sure this basic question has been asked before...searched real quick, and couldn’t find what i need easily.

I set up a scene with a daylight system in 2010 Design.  Mental Ray, and mr materials. Exposure set to default 15. Gamma on, default settings. Ambient default black.

Adjusted daylight (sun location) for dusk… more dark scene than light. When using the Daylight system only, looks great. But I need to add addiotnal lights.

I added a photometric light such as Street 400W (or even a Stadium 1000W!), pointed it towards I needed it on the object… and the lighting is EXTREMELY faint...can kind of see a tiny amount of gloss reflection, but really nothing at all… was expecting a huge illumination in this dark scene....as in real life. I guess I am also looking for a outdoor type of light… HID? for illuminating billboards and the such?

These are all default settings… so I have no clue what I am doing wrong.

I figured the templates were ready to use, just assign them to the light and voila.  But I guess I have to boost settings and guess from there?  Was looking for a accurate true to life setup...just select light and go.  ???

Thank you for any help… I am lost somewhat here.

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Ok thank you Ivan, I will try that. Thank u for your help.

Wow I was hoping that I could make a daylight system then just add photometric lights just like in the real world. I guess it is still arbitrary then since I have to adjust numbers. Kind of defeats the purpose of the templates personally to me. Maybe those photimetric templates work for interior? Not when used with a exterior daylight system? I will have to read more and find some good tutorials.

Thanks again!

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It’s all in the exposure control. If you took a photo indoors in a lit room, then went outside at night and took another photo without adjusting the camera’s exposure, would you expect the photos to be properly exposed?

Thanks Samab.

ok...played around a little more… when I get a moment I am going to go through the outdoor lighting tutorial in 3ds max 2010...and some youtube vids.

I guess my main problem was that I had initlaly setup my daylight system for a mid day lighting setup...nice and bright...looked great...obviously used the exposure template setting of 15...14 looke a little brighter.

welll..started playing with the sun controls, and made a dusk scene.... WITH the SAME exposure setting of 15....  looked great.... decided to add some photometric lights i.e. street, stadium, halogen etc too illuminate the object i.e. billboard with external night lighting (obviously not needed dring midday settings). those photometric lights don’t show up in render...or exteremly minute.

Well… i noticed that if I go back into my mr exposure settings and select NIGHT TIME template… setting of 3.  whoa.... BLOWN out lighting.... so turned off mr sun...only had photometric lights and worked fine. But how do i get my overall DUSK lighting from the mr sun back?  I had to turn it off?

question is.... is there a way to set up my scene using the daylight system so i can animate the sun rising and setting and then the photometric lights kick in to illuminate billboard?

Seems should be able to… but seems messed up I have to alter the mr exposure from 15 (clear day) to 3 (night) in such a coarse step????  How would I get a smooth transition from day to night and also leave my daylight system on with setting of 15?  I guess it doens’t work in a true way that way? I guess the mr exposure would need to animate or adjust automatically somehow???

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So you are animating between night and day, that’s a bit more tricky. If it were just night, you could just find the right exposure setting between 3 and 15 that works. Day and night will of course need different exposure settings to work.
That said, the daylight system is not that simple to set up for night time shots, I guess that’s why it’s called a daylight system.
I have actually been having a go at something like this, on an experimental basis, with an animated daylight system, then a second sunlight for the moon and a photometric light for artificial illumination. I may post some results sometime.

Samab 10 March 2010 03:10 PM

That said, the daylight system is not that simple to set up for night time shots, I guess that’s why it’s called a daylight system.

hahah!  you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT...blew right past me!

but anyways… yeah, thanks for your great help.  I will read up more… and sounds like I have to go a different route with this “DAYLIGHT SYSTEM”.  I was just assuming that i could use the daylight system for BOTH day and night transition in a animation simply.  But sounds like a bit more involved.  I do follow you about the diffrent EXPOSURE settings needed for both day and night scenes.

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i played around a bit longer with this.  i may have found a solution for my needs.  instead of upping the Physical Scale in the exposure control and making UNITLESS… I UPPED the INTENSITY of the light(s) to about 10000% instead just to see what would happen… obviously I can see the lighting like I needed it (in dusk setting and night) and ALSO retain my DAYLIGHT system set to 15...so it would work in BOTH daylight and night time transition animation.  During daylight animation sequence, I just turn those lights off, since they don’t come on until dusk.  I haven’t tried it yet, but this may be the catch, I haven’t loaded a map onto the surface...and expect the lights to blow/wash out the map… i will try when i get time.

thanks guys for your clues and help with me on this.

Intel i7 930 2.8Ghz 8 CORE HT / CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus (no OC yet!)
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I don’t know practically anything about your scene and the settings; therefore my first post was a kind of a guess or general advice.
Here is a simple test, take a look into it; I’m using a Daylight System, Sky Portal and Photometric light.
Daylight is animated from 0, 0, 0 to 23 h, 59 min, 59 sec at 6. 21. 2010 location North America. I’m using the default Indoor Daylight preset, is looking without issues in the simple test.
I don’t want to disappoint you but I have never been able to get a smooth and convincing sequence when I tried that in the past in production; using materials and more complex light solution. There was always a kind of a small “jump” shift in the intensity of the light. I never knew what this was; maybe a bug or maybe just it is like that by design. Anyway I didn’t find a solution and I’m a bit curious to see the result you are having.
Good Luck.

ivan

	Attachment
sun_test0000.mov

	Attachment
mr_sun_test.zip

thanks for your help and time Ivan.

attached is a real rough animation test.  It seems to work for me for now....  but basically left mr exposure at EV 15, and boosted the photometric lights (100000) instead of the EV unitless, when the sun was down.

Intel i7 930 2.8Ghz 8 CORE HT / CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus (no OC yet!)
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	Attachment
daylight_ev15_test.zip

I always use the daylight system and I’ve always found that the intensity of the light changes correctly throughout the day. Pinpointing the exact time of dawn or dusk can be difficult thanks to the bug with the delayed azimuth and altitude readings (they always lag one step behind your changes) but if you get the time just right you should find that the relative intensities of the sun and artificial lights are correct. However, even at dusk, direct sunlight is still quite bright. It might be best to make sure your scene is at least partly in shadow relative to the sun, so that it’ll receive skylight but not direct sunlight. Then turn the exposure up and your artificial lights should be visible.