YafaRay plugin; update roadmap and change list

[povmaniac]

Finally the build for testing SSS, with the last YafaRay 0.1.5 release is ready..
Build with MinGW 4.7.1
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1684...S_win32.7z

Good renders!!

[oort]

povmaniac,
I can not say thank you enough. It is great to have SSS in the latest YafaRay release.

I did a test of the candle example file. It rendered giving the same quality image. Sadly the render time went from 15minutes with 0.1.3 Experimental to 50minutes with 0.1.5 SSS...

I need to do tests on other scenes to see if they are slower as well...
I am busy today so I will not have as much time to enjoy the new release today...

Edit: Render times for uvcube, marbles, and metal ring (cardioid caustics) are still as good as 0.1.3 Experimental. It looks like only SSS is slower.

Thanks,
oort

[povmaniac]

You can show your render and material settings, please. The first target for this version is for test and improve SSS material.
Thanks..

[oort]

povmaniac,
The settings are in the Candle example file posted on my website. I have to go now and cannot post images of the settings now.

Thanks,
oort

[oort]

povmaniac,
I decided to do a quick test with a sphere to see if YafaRay is working in Direct Lighting, Photon Mapping, and PathTracing as it did in the Liyong03 GSOC original release. I see you have Direct Lighting SSS working again. Great work! This was missing in the Gabriele build and in 0.1.3 Experimental. All three lighting methods are now working with SSS....

Edit: The number of SSS photons listed in the settings badge is always 500000 no matter what you set the number to in the render settings. The number that gets used is changing it is just listed wrong in the settings badge.

Edit2: Looking at some other renders I have done in the past, I see numbers higher than 500000... maybe that is a minimum required and if the number is lower YafaRay will automatically increase the number to the 500000 minimum???

Thanks,
oort

---

povmaniac,
This post is NOT about SSS.

Pathtracing lighting method is not working with your version of the YafaRay plugin. All the other lighting methods are working.

Pathtracing IS working with my version of the plugin so it is NOT an issue with the 0.1.5 SSS build.

oort

[oort]

povmaniac,
Here are screen captures of my Render and Material settings for SSS. I am using the exact same settings for both 0.1.3 Experimental (15 minutes) and 0.1.5 SSS (50 minutes).

Thanks,
oort

[povmaniac]

Forget experimental 0.1.3. The code is of the year 2010.
There are some parameters that can be optimized.

[oort]

povmaniac,
Thanks for the optimized settings. That dropped the render time down to 17 minutes. You must have made your own candle at a larger scale. I had to leave SSS Scale at 2.0 for my candle. Setting it to 20 bleached my candle out.

I still like to compare render times to 0.1.3 to see if the render times have gotten better or worse in the newer releases...

Thanks again,
oort

[povmaniac]

I mean, it is that the version 0.1.3 is not a good reference. I have checked this code two times and that it was an amalgam of code of different branches, (SSS, IC, GPU test ..) close and compiled.
Btw.. I revised your params for caustic scene..


Greetings..

[Neon22]

I'm sorry to be so dense and to ask such a NOOB Question. :-(
I can install Yafaray but the Beam file is giving me trouble.
I can't install it from menu - no permissions. If I drop it in the import/export folder (with renderman and kerky beams) - it's not seen on menu.
How do I get it installed ?
sigh...

---

OK. I put beam into plugins\import_export folder.
I've found and selected the binary in "plugin-preferences" to point to the extracted C:\Yafaray folder.
The binary is called yafaray-xml.exe

Rendering error: 1
15840us File|Render|Yafray|False
1us File|Render|Yafray
Exporting to: c:/YafaRay/scenes/wpc_yafray-2236-UJVJUM.xml
for render to: c:/YafaRay/scenes/foo.tga
Mesh w_cone1: triangulating...done
Mesh w_cone1: exporting...done
Rendering Job started <0.54.0>:
> c:/YafaRay/YAFARA~1.EXE wpc_yafray-2236-UJVJUM.xml
INFO: YafaRay 0.1.2
ERROR: Environment: Couldn't find registry key.
ERROR: Please fix your registry. Maybe you need add/modify
ERROR: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\YafaRay Team\YafaRay\InstallDir
ERROR: key at registry. You can use "regedit.exe" to adjust it at
ERROR: your own risk. If you are unsure, reinstall YafaRay
ERROR: Getting plugin path from render environment failed!

Rendering Job returned: 1
Export time: 0.000"
Render time: 0.031"
Total time: 0.031"
Rendering error: 1

Clearly the registry key is missing, but the wpc_yafray-2236-UJVJUM.xml is also not in the directory (Maybe its being deleted on cleanup ?)
There is no "installer" and I've set the path manually. but its also calling the old 8.3 syntax...

Even after renaming exe to be yafa.exe I get same error.
> c:/YafaRay/yafa.exe wpc_yafray-2236-RWVJUM.xml
Still no xml...


---------------
Adding the Registry Key manually did not change the message at all (but might have got it wrong...)