Forum

- Carrara to LuxRender via Luxus - 

     (for Carrara 8.1 / 8.5, Win / Mac, both 32 / 64 bit)

This shall be a open documentation for Luxus (Developer Spheric Labs) with help, tips, tricks etc. Sorry, english ist not my native language. Help is desired.

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--- Table of Contents ---
 
    - Luxus for Carrara - 
         I. Release Notes
        II. Installation and Settings
       III. Assemble Room
             - Lux Lights 
       IV. Texture Room
             - Lux Surface 
             - Lux Materials
             - Lux Volumes 
             - Lux Textures           
        V. Render Room
       VI. Tips and Tricks

    - LuxRender -   
====================================


- Luxus for Carrara - 

I. Release Notes

First Release (April, 11, 2013)

SphericLabs: I have made the following simplifications to get this to you quicker.

1) Win64 only for now. (Please don't kill me over this)
2) LuxRender must be installed like so:
     - CarraraFolder
     -- Carrara.exe
     -- LuxRender
     — LuxRender.exe
3) Autotranslation is very primitive. I doubt it will work at all.
4) 2 new shaders. Lux Surface should be the top most shader, Lux Matte must be in the first slot of Lux Surface.
5) Only the diffuse channel of Lux Matte will work. You can set a color or a texture there.
6) The Rendering Options only let you specify general stuff, not options on those things.

 
2nd Release (April, 13, 2013) 

Spheric Labs: Another Proof of concept build for Win64. This build will cease to work at the end of the month. Features (bold means new since last build).

-> Lux Surface
-> Lux Lights: Sun Sky2, Infinite (HDRI)
-> Lux Materials: Matte, Metal2 (partial), Glass2, Area Light
-> Lux Volumes: Clear, Homogenous

The camera is still not right, but is a little closer. On the Infinite light, use forward slashes for setting the path to the map. HDR and EXR both work.

3nd Release (April, 16, 2013)

SphericLabs: This implements all the non deprecated materials from the 1.0 spec of LuxRender plus cloth (which is more recent).

CarPaint, Cloth, Glass, Glass2, Glossy, GlossyCoating, GlossyTranslucent, Layered, Matte, MatteTranslucent, Metal2, Mirror, Mix, Null, RoughGlass, Scatter, Velvet

There are a few options that don't show on some of the materials, for example light cloth's thread count or metal2's fresnel file. Also, some paramters are setup to use Carrara percentage, but really need a much larger value. You can use Carrar's multiply, but a better solution will be addressed later. This build times out end of the month.

4th Release (April, 17, 2013)

SphericLabs: Someone noticed that their file saved with an older version did not load in the latest version. This was due to the rapid changes. So here is a build that chould be 99% file/load stable going forward.

-> It adds Lights: Lux Sky2, Lux Sun
-> It adds some LuxRender textures, but I am in the middle of adding those.

5th Release (April, 18, 2013)

Little bug fixed: "Where is the Map field for Infinit Lights?" New build.

  
6th Release (April, 19, 2013)

Spheric Labs:

Changes:
-> All options for materials should now be visible.
-> All the texures of the 1.0 spec implemented (exception band and multimix).
-> Added Mac Build. Install/Copy LuxRender such that there is a folder right next to your Extenstions folder called LuxRender that contains the LuxRender application.

Todo:
-> Bump, Normal, and Displacement maps.
-> A decent autotranslation.
-> Some error checking before handoff to LuxRender. For example, you can plug a float texture into a color slot.
-> Carrara Instances as LuxRender instances.
-> Various UI and workflow improvements including choosing where LuxRender is.

  
7th Release (April, 20, 2013)

Spheric Labs: Fix Multiple Shading Domains and Gamma the colors properly.

8th Release (April, 21, 2013)

Spheric Labs: New Windows build

Changes:
-> Added Projection Light.
-> Bump maps on all the materials that support one. 
-> UI elements for the lights. 
-> IES parameter on the AreaLight.
-> Gain on AreaLight.
-> Users can now choose where LuxRender is.
-> Fabric (Weave) option on Cloth.

  
9th Release (April, 23, 2013)

Spheric Labs: Another WIn64 Build. I will update Mac end of week.

Changes:
-> Normal Maps work. Plug a Carrara Normal map into the bumpmap channel (This is the way LuxRender does it). Want a bump and a normal map?, use a Lux Add texture or a Lux Mix texture to combine them.

-> Lux Blackbody now has a temperature for settings the color.

-> Lux Constant Color and Lux Constant Float. This solves the problem of "Some parameters values are too limited". You can use a Constant Color or Float for any spot where you need a much larger value/color or smaller value/color. Volumes are the most common case.

 
10th Release (April, 23, 2013)

Spheric Labs: And another Win64 build.

Changes:
-> Carrara instances as LuxRender instances.

 
11th Release (April, 24, 2013)

Spheric Labs: Another Win64 Build

Changes:
-> Displacement Maps.

Carrara's displacement setup is very simliar to LuxRender's so we are going to read displacement from Carrara's displacment channel.

 
12th Release (April, 25, 2013)

Spheric Labs: Win64Build

Changes:
-> Autotranslation of Alpha and Transparency.

Update: Mac 64 Build online now.

13th Release (April, 26, 2013)

Spheric Labs:

Win64 Build - Changes:
-> Glossy, GlossyTranslucent, Matte, MatteTranslucent will now show the texture/color assigned to them in the preview shader pane.
-> Fixed Crash when using internally saved textures.


Mac64 Build - Changes:
I have changed when it asks for the LuxRender folder to when Luxus is first chosen as the Renderer. Mac 10.8 did not like the old way(crashed Carrara).

Those using Mac's should run the LuxRender app at least once via Finder before attempting to render. You will almost for sure need to right click -> open to "enable" it through security. OSX will warn you about running application downloaded from the internet, say ok and you should be good.

 
14th Release (April, 26, 2013)

Spheric Labs: Win64 Build

Changes:
-> Fixed crash on any object or shading domain that was not assigned a shader.

15th Release (April, 30, 2013)

Spheric Labs: Win64 Build and Mac64 Build.

Changes:
-> Improve Autotranslation. V4 and M4 look halfway decent now.
-> The cone angle and angular falloff now work on spot light.  
-> Build times out end of May. 

16th Release (May, 15, 2013)

Spheric Labs: New Win64 build and some Sample Shaders.

Changes:
-> Fixed a non exporting bug when exporting the indoor preset scene.
-> Auto convert is changed and support shininess and reflection maps. Please provide feedback on if it's too much orite not enough.
-> Preview of Glass2 is now a semitransparent white. Preview of metal2 with color is the shade of the color.
-> Render Settings now includes the most common settings. Less common settings can be set through the extra settings field.
-> UI tweaks per user feedback.

17th Release (May, 17, 2013)

Spheric Labs: New Win64 build.

This enables those the want to render animations. Rendering a movie will cause a series of files to be written using the format of name_001.xls, name_002.xls, etc. Luxus  wil not autolaunch LuxRender in this case. You can then manually launch LuxRender and open the file sequence yourself and start your rendering epic.

18th Release (May, 18, 2013)
 
The first Win32 Build.

19th Release (May, 20, 2013)

New Builds for Win32 and Win 64.

Changes:
-> Handle Internally saved textures. 

 
Final Release 1.0.0.0 (May, 26, 2013)

Feature list:
 
- 19 LuxRender Textures as Shader Nodes
- 17 LuxRender Materials as Shader Nodes
- 01 Top Level Lux Surface Shader Node
- Support for Carrara’s Spot, Bulb, and Distant lights
- 05 LuxRender Specifc Lights:
         - Infinite (HDRI/IBL)
         - Projection
         - Sun
         - Sky 2
         - Sun Sky 2  

First Update 1.0.0.1 (October, 17, 2013)
 
Spheric Labs: List of changes:

- Production Frame and render match up perfectly.
- DOF parameters.
- Internal Saved Textures supported.
- Squelched some warnings related to textures.
- AreaLight bug that applied the light to multple shading domains when it should not have. 
- Fixed Cloth.
- Rendering will not hang the Mac while LuxRender does its thing.