Rendering with 3Delight
Note that before trying to render, you should make sure you created a .cam file and assigned a Rendering Type to your Entities.
Also make sure that your source character shaders has been imported in your scene and that they are active (see Quickstart / Importing Shader) for more details)
Also make sure that your source character shaders has been imported in your scene and that they are active (see Quickstart / Importing Shader) for more details)
Basic rendering
Export simulation
1/ Use the simulation tool to export a simulation cache as well as RIB files.
Golaem Crowd provides a plugin to render characters with 3Delight in Maya.
The plugin is installed in the procedurals/ directory in Golaem Crowd's installation directory.
The file name of the plugin is glmCrowd3DelightPlugin.dll (.so).
Note that thanks to procedural rendering, it is possible to change assets repartition, lights, cameras... at any time, without reexporting simulation.
Select 3Delight as your current renderer
2/ Select 3Delight in the Maya Render/Render Using menu
3/ Go to the render settings and create a default render pass
3Delight Settings before creating a default render pass by clicking on the checker button
Create a render proxy
4/ Load the Golaem Crowd Render plugin, and create a 3Delight Proxy
Check your render settings
5/ Go to CrowdRender/Check Render Settings and follow instructions if something is wrong
Render
6/ Hit Render, and you are done!
Troubleshooting
If your Entities are not correctly rendered you can check the Troubleshooting Rendering section
You can also take a look at this video tutorial:
Some Things to Know
Errors Output
Golaem Crowd for 3Delight plugin outputs errors and warnings in the Maya Output Window. If one does not get any characters rendered, he should have a look at this window and check for errors.
The Maya Output Window
Missing Shaders
To get the shaders applied to your crowd it is needed to load them with the correct names in Maya. To do so, just load your source character in Maya (and do not hide it but just put it in some place where it is not visible by the camera). If you fail to do that, a default grey color shader will be applied on your characters.
A scene rendered with missing shaders
3Delight and Shaders
Here are some important remarks about 3Delight and the way it translates its shaders to the RIB file format:
When translating a Maya scene into the RIB file format, shaders are embedded in an RiArchive tag with the values of its parameters and instead of calling directly the shader for a surface it calls this archive tag. Thus, this is this archive name which should be referenced in the Assets Manager.
If the shader is a Maya shader, it does not make any difference. On the other hand, if the shader is a RSL shader and has been applied with the 3delight relationship editor, it is needed to edit its Assets Manager file (.cam) and replace it by its corresponding RSL.
Example of a RSL shader applied to a mesh and its correspondance in the Assets Manager
HANDLING VISUAL DIVERSITY WITH PROCEDURAL SHADERS
Golaem Crowd includes built-in Mental Ray shaders enabling to handle visual diversity easily. They can be found in the Hypershade in the Maya / Utilities category.
Golaem Crowd 3Delight Shaders
Creating Shader / Texture Diversity
In order to be able to create shaders variation, Golaem Crowd provides a Switch shader, which input value should be linked to a shader attribute created in the asset manager. This link is done through a GetUserData.