Blender - Cycles

I got one of the builds off of GraphicAll and have been playing with the Cycles renderer, which is due to be in trunk by December for Blender 2.61 release.

At first, I wasn't going to play with Cycles until came in an official release, but since we're getting close to December and Andrew Price just made a GREAT introductory video on Cycles, I felt like playing!

I created a simple scene and let it cook for awhile. I think the results look quite photographic. Cycles handles light much more realistically.

It's in the plan that Cycles replaces the internal renderer currently in Blender, so the main change will be in setting up materials. If you have a good graphics card (GPU), then you'll get relatively quick renders. (for a non-biased renderer) Without the good graphics card, all has to be calculated with the CPU and will be relatively slow.

At first I didn't like the fuzzy, slowly evolving images as it is rendering, but now, I guess it has grown on me. With a few passes, you have a good idea of how the scene is looking, there's just a lot of noise. Give it a bit of time to clean it up and I think it works quite well.

Here is the simple scene, rendered in 500 passes...

Attachment 84923

Peace

James

Looks good to me James, I can see from what you said that I would have to get a better graphics card then came on my computer.
That is if I ever manage to ever get anywhere with Blender. Still trying though.

I saw Andrew Price's video and it is a great introduction to Cycles. I tried a build from graphicall a couple of weeks ago and it had an annoying problem with flickering menus that just about drove me around the bend. But as soon as I get through with some work (the kind that pays the bills) I think I'm going to download a new version from graphicall and try Cycles again.

I'm playing with Cycles and so far the one issue that I have is that my graphics card isn't up to snuff so I have to render with the CPU :(

One thing I tried was to open the Royal albert teacup and Cycles just renders the white cup why don't my mapped textures show?

Hello Frances,

For the flickering menu problem, you have to go to User Preferences and where it says Window Draw method, choose Overlap. (or possibly anything other than Automatic, Overlap worked for me)

I think the image mapping to geometry is something we might have to wait for December to get working in Cycles...

If you go into Blender (with Cycles activated) and go to the Texture tab, you will see the options are limited. Currently it appears it only does flat mapping and without any convenient controls to position/resize it. I have a feeling they'll put the hooks in necessary to get our normal options back. I have a feeling that now, in order to get your teacup mapped (in Cycles), it would have to be completely unwrapped and the texture applied to the UV coordinates.

James

You can still map, but it appears it will have to be flat or UV unwrapped, until December...

It does work...

Attachment 84949

Peace

James

Not so dark... but it does work.

Apparently, UV unwrapping will be necessary for any complex shapes, until December...

Attachment 84953

James