the Water property checked in the LumenRT 2 Material Editor will create a pulsating, water ripple effect in LumenRT 2. For example, a material with the name BlueWater will have the LumenRT 2 water effect applied automatically. The water produced in LumenRT 2 will also contain nice reflections increasing realism, but also taxing overall performance.
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Bump
Bump adjusts the amount of bumpiness at the surface of the material. The bigger the value, the bumpier the surface. Bunp values can range from -900% to +900% in the LumenRT 2 Material Editor. LumenRT 2 automatically creates a grayscale version of the color map to generate the bump. Positive values will make the bump appear above the surface while negative values will make the bump appear below the surface. SketchUp materials starting with the name Stone, Brick or Roofing will have a bump of 5% applied.
Specularity
Specularity describes the surface quality of the material (shiny or dull). The specular highlights create spots of light on the surface of the object, in the direction of the light sources. The smoother the surface, the more concentrated and bright the spots will be (e.g., think of polished marble). The highlights are built with two parameters: the intensity of the light spots that appear on the surface and the size of the spots. To add specular highlights to a material such as a shiny metal material, there are two settings that must be set. 1. Specular Amount sets the intensity of highlights. 0% indicates no specularity while a value of 100% indicates very intense speculat highlights. 2. Specular Shine sets the sheen of the specular highlights. 1% indicates very dull highlights while a value of 100% signifies a very shiny material. Listed below are common settings for a variety of materials: StainlessSteel: Amount=50% Shine=60% Plastic: Amount=25% Shine=20% Wood Floors: Amount=30% Shine=50% creates a wood floor with a nice waxy sheen
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Reflective Materials
Reflective materials include objects such as glass and mirrors. Any material that contains some level of transparency (e.g when the SketchUp material opacity is less than 100%) will contain some degree of reflectiveness. This will produce realtime reflections in LumenRT 2 such as the sky reflecting on a pane of glass. In LumenRT 2, the Index of Reflectiveness (IOR) is set to a default value of 1.6 (glass) for all reflective surfaces. Mirror surfaces are set for any material containing the name mirror (not case sensitive) in the material name. Alternatively, the LumenRT 2 Material Editor can be used to set Mirror or Glass materials by checking their respective properties.
Texture Maps
For materials that use texture maps, make sure that there is sufficient resolution in the map. A good rule of thumb is that maps should at least have a dimension of 256 x 256 pixels. Also, to improve performance, avoid using texture maps that are larger than 1024 x 1024.
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Section 3
Going Further
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Tutorials
Optimizing Large Models
When creating LumenRT 2 Live Cubes, its important to ensure that SketchUp models are fully optimized for efficient rendering and navigation performance. This tutorial demonstrates how to optimize models containing a large number of faces and components for use with LumenRT 2. The key optimization factors involve the effective use of layers and hiding unnecessary geometries and components. You can follow along with this tutorial by downloading the demonstration model Big House by master SketchUp modeler Andres from the 3D Google Warehouse.
Step 1
Load the model into SketchUp.
Step 2
Examine and interrogate model info by displaying the model information window Window | Model Info. Notice that this is a large model with over 100K faces which translates to well over 500K polygons (faces are exported as triangle polygons in LumenRT 2). The large poly count indicates that this model may experience rendering and navigation performance issues in LumenRT 2. So lets try and optimize this model a bit.
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Step 3
Purge the model of any orphaned components and materials by clicking the Purge Unused button on the Model Info window. This will clean up the model by getting rid of any unused component definitions and materials. Also, there is a very useful free Sketchup plugin called CleanUp located in the Sketchucation Plugins forum: http://forums.sketchucation.com/vie wtopic.php?f=323&t=22920 This plugin will do a more thorough cleanup of the model and reduce unnecessary items.
Step 4
This model contains very high poly trees and vegetation where the object components such as leaves are modeled as separate geometries. This will obviously cause a major increase in the polycount. Our choices here are to replace the veg with low poly billboard type veg or just move the veg to another layer and not export it at all. Lets do the latter. Its always a good idea to organize your model into layers that can be turned on and off. Here, we create a new layer called Veg (in the Layers window) and then we move all the veg objects into this layer by selecting them and then changing their layer in the Entity Info window. Turn visibility off for the new Veg layer in the Layers window.
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Step 5
Turn off any other unnecessary layers and hide unnecessary components/geometry. In this case we are going to hide the cars in the garage.
Step 6
Check for any stray geometry by zooming the model to fit the viewable area (right click Zoom Extents). The model should fit nicely in the viewable area. If the model does not fully zoom up, then you have some stray geometry in the scene. Either delete or hide the stray geometry.
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Materials
Materials are a key factor for making high quality scenes in LumenRT 2. Using the right texture maps along with the proper material settings can dramatically improve the appearance and increase realism. You can follow along with this tutorial by downloading the demonstration model Gables House with Interior by master SketchUp modeler BmrCT from the 3D Google Warehouse.
Step 1
Load the model into SketchUp. This model (which has been slightly modified with the addition of a pool) contains a nice variety of materials including brick, wood, water, glass, and stone.
Step 2
Do a quick test render in LumenRT 2 by exporting the model using draft quality Plugins | e-on Software LumenRT 2 | Export Full Model and then select Draft quality. While the quality of the lighting and shadows is very low in draft mode, you can still get a good idea of what each material will look like.
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Step 3
Examine the model in LumenRT 2 and take note of the appearance of each material. Does it look right? Do the materials need bump or specular highlights added? Do the glass and water materials look correct? After making some mental notes, return to SketchUp to edit and enhance the materials.
Step 4
Brick and Stone materials are automatically pre-set in LumenRT 2 to contain a small amount of bump (5%). In this case, we will increase the exterior Brick bump amount to 15% which will provide sharper details and reliefs.
Step 5
Select the brick material in the LumenRT 2 Material Editor (Plugins | e-on software LumenRT 2 | Edit Materials). Increase the brick bump amount by entering 15 into the Bump value box.
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Step 6
Shiny materials such as plastic and leather will look more realistic by adding specular highlights. In this case, we add specular highlights to the leather seats in the living room. Select the Red material and lets add 30% specular with a shine of 50%.
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Improving Your LiveCubes

SketchUp Modeling and Scene Optimization
While LumenRT 2 can process any type of SketchUp model, its important to adhere to proper practices when constructing models in order to achieve optimal results. In general, if models are well constructed in SketchUp (e.g. air tight models, properly joined components, etc), then they will look good in LumenRT 2. Listed below are several tips for creating your models in SketchUp in order to optimize the final result in LumenRT 2.
Smoothing Curved Surfaces

In SketchUp, all curved surfaces appear with some level of smoothing applied. However, these surfaces will appear to be unsmoothed in LumenRT 2 unless they are converted into groups or components. If you run across any condition as shown in the figure below, convert the object into a component or group to ensure that smoothing is properly applied.
Add Wall and Floor Thickness

Adding thickness to walls and floors will improve the quality of shadows and light, especially for interior renders. If walls or floors are constructed primarily of single planar faces with no thickness, lighting artifacts such as light leaks may occur.
Avoid Degenerate Faces

Avoid overlapping faces or putting two faces together with opposite normals or else LumenRT 2 will remove one of the two faces.
Avoid Very Large Surface Areas

Because LumenRT 2 computes indirect lighting over the entire model, if your model encompasses large surface elements such as roads, parking lots, gardens, etc. the processing time will become extremely long as LumenRT 2 computes lighting for these elements.
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LumenRT 2 Reference Manual A warning will automatically be displayed during processing if the surface area of your model exceeds 4,000 square meters (roughly 40,000 sqft). While LumenRT 2 is perfectly capable of handling large surface areas, you can greatly speed up the processing by not including large unecessary elements.
Eliminate Orphaned Geometry to Avoid Unusually Large Pedestals

Delete or clean up all orphaned geometry or else the pedestal will be way too big in the scene compared to the model and processing times will suffer.
Use Groups, Components and Layers

Keeping your model well organized by using groups, components, and layers provides greater ease and flexibility when deciding which sections of the model to export. Also, it's generally better to separate each part of the model in order to remove or change materials easily.
Use Real World Units

LumenRT 2 lighting is based on real world units. To maximize realism, its critical that models are built at the full real world unit scale and proportions (e.g. 1:1 not 1:2 or 1:4).
Use Fewer Polygons

Hiding unnecessary layers and getting rid of unneeded geometry will help to reduce the model size and improve overall interactive performance. There is a very useful free Sketchup plugin called CleanUp located in the Sketchucation Plugins forum: http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=323&t=22920 This plugin will do a very thorough cleanup of the model and reduce unnecessary items.
Export Only Part of the Scene

LumenRT 2 only exports visible layers and nonhidden geometries so switching layers off and hiding geometries will reduce the model size upon export. Also, there is an option under the LumenRT 2 Plugin Export menu in SketchUp to export only a selected portion of the model for a more concise and efficient export.
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Add Thickness to Carpeting/Flooring

Carpets and floors will look better in LumenRT 2 if they have a bit of thickness (1cm is a good thickness for example).
Keep Models above the Ground Plane

Everything should be modeled above the SketchUp ground plane. Anything below the ground plane will not be visible in LumenRT 2.
Clean Ground Plane Intersections

Avoid polygons that penetrate far underneath the ground plane. This can result in bad looking shadows around the intersecting corner or edge.
Use Planar Faces for Water and Glass Materials

For a swimming pool, lake, or any water plane, use a planar face, and not a cube. Applying water to a cube or other non single plane object may produce odd results (double reflection, photons going through the floor, etc). The same is true when creating a glass or window surface -- it is better to have a single planar face instead of a cube.
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Avoid Using Fake Reflection Maps for Transparent Materials

Do not simulate reflection on glass with maps. LumenRT 2 will handle reflections automatically for any material that contains transparency/translucency (i.e. materials that are not fully opaque).
Aim the Sun to Increase Interior Lighting

Aim the sun to have light enter any rooms through windows for a more dramatic effect.
Initial Camera Position Is First Scene Tab or Current Camera View

When exporting from SketchUp to LumenRT 2, the initial start or home position of the LiveCube will either be the first keyframe of the animation or the current camera position of the scene if no animation is present.
Use Perspective Camera Views

LumenRT 2 uses real world perspective cameras so its important to use perspective cameras in SketchUp as well. SketchUp parallel or two-point perspective cameras will not look right in LumenRT 2.
Reduce the Number of Reflective/Transparent Materials

Reducing the number of reflective and/or transparent materials will also improve interactive performance since these types of materials are very GPU intensive.
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Troubleshooting
For the latest information on troubleshooting and solving LumenRT 2 issues, please visit the LumenRT 2 and Architectural user forums at http://www.cornucopia3d.com Listed below is a list of common problems you may have using LumenRT 2 along will suggested solutions:
Light Appears Around Wall Corners

Sometimes it may happen that you see bright areas of light appear in corners or near the floor where there shouldnt be any. This phenomenon is known as "light leak" and is an artifact usually caused by using walls or floors that are insufficienlty thick. To correct this problem, make your walls and floor thicker (using a more ambient atmosphere such as the neutral white atmosphere may reduce this effect slightly).
Dark Shadows Appear at the Bottom of a Wall or in Corners

If very dark and splotchy looking shadows appear at the base of a floor plane wall intersection, in most cases this is caused by the wall extending under the floor. Try trimming the wall exactly to the intersection of the floor plane to eliminate this problem. Likewise, if splotches appear around an object, you probably have faces of that object extending "inside" the object, and you should trim the faces so that they do not penetrate inside the object.
Pre-Processing Takes Forever

The mathematics involved in processing the illumination of a scene are very complex and time consuming, especially if the scene itself is complicated. Because LumenRT 2 computes indirect lighting over the entire scene, if your scene encompasses large surface elements such as roads, parking lots, gardens, etc. the processing time will become extremely long as LumenRT 2 computes lighting for these elements. You can greatly speed up the processing by not including large unnecessary elements or using the Auto-scale lighting option which will greatly improve performance with a tradeoff of reduced lighting quality. Also, if pre-processing appears to take abnormally long to process an otherwise reasonably sized model, make sure that no other processor intensive applications are running (because LumenRT 2
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LumenRT 2 Reference Manual runs in the background, it will yield processing power to the other applications) and that your computer is not switching into power saving mode during processing.
Window Glass Is Blinking when Navigating in LiveCube

If the windows in the LiveCube scene are blinking during navigation or animation, it most likely is caused by duplicated glass panes in your windows which causes multiple reflections bouncing off the glass. Although LumenRT 2 attempts to correct this automatically, there are some cases when you will have to remove the second glass pane manually. Making sure to create windows using a single planar face instead of a cube is a good way of eiliminating this problem.
Pedestal is too Big Compared to the Model

Check to ensure that no small orphaned polygons are floating around the scene perimeter. Delete or hide these if possible.
Playback Performance in LiveCube is Slow or Choppy
the
If the LiveCube playback and navigation performance appears slow or choppy, first ensure that you or your clients are using a suitable modern graphics card. Slow-downs can occur if the scene contains a large number of faces (e.g. greater than 200,000) or if the scene has many reflective/transparent materials. Reducing the number of polygons exported (e.g. turning off layers, hiding components) and reducing the number of reflective materials will improve performance significantly.
Some Faces Are Missing

If some faces are missing from the scene, check to ensure that the polygons are not overlapping with other polygons containing opposite normals. Also, make sure that the area in question is receiving enough light. Faces that are found to be in pitch dark may be removed automatically by LumenRT 2 in order to speed up playback.
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Flickering Polygons
If you find that some polygons are blinking or flickering in the LiveCube it could be caused by a visual artifact phenomenon known as Zfighting when 2 polygons are overlapping and are at almost exactly the same distance and position from the camera. In this situation, the renderer doesnt know which polygon to display first (since they are both at the same location) so the display just alternates back and forth between both polygons. To correct this, avoid coincidental overlapping polygons (increase the space between the polygons).
Object Surfaces are not Smooth

Make sure when creating curved surfaces in SketchUp that they are made into a component, or group, and that the smooth normal option is checked in the SketchUp Soften Edges option.
Splotchy Looking Shadow Artifacts

If shadow artifacts appear, particularly near object corners and intersections, try using a higher quality render setting (e.g. from Full Lighting to Superior or Extreme). In addition, reaiming the sun or opening up the room to allow more light in can help to lessen shadowing artifacts. Also, make sure that light is able to find it way into your rooms. Leaving doors open is a good way of letting light in (and it also helps navigation). Another cause for this could be that the scene is simply too large (check that there are no orphaned polygons floating around the scene perimeter).
Water Material is not Rendering with Ripples or Caustics

Make sure that the word water (case insensitive) appears somewhere in the material name and that the water material is transparent in SketchUp.
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No Bumps (or Not Enough Bumps) on Objects

Check to make sure that the material is using a texture map and that the bump settings are set in the material name (e.g. WoodFloorb=50%). You can increase the amount of bumps by raising the "b=xx%" value. Values beyond 100% are possible.
Noisy Looking Areas

In some cases, if the area being viewed in LumenRT 2 is too dark, there may be some noise in the picture. Allowing more light to reach this area will solve the problem (e.g. by opening doors).
I Cant Find my LiveCube File

Please check in your software/LumenRT 2 folder. Documents/e-on
How Do I Launch the LumenRT 2 Application?

LumenRT 2 operates as a SketchUp plug-in. In SketchUp, go to Plugins Plugins | e-on software
LumenRT 2 to start the export and rendering process.
How Do I Avoid Having my LiveCube Files Overwritten?

Please uncheck the Overwrite Files checkbox when exporting from SketchUp to LumenRT 2.
Animation Playback Pauses at Regular Intervals

The model probably contains too many polygons more than your graphics card can handle. However, you can try switching to full screen mode (alt + return key) to see if this improves performance (avoids screen synchronization problems). Otherwise, you will need to slim down the model.
Video Board Suddenly Not Supported

If you lock your computer session shortly after launching a LumenRT 2 process, and before the LumenRT 2 pre-processing window appears, the application will not be able to start correcly and will report your video board as not supported (because it fails to create the required contexts due to locking your session).
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Overly Saturated Indirect Light

If the colorful light that is bounced onto walls feels a little too colorful and saturated to be real, this is probably because some of your materials in the scene use colors that cannot exist in reality. For instance, if you want to create a red wall, chances are you will create a 100% red color, with no green or blue, which, when looked at from a physical point of view, means that the material is bouncing back 100% of the red light that it received. In reality, this never happens. For instance, good quality paints will only bounce back about 80% of the light they receive. Although LumenRT 2 attempts to automatically limit this effect, the result of "impossible" colors may feel fake because of the way LumenRT 2 accurately simulates the physics of light. Turning down the saturation of your colors is a good way of avoiding this.
Some Pictures Are Missing

Pictures that are imported directly into SketchUp without being assigned to a material will not appear in the LiveCube. If some pictures appear to be missing, make sure that they are assigned to faces using a material.
LiveCube Refuses another System
to
Run
on
You cannot copy a LiveCube folder to another system and run it there. If you want to run a LiveCube on another system, you need to Publish the LiveCube first (see page 38).
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License Agreement
THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT ("EULA") IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU (EITHER AN INDIVIDUAL OR A SINGLE
ENTITY), THE END USER, AND E-ON SOFTWARE, INC. IT IS A LICENSE AGREEMENT, AND NOT AN AGREEMENT FOR SALE OF THE PRODUCT ("PRODUCT") TERMS OF THIS
LUMENRT 2. BY DOING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE EULA: INSTALLING, COPYING, DOWNLOADING, ACCESSING OR OTHERWISE USING THE PRODUCT, INCLUDING THE ACT OF REGISTERING THE PRODUCT (COLLECTIVELY REFERRED TO AS "USE").
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THE PRODUCT AUTOMATICALLY INCLUDES ANY UPDATES, SUPPLEMENTS OR AMENDMENTS TO THE ORIGINAL PRODUCT PROVIDED TO YOU. IF THE UPDATES, SUPPLEMENTS OR AMENDMENTS CONTAIN A SEPARATE AGREEMENT WHICH EITHER AMENDS OR REPLACES THIS EULA, USE OF THE UPDATE, SUPPLEMENT OR AMENDMENT CONSTITUTES YOUR FULL AGREEMENT TO THE AMENDED OR REPLACEMENT EULA. ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED ALONG WITH THE PRODUCT THAT IS ASSOCIATED WITH A SEPARATE END-USER LICENSE
AGREEMENT IS LICENSED TO YOU UNDER THE TERMS OF THAT LICENSE AGREEMENT.
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE ANY USE OF THE PRODUCT. IF YOU DISAGREE WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING, IN PART OR IN WHOLE, YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE PRODUCT, AND SHOULD RETURN THE PACKAGE UNOPENED TO THE DEALER FROM WHOM YOU PURCHASED IT. YOU ARE SUBJECT TO ANY ADDITIONAL RETURN POLICIES AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEALER FROM WHICH YOU PURCHASED THE PRODUCT. License In consideration of the payment of a license fee, you are granted a personal, non-exclusive license to use the Product under the terms stated herein. If any portion of this Agreement is held to be unenforceable, such portion shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable. You own the physical media on which the Product is provided, under the terms of this Agreement, but all title and ownership of the Product and all other rights not expressly granted to you by this Agreement, remain with e-on software, inc. Not For Resale Version ("NFR"). If your copy of the Product is a Not for Resale version, this EULA is nontransferable and may not be resold. If you purchased an NFR version from a reseller, the reseller has violated e-on softwares intellectual property rights under international copyright law. It is not a legal copy of the Product. Copyright The Product is owned by e-on software, inc and is protected by U.S. copyright law as well as by international intellectual property conventions. Any reproduction, sale, transfer, transcription, storage in a retrieval system, translation into any language in any form or distribution by any means whatsoever of the Product, in part or in full, without the prior written permission from e-on software, inc. is strictly forbidden. Any such act shall constitute a copyright violation and shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. By law, you, the end user, may do the following: (i) Make one (1) archival copy of the Product, in machine readable or printed form for backup purposes only in support of your use of the Product. You must reproduce and include the e-on software, inc. copyright notice on the backup copy of the Product. (ii) Transfer the Product onto one or two hard drives, provided that you keep the original solely for backup purposes.
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Any portion of the Product merged into or used in conjunction with another program will continue to be the property of e-on software, inc. and subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement. You must reproduce and include the e-on software, inc. copyright notice on any portion merged in or used in conjunction with another program. Restrictions You may not rent, lend, lease, or assign the Product. You may, however, transfer on a permanent basis the entire Product, including all associated media and documentation. If you acquired the Product as an upgrade from another product (the "upgraded product"), you may not (i) transfer the Product without simultaneously transferring the upgraded product, or (ii) transfer the upgraded product without simultaneously transferring the Product. If you acquired the Product as part of a bundle with one or several other products, you may not (i) transfer the Product without simultaneously transferring all other products in the bundle, or (ii) transfer one or several other products in the bundle without simultaneously transferring the Product. When you make such transfer on a permanent basis, you may not keep any copies of the Product, and you must remove it from your hard drive(s). The person to whom you transfer the Product must agree to the terms of this License agreement. You must notify e-on software in writing of the transfer, including the name, permanent address, phone number and email address of the person to whom you transfer the software. You may not alter, modify, translate or adapt the Product. In addition, you may not de-compile, disassemble or reverse engineer the Product. You also may not create any derivative works based on the Product. A derivative work is defined as a translation or other form in which the Product may be recast, transformed or adapted. Content and Content Limitations You may distribute or otherwise sell images and animations generated using LumenRT 2 LiveCubes as well as published LumenRT 2 LiveCubes provided that you own the rights to the materials they contain. You may not distribute content included with LumenRT 2 or generated by LumenRT 2 in any other format or manner without the prior written authorization of e-on software. Term This license granted to you is effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by returning the Product to e-on software, inc. together with all copies, modifications, and merged portions in any form. The license will also terminate upon conditions set forth elsewhere in the Agreement, or if you fail to comply with any term or condition of this Agreement. You agree, upon such termination, to return the Product and the Documentation to e-on software, inc. together with all copies, modifications and merged portions in any form. Upon termination, e-on software, inc. can also enforce any rights provided by law. The provision of this Agreement which protects the proprietary rights of e-on software, inc. will continue in force after termination. Termination of this license, either voluntary or involuntary, does not entitle you to a refund of your purchase cost except as provided elsewhere in this License Agreement. Limited Warranty E-on software, inc. warrants, as the sole warranty, that the original medium on which the Product is distributed are free from defects in material and workmanship under normal use and conditions for a period of thirty (30) days from the date of the purchase, as evidenced by a copy of your receipt. No distributor, dealer, or any other entity or person has authorization to expand or alter either this warranty or any term of this Agreement. Any such representations will not bind e-on software, inc. You agree that in order to qualify for any technical or customer support, including any replacement of any component of the Product under the terms of this Agreement, you need to have registered the Product first with e-on software. E-on software, inc. does not warrant that the functions contained in the Product will meet your requirements, or that the operation of the Product will be uninterrupted and error-free. Except as stated above in this section, the Product
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and Documentation are provided as-is, without any other warranty or representation of any kind, either express or implied concerning the Product, Documentation, or use of the Product, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of quality, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Using the Product is at your own risks, and in no event shall e-on software, inc. be liable for any damage whatsoever (including without limitation, special, incidental, consequential, or indirect damages for personal injury, loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use of or inability to use the Product or Documentation, even if e-on software, inc. has been advised of the possibility of such damages. The warranties and remedies set forth above are exclusive and in lieu of all others, oral or written, express or implied. E-on software, inc. is not responsible for any costs including, but not limited to, those incurred as a result of lost profits or revenue, loss of time or use of the Product, loss of data, the costs of recovering such Product or data, the cost of substitute Product, claims by third parties, of other similar costs. The warranties provided give you specific legal rights. You may have other rights which vary from state to state. Some states do not allow the exclusion of incidental or consequential damages, or the limitation of how long an implied warranty lasts, so some of the above may not apply to you. In no event will the entire liability of e-on software, inc., under any provision of this Agreement, ever exceed the amount of the license fee paid by you to use the Product regardless of the form of the claim. This Limited Warranty is void if failure of the Product or Documentation has resulted from accident, abuse, or misapplication. Any replacement Product or Documentation will be warranted for the remainder of the original warranty period or thirty (30) days, whichever is longer. Remedies If a defect in the original medium on which the Product is distributed or in the Documentation occurs within thirty (30) days of purchase, you may return the faulty medium or Documentation to e-on software, inc., along with your name, address, and a dated proof of purchase, and e-on software, inc. will replace it free of charge. Before returning a product to e-on software, you must contact an e-on software representative to obtain a Return Authorization Number. This Return Authorization Number must figure prominently on the returned package. Products returned without a valid Return Authorization Number will not be considered for replacement or refund. If you return the medium or Documentation, you must prepay shipping and either insure the Product and Documentation or assume all risk of loss or damage in transit. US Government Restricted Rights The Product and Documentation are provided with restricted rights. Use, duplication or disclosure by the US Government is subject to restrictions as set forth in subdivision (c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software Clause at (252)227-7013 or subparagraphs (c) (1) and (2) of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights at 48CFR52.227-19, as applicable. The contractor / manufacturer of the Product and Documentation thereto is e-on software, inc., 68 avenue Parmentier, 75011 Paris (France). E-on software can be contacted at 6107 SW Murray Blvd Suite 264, Beaverton, OR 97008-4467 or in Europe at 68 avenue Parmentier, 75011 Paris, France.
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What are the main features of LumenRT 2?

What are the main features of LumenRT 2?

What are the system requirements for LumenRT 2?

What are the system requirements for LumenRT 2?

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

e-on software, inc.

e-on software europe

Web Info Support Feedback

www.e-onsoftware.com www.e-onsoftware.com/info www.e-onsoftware.com/support www.e-onsoftware.com/feedback

Printed January 2012

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

REAL-TIME ARCHITECTURAL VISUALIZATION KEY FEATURES

KEY BENEFITS .........................................................................................................................9

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

NAVIGATING THE LIVECUBE

Basic Navigation Controls ............................................................................................... 26 Extended Navigation Mode Controls ............................................................................... 26

OPTIMIZING LARGE MODELS ................................................................................................ 44 MATERIALS .......................................................................................................................... 47

IMPROVING YOUR LIVECUBES

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Enhanced LumenRT 2 Live Cube Real-Time Engine

Fast Occluded Shadows for Standard Quality Output

LumenRT 2 Material Editor

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Real-Time Architectural Visualization

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

A More Engaging User Experience

No Need for Specialized Viewing Software

Seamless Background Processing

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

The software will now be installed.

Software License Agreement

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Real World Units

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Getting Started Tutorial

Step 1 First LiveCube

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Step 2 Glass Window

Step 3 Water Pool

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Step 5 Time of Day

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Navigating the LiveCube

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Basic Navigation Controls

Extended Navigation Mode Controls

LumenRT 2 Reference Manual

Help Toggle FullScreen/Window Mode Exit Return to Start Animation Mode