Mark Aceto

I evidently got it to work with whatever build of 2020 I was using at the time:

Not ASCII but the IES file itself:

I think the bug was with importing IES files in general, so I'm just gonna go ahead and submit a new one.

Same. I suspect it’s a regression but waiting for Dave to confirm before I submit it because I’m lazy.

Not for nothing but you have the option to autoclass truss and lights in Spotlight Prefs:

@Dave Donley is this bug back? Or is it that weird ASCII workaround thing where the user has to edit the first few characters or something? ChromaQ Studio Force V 72 IES Test.vwx Studio Force II 72™ IES v1.0.zip

If you edit the actual light object (that's nested in the Lighting Device) via the Visualization Palette, you can import the IES file there. I've done this a number of times with strip lights (not that it made a difference).

Designer and Spotlight also lost the Refresh Lighting Devices command. It's now a context click for both object and document which works great, so I'm not mad at it but some users might get confused (some is code for me).

A pretty big crumb. Expectation is the M3 will have some degree of GPU acceleration. However, I imagine Apple will do their typical 3-year cycle of improving it, so the M4 would be closer to wherever NVIDIA is today (but not 4 years from now). I assume a few Windows-only apps will also start developing for Mac. Hard to predict what's going on at Epic but I wish them well. My heart goes out to everyone that got laid off right before Unreal Fest. Absolutely crushing news.

We should add "Global Illumination" to that other thread about streamlining language. "Ambient Light" drives me crazy.

I don't know if anything has changed since VW 2022 but enabling Denoising doubled the render time. I'm assuming that's why it's still off by default. So if you're trying to shave time on renders, start there. Redshift is known for having fantastic volumetric lighting but I haven't noticed a difference in VW (on a Mac), so maybe someone could... shed some light on that. For all practical purposes that I've noticed in VW, the choice between RS and RW depends on your hardware. If you have a 4090, go with RS. If you have a 64core Threadripper, go with RW. If you have a Mac, make a pot of coffee, walk the dog, take a shower... Maybe with VP Styles, we can render every other sheet with RW and RS for better thermals, alternating between GPU and CPU. I can't keep up with the competition using Rhino, Blender, Unreal and Twinmotion, so it's all purely academic to me until there's RT RT (real time ray tracing) in VW.

I think the main thing is to uncheck Denoising. Also, if it's acceptable, reduce the number of bounces. @Dave Donley is the man, and can really help you dial in Redshift. BTW to answer the other questions above, in my recent rendering (last week), Redshift looked indiscernible from custom RW and the render times were comparable, so I would say that's an improvement in 2024. Super anecdotal but that's been my experience so far. Not for nothing but I wish Apple would enable Game Mode for non-games (not that hardware accelerated ray tracing exists in M1 or M2 but still). Maybe someone can hack that?

Hey Ben, I use the Landru tool with Data Tags in much the same workflow that you're describing. If I understand your question, I would draw 2 screen objects adjacent to each other. That would also help with naming each screen, and other prepro / planning / paperwork. And, as Andy said, multiple screens could share the same raster info in the OIP. Not for nothing but the Landru tool also allows me to enter weight and watts per tile, and then calcs the totals for me, which is a big help. On that note, @C. Andrew Dunning VW 2024 has some pretty sweet improvement to Data Tag units, so I'm bumping that request to the top of the list 😅

Glad that worked out! I was deep in Data Viz today, and grabbed a screenshot of what I was talking about (importing from another file): Also, here's a reminder to Migrate them when the time comes:

I don't understand how anything is working in this file. Lens geometry Class is set to Lens but Render tab is set to None. None class has no attributes / textures. Lens class no attributes / textures. But lens render works perfectly when editing color in the Lighting Device. What the heck is going on here?

Also what about other SLVP’s? Wondering if that one went currupt, it’s a bug or something else… I would check everywhere I can find Data Viz. Maybe even open a new fresh file, and try to import from this one.

I haven’t had this issue before (although I have had frustration with how the Data Manager saves / stores / manages Data Sets). All of your questions / troubleshooting steps make sense. Users can even import Data Vis rules from other files. It’s pretty bulletproof. Also wondering if it’s a Project sharing situation… Is there a VW backup file or a Time Machine backup that could be accessed? Is this 2024? Is it an Unstyled SLVP? Are the DV settings visible from the View Bar on a design layer?

Another one of my favorites: RT also means Ray Tracing aaaaaaaaand Real Time... so someday we can have realtime raytracing rendtrworks textures: RT RT RT!

RT = Renderworks Texture, so in the Renderworks Textures folder are Renderworks Textures RT... it's like The Department of Redundancy Department. I believe this is a result of a years-long housekeeping exercise, and any texture with the RT suffix was somehow modernized. So now most of the textures end in RT. To the point of the OP, they're just textures! We don't need all of this friction, especially for new users that are like, "Why do most of these end in RT but some don't?" Textures, records, layers, clases, sheets (or plates if you're nasty)...

Does everyone remember when Renderworks was a separate add-on that we had to pay for before it was baked (pun intended) into VW at no additional cost? And how about all the redundant RW Textures that end in "RT"? Still. Or how about a year or two ago when the Render tab in the OIP got some love, mostly for the better but then... crickets. Where's the iterative development? Nope, time to change all the icons... The whole "RW" quagmire could use a little love. Not rearranging vegetables on the plate instead of eating them. Not overhauling it with something polarizing. Just lose the legacy artifacts, and streamline it...

Today I was asked to provide all materials for an (mostly) corporate show, so I added a "Material" field to my custom Record Format that I full expect to report in my Instrument Schedule as: Aluminum NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA NA I'm not sure the reason why I have to do this but more and more production companies are mindful of producing sustainable events. Some of my clients are certified according to this: https://www.iso.org/iso-20121-sustainable-events.html That said, the discussion of Materials / Textures in regards to DCC / CAD / CAM software carries a whole other meaning that gets conflated quickly... I used Blender as an example because I think when it comes to wrangling all of the variables, they're a good example of mostly getting it right. Not a hill I'm willing to die on though.

Changing "OpenGL" to "Shaded" made sense (especially since VW uses DirectX on Windows) and is consistent with other software. Changing VW "Layers" and "Classes" to something else would not make sense (regardless of what other software names things: groups, scenes, containers, trees... ). The discussion about Materials / Textures is a little more nuanced...

This comment shouldn't be overlooked. The fact that Blender is open source certainly democratizes the choices they make together as a team. Blender users, like many VW users, come from all industries, backgrounds, other 3D design software... Blender's excellent documentation reflects common language, like a Rosetta Stone, across that Tower of Babel user base. I think we can all agree that what would benefit VW users, as Tom proposed in the OP, is streamlining the language / workflows / procedures (or lack of them) and so on... throughout the VW UI. We can start with the lowest hanging fruit, and iterate from there (please no more overhauling). Also +1 for PBR textures and procedural everything. Carry on, my wayward sons There'll be peace when we are done *guitar solo*

2's the key number here. Think about it. 2-Pac. 2 Fast 2 Furious. 2, man, that's the number. 2 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch. You know that old children's tale from the sea. It's like you're dreamin' about Gorgonzola cheese when it's clearly Brie time, baby. Step into my office. Anyway, the shortcuts also magically appear throughout the VW UI (menus, etc). Nevertheless, this is gonna spectacularly backfire on me when I get a PC...

Accurate description of the UX with the new icons.