Author Topic: Vector Rendering  (Read 12628 times)

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SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Vector Rendering
« on: November 01, 2019, 02:34:16 AM »
I’ve always been a big fan of rendering.  I used to do a bit of full color rendering back in the 3ds Max R3 era – not so much anymore.  Mostly line work (or programming) these days.

In addition to the raster oriented full colors renderings, I also a fan of 2d vector rendering.  The look and performance of such renderings are compelling.  The crisp details, the scalability – I’ve always felt there was a place for them in the CAD world.

Over the past 15 years or so (not very speedy, but I am tenacious), I’ve given the process some attention.   Here is a demo of the current state of the effort.  Still a long way to go – lots of tweaks, optimization, and UI work remain.

As can be seen in the screencast, I’m concentrating on B&W.  That has the most applicability in my workflow.  I suppose, though, that color could be beneficial and may be something I devote more time to in the future.

The computational process used certainly favors the parallel nature of outdoor lighting.  As a matter of fact, diffuse and multi point lighting may be intractable. 

Even with the limited light source, these renderings do require serious processing – hence the simplicity of the scene.  I’ll post more complex renders as they become available.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/09614848-7e64-4fa8-b6fd-f3428f7a89ee



Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2019, 02:52:32 PM »
Here’s a layout with a little more meat on the bones.  Another pergola, but this one uses a partial hyper/parabolic canopy to enhance viewer interest.  :roll:
Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2019, 02:55:05 PM »
This is another view of the same model.  My renderer was glitching like a bastard, so the print needed some post work.  I may have gotten carried away.
Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

nobody

  • Swamp Rat
  • Posts: 861
  • .net stuff
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #3 on: February 21, 2020, 05:14:28 AM »
Manga artists would love you


I’ve always been a big fan of rendering.  I used to do a bit of full color rendering back in the 3ds Max R3 era – not so much anymore.  Mostly line work (or programming) these days.

In addition to the raster oriented full colors renderings, I also a fan of 2d vector rendering.  The look and performance of such renderings are compelling.  The crisp details, the scalability – I’ve always felt there was a place for them in the CAD world.

Over the past 15 years or so (not very speedy, but I am tenacious), I’ve given the process some attention.   Here is a demo of the current state of the effort.  Still a long way to go – lots of tweaks, optimization, and UI work remain.

As can be seen in the screencast, I’m concentrating on B&W.  That has the most applicability in my workflow.  I suppose, though, that color could be beneficial and may be something I devote more time to in the future.

The computational process used certainly favors the parallel nature of outdoor lighting.  As a matter of fact, diffuse and multi point lighting may be intractable. 

Even with the limited light source, these renderings do require serious processing – hence the simplicity of the scene.  I’ll post more complex renders as they become available.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/09614848-7e64-4fa8-b6fd-f3428f7a89ee

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2020, 05:41:59 AM »
Manga artists would love you




Really! I hadn't thought about that trade as a potential market.  Sounds interesting though.

My initial notion was as an alternative to full color architectural renderings - the type that requires expensive glossy paper and high end printers to convey the best hardcopy information. 

The vector renders could be printed alongside the 2d plans.  Perhaps during the initial concept phase.  Let the pricier, full color renders accompany the final sale sets.

Quite frankly, I'm not exactly sure there is any market at all for this limited type of rendering.  Doing the programming was entertaining.  That's good enough for the time being.

Currently working on code that allows the process to handle Blocks/Xrefs.
Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

MickD

  • King Gator
  • Posts: 3619
  • (x-in)->[process]->(y-out) ... simples!
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2020, 03:31:35 PM »
Nice work Sean!
"Short cuts make long delays,' argued Pippin.”
J.R.R. Tolkien

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2020, 04:46:22 AM »
Thanks Mick. 

And I hope to keep work progress nice and steady - a 'theswamp.org' hallmark. 

Or, A scant 15 more years should have this project ready for public consumption. :yes:
Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #7 on: May 24, 2020, 11:48:15 AM »
The work I’m doing now for this rendering process reminds me of the tricks that were required in the old Scanline rendering days.  Here, I pre-make assets to speed up the process, hopefully without compromising the results.

These Xref assets require additional work beyond what would be optimum for modeling/detailing but, as assets, can be reused for other projects.  Especially something like trees.  And, regarding the trees, the Xref file contains a shadow mask (Region).  That mask needs to be transformed accordingly, but that is still way more efficient than processing the insane number of facets required for the leaves. 

I’ve included the base AutoCAD file to illustrate the intermediate step in the rendering process.  Upon examination you’ll notice that some of the shadow processing is done via the PDF Printer Z buffering.  Which is to say that ground shadows are masked by Shading, which is in turn masked by object shadowing.  One benefit to that is the ability to render the scene objects via separate passes.

There is still a bit of glitching, as can be seen in the PDF at the slide and for one of the tree shadows.  I’m still tweaking a function or two.  Plus, the whole user interface is still quite horrendous, as can be seen in the screencast.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/fb57a2d0-7a9f-4692-a05a-f8b3d3123989


Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #8 on: September 11, 2021, 04:35:38 AM »
Continuous (and more required) tweaking for the routines.   As it stands the front view demonstrates the practical limit of complexity.  Minimal post render work needed.  The backside view, with the pergola and tower, overloads the routines.  The geometry processing chokes the renderer/AutoCAD – which, occasionally, just blinks out of existence.  Consequently, much post work in that view.

Task Manager never indicates RAM deficiencies, but I may up from 16 to 32 GBs nonetheless.
Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #9 on: September 11, 2021, 04:36:43 AM »
View from Back Yard
Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical

ribarm

  • Gator
  • Posts: 3225
  • Marko Ribar, architect
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #10 on: September 14, 2021, 04:22:09 AM »
If that shadow is hatch entity, what would you do for curved surfaces like spheres? Not sure, but you have to consider not iluminated parts of bodys and give them little brighter shadows than recieved ones that they cast... I am not familiar with the way you coded and presented all those models, but to me if shadows are to be precise presented without bluring, indirect iluminating and so on like with normal rendering, then I suppose that I'd go for something like generating surfaces rather than hatches... But all I have to say is that your presentations are very good... Now that you are doing all this, do you have engeneering drawings for presented project(s) or this is all for testings... It looks that even you have all neccessary plugins to help design all the hatching, that to me is not easy job... I must be dreaming if this kind of drawings could be created in single push button manner... Actually I am doing similar things, but concentrating on simple designing presentations and normal renderings for pictures... If you are projecting new architecture and making projects documentations then this kind of job is welcomed; but your effort for doing this would increase with more and more complexity and I'd suppose you'd get tired very soon... For all this, you should get paid very well and you should price your work more... Don't know, if it has some deeper purpose - architecture desinging proposals - then it has some sense, otherwise I'd stick with something simple...
Marko Ribar, d.i.a. (graduated engineer of architecture)

:)

M.R. on Youtube

SEANT

  • Bull Frog
  • Posts: 345
Re: Vector Rendering
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2021, 02:34:02 PM »
Your post demonstrates a excellent understanding of the matter.  Many of the points you bring up are issues that I have been wrangling (dealing) with.  As it stands, and probably well into the future, the process I use is only good for a parallel, non-attenuating light source.  The Sun. 
It may work for sunlit interior shots (my current experimentation) but would never be capable of inverse square attenuation, global illumination, etc.

Regarding contrast, the use of hatches for shading and shadowing does allow for post render balance adjustment by changing the Layer colors.  Similarly, the isolation by layer allows tweaking Line-weights and color for all linear vectors.

As you alluded to, there are issues with non-planar surfaces so, like the early days of rasterized renders, all curved surfaces are pre faceted and this vector render process treats then like all the other planar surfaces.

I’m not sure what the goal is.  For now, I’ll just create a few more views of the current model, have those views surround the standard 2d floor plans, and put it all on an ARCH E sheet.  I may shop that around to the local architectural firms.  Perhaps get a little side work out of the deal.
Sean Tessier
AutoCAD 2016 Mechanical