SU Podium V2 BETA Information
http://www.suplugins.com/index.php?p=page&page_id=v2beta
- The first beta (build 0.2) only runs on Windows, but it runs on XP, Vista and Windows 7. You need to have a valid 1.x license in all cases. The most important factor for performance is CPU speed. The V2 engine is multi-threaded and you can actually see this in the Preview window. You also need a reasonable amount of RAM to hold 3d scene data. The more RAM you have, the more complex models you can render.
1. Pull Down Menu
After installing SU Podium V2 beta for Google SketchUp 7, you can access SU Podium V2 from the SketchUp plug-ins pull down menu. Keep in mind the current beta will not work on Google SketchUp 6 or on the Mac. You can run both Podium 1.x and SU Podium V2 during the same SketchUp session.
2. Apply Reflections, Refractions, Bumps, Lights to textures
Don't forget to click on Apply for properties to take effect
Reflections, refractions, LEM type lights and other properties are applied to textures in the model by using the material editor. This is one major area that is different from Podium 1.X where reflections and lights are applied to a SketchUp face.
First select a texture you want to apply Podium properties too. You can select the texture by selecting the face that texture is on or you can select the texture directly from the SketchUp Material browser. When you make a texture selection, its name will appear at the top of the Podium Material Editor. (Please Note: Textures that are assigned to curved surfaces should be selected from the SketchUp Material browser. Please see known issues below. )
Once a selection is made, apply the various Podium properties to the texture by using the appropriate slider. This will turn the texture into a Podium material.
Please Note: You must click on the Apply button for the properties to be applied to the material.
Let's take a closer look at the Material Editor
Diffuse, Transparency and Reflections are connected to each other. The combined value of the three sliders should equal 100% when applied to a texture. The default setting for non-transparent materials is 100% diffuse. However, if you want to see direct reflections on that texture, move the Reflection slider to the right. The Diffuse slider will automatically move left. In future versions, most likely, the three sliders will be combined together more automatically. Diffuse is reflection that does not bounce directly back to the camera but reflects at an angle. An example of the difference between Diffuse and direct reflection might be the reflection of a paved road. When it is dry, it has more diffuse reflection. When it is wet, it has more direct reflections. You can not have 100% Reflection (direct) and 100% Diffuse. Otherwise the material will render strangely.
Transparency is the SketchUp transparency/ opacity property conveniently located here. It is not wise to have a high transparency and a high reflection value. That is not real world and you renderings will look odd. The rule of thumb is to combine the 3 sliders to make 100% or close to 100%.
Refraction is where light waves "bend" when passing through a material with a refractive index. A good example of this is a straw placed at an angle in a glass of water. The water has a refractive index of 1.33. The straw looks bent at the surface of the water. Although there is no such material as air in Podium, if there was it would have a refractive index of 1. Version 2 has a list of preset refractive indexes for certain materials. To use Refraction on a texture, select the texture and enter a refractive index. Check out a good explanation of refraction here - Wikipedia
Both Reflections and Refractions have a blur option. (See Known issues about Blur.)
Bump Depth slider will allow you to apply bump maps to textures.
Light slider is the LEM light slider. Pick a texture and apply the light slider. This will turn that texture into a Light Emitting Material.
Note: Unlike Podium 1.X, V2 will apply Podium properties to textures. If you select a certain texture to have light, that texture will have light in the entire model.
3. Point Lights
Point lights are omni lights. Instead of creating groups to convert to omnis, you need only drag and drop a point light (which is a group) into the model to create omni direction lights. Easy!!
4. Light power/ color control
It's easy to adjust light power and color now. Just pick the Point Light or the LEM light and use this UI to make changes.
5. Render and Preview
In beta1 of Version 2, there is only one size preview window. Furthermore, the resolution of the rendered image will equal your SketchUp Viewport. Currently, the only resolution size is Viewport Resolution. This will change in upcoming betas and final release. The actual rendered image is saved as a .png file and it is saved in the same folder as where the SketchUp model is.
6. Physical Sky
In beta1 of Version2, when you turn SketchUp shadows on, you will get a physical sky in the rendered image which simulates the sky's colors on a clear day including the color at the horizon. There is only one physical sky option in Beta1. Betas in the near future will offer more options in multiple presets. (See known issues)
B. Release Notes: December 17, 2009
This build represents a stable code base where as far as we are aware, all features are working, although some may need some modification before final release. There will be additional features as well. V2 uses a new, higher-quality render engine. As a result, scenes set up in V1.x will not look the same in V2.
Current build number is Build 0.2 (As of December 17, 2009)
Feature List
1. Global material properties
2. Physical sky
3. Bump mapping
4. 'True' reflection - not fake specularity
5. Refraction with presets
6. Blurred reflection
7. Blurred refraction for true translucency
8. Light emitting materials
9. Omni (point light sources)
Known Issues
1. Support for large or complex models is not representative of the final release. Limitations on memory use means that some models will not render because the system will run out of RAM. Therefore it is better to try small models first and gradually increase the size and complexity. We have successfully tested models up to 500,000 faces though.
2. Anti-aliasing is currently controlled by the render preset. It is currently a little slow for some scenes. This will be addressed before release.
3. There is currently only one preset - the default. More will be introduced before release.
4. Adjusting the shadow lightness/darkness sliders currently does not affect the lighting levels. This will be implemented later.
5. Clay render mode has not been implemented yet.
6. Refraction may produce unpredictable effects in some circumstances.
7. Output resolution is limited to SketchUp window resolution and png format. Preset resolutions and other output formats will be implemented later.
8. The settings dialog has not been implemented.
9. Speed is similar to (or fractionally slower than) V1.x using the fastest default preset. For other presets V2 should be slightly faster and quality should be noticeably better.
10. Global Illumination is superior, interiors are significantly brighter than v1.x, or will be when the brightness control is enabled. This means that the omni grid tool will not be required for most scenes.
11. Podium V1.x lights will not work in V2 due to differences in the way the 2 render engines work. The V2 library is available now. Download from the download page.
12. Blurred reflection quality and speed needs improving.
13. Colored transparent surfaces do not cast colored light for the moment.
14. If you select a texture that is on a curved surface, the texture's name will not appear in the Material Editor. Select that specific texture from SketchUp's Material browser.
15. Help and FAQ links are not connected in the pull-down menu. "Aboud" in the pull-down menu is a spelling error.
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