Setting my SkIndigo preview studio scene

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 7:51 pm

Hi guys!
..I think i'm not so satisfied with the material preview scene of skindigo: i can't understand if the material i'm setting is good or a total mess. So, i tried to simulate a little the conditions of the famous maxwell arroway preview scene, putting a yellow light and a bluish one into the studio scene (i basically modified a component - indigo quick studio scene - i found a long time ago don't-remember-where over the net).

Now, is there a way to tell indigo that i want my new scene to be rendered when i choose "custom" as the mat preview model?

Thank you!

PS. Obviously the scene will be shared with anyone who wants it

I attach a render of the simple studio scene. In the scene there is exclusively the geometry you see: a curved plane for the background and the material sphere. Then, i added the two lights you see reflected in the chrome ball. The scene materials are four:
1. Material1 for the main ball material
2. StudioBackground for the curved base surface
3. StudioLight_01 for the orange light
4. StudioLight_02 for the bluish light

cpfresh · Post by **cpfresh** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 4:18 pm

i think you can just export your scene to overwrite the "IMPcustom.igs" file that is located in your \Plugins\SkIndigo folder. You may want to backup the existing file incase something goes wrong. But that is the filename triggered when using the "custom" radio button for previewing.

*edit*
btw, you scene looks real nice!

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 7:21 pm

Thanks cpfresh: i only wanted to keep it simple simple simple; so that's not that innovation, after all

I found the path name of the custom scene yesterday night by myself, but thank you anyway for your answer! My only question now is: how can i tell indigo to keep all metrials as they are but substitute in the custom scene ONLY the mat of the sphere?

Whaat, can you help me out?

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:53 pm

Ok, after a little trial and error phase, i got this job done!

Happy to share it with any sketchupper who likes it!

Beware that i'm not a programmer, so there could be some problems: always do a backup of your original files!!!!

BTW, as far as it concerns me, the studio works very well.
Perhaps it's not optimized, but with little hints and tips by you all i think it could be improved a lot.

..but maybe not by me, because i've spent two hours setting a sphere: can you figure out what would mean to me setting up a more complex scene?

So, i attach a .rar file containing some information about the correct positioning of the files and folders, and a pair of silly tricks.
I'd be very glad and grateful if anyone who uses this scene posted here his mat previews, so others can realize what can be clearly seen and what can't (just to improve the scene in the future).

Hope you like it and find it useful!

**EDIT**
Attached file has been deleted. Download the latest version on page 3 of this discussion!

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:21 pm

i start posting some of my tests (i see the sphere is a little low-poly...

i'll try to fix that)

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 4:46 am

Ok, I found a major problem (i thought it was too good to be true..): all the previews go fine as far as they're only simple colours; if you try to preview a material which has a map, the preview scene crashes. That's because when i exported the igs file no uvmapping was applied to the sphere. But, in SU you can't map a sphere! How can I make it work?

cpfresh · Post by **cpfresh** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:28 am

yup. the uv set that's provided is way too small. i tried to test render a roof tile material and it appeared to be nothing but stripes!

we need a _larger?_ uv set on the sphere...

otherwise the scene is cool! iv'e hacked it to match Whaat's provded scenes a little better though.

*edit*
the image is the roof tile i tried.

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:30 pm

Hi Cp! Thanks for trying the scene!
How did you manage to make indigo render the preview? I get an error message saying that no UV is provided (that's because in the scene i exported the ball was only given a plain colour, not a texture, so indigo didn't export any UVmapping) and it crashes...

And then: we know there's a preview scene for sketchup with a mapped sphere. How can i map my sphere the same way? ...'cos sketch doesn't allow spherical mapping, sadly....

....Whaat: how did you manage?

cpfresh · Post by **cpfresh** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 2:24 am

Hey Pibuz! Thanks for sharing the scene, I really like it. It'd be even better once we iron out this uv problem!

In order to get the preview rendered, I had to add a uvset named "default" to the mesh 'Material1' as that is what the error message told me was missing. There were already 4 entries so I just added one more. The existing entries were named uv0, uv1, uv2, and uv3. So I just copied/pasted another piece and named it default instead. It seems to have worked.

In what's IMPsphere, there doesn't seem to be any uv-mapping going on with the sphere as he's using an indigo-sphere not a modelled sphere. The only uvmapping taking place is for the studio background.

What to do next??

cpfresh · Post by **cpfresh** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:00 am

ok, well i was able to insert a 'sphere' instance instead of the embedded mesh sphere. the resultant image is very close. check below for the image i got, with a texture applied...

*edit*
also, the focus seems to be a little off. the background seems to be more in-focus than the sphere

cpfresh · Post by **cpfresh** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:38 am

OK, well nevermind the focus statement ... it was as I suspected - a crappy texture image. I've tried a slightly higher resolution texture and the results are much nicer. Find below a sample image as well as the new, edited igs file I used. Enjoy!!1

As for the IGS file, just drop it into your SkIndigo folder, no need for any additional '-settings' file. --please back-up your original!!--

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:41 am

Oh, cp: you're so close to it!!!!
I don't think it is a problem of DOF: for me it's only that the texture is too..streched. Like it was 1cm x 1cm and in the uvmapping it's 1m x 1m. Do you get what i mean?

So, i think you're almost there, you only have to input (...yet: SOMEHOW) a smaller uvmapping parameter for the sphere!

..I haven't understood how you managed to have the sphere correctly uvmapped, but it doesn't matter, after all.
We're gonna name the scene "Pibuz and Cp's material preview scene"

Oh: and thanks so much for showing me there is at least one who cares about this little experiment of mine!

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:43 am

..if (or hopefully when) you'll manage to fix this uvmapping issue, do you mind sharing the definitive version? I think it'd take me some time to study what you changed and then apply it to my old version..

cpfresh · Post by **cpfresh** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:46 am

refresh!!

crojack · Post by **crojack** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:25 am

Pibuz,
I also dl'd the scene and messed around with it. But all that coding is over my head, so I was waiting to see if someone would figure it out, and you guys are doing it! Thanks!
I'll post some experiments when I get a chance.

and please post the final settings file, I like this preview.

Setting my SkIndigo preview studio scene

Setting my SkIndigo preview studio scene

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