Kray questions

[cohen]

Hello, I have been watching the progress of kray development for many years now, and I have been impressed with various improvements that have been made as of this last year. I am thinking about using it, but before I do, I would like some quick answers to these questions.

Does kray offer reliable buffer output with its new buffer out header commands? Does it provide all the essential buffers like diffuse, specular, and reflective shading? (not just surface constants, but how they are shaded with light information)

Has Kray planned to support the different shading models and SSS that is now offered in Lightwave 9?

And lastly, is it possible to use the current Kray release in BNR as a temporary distributed rendering solution? Whether or not I would have to set it up as a customized platform or not doesn't bother me. Also do plans still exist in integrating its own distributed rendering solution for the near future?

One last thing, are there any crucial weaknesses / 'Kray pitfalls' that I should be aware of?

Sorry for a lengthy post, but I have had problems in the past with purchasing tools without being aware of where their limits lay.

[TrueArt Support]

And lastly, is it possible to use the current Kray release in BNR as a temporary distributed rendering solution?

Yes, if you will take also VirtualRender http://virtualrender.trueart.eu

[acidarrow]

Buffer output right now has all the basics, but they don't all work all the time. ZBuffer, alpha, diffuse, direct/indirect work properly most of the time and are usable, but especially if you use nodes, a lot of things will be in the wrong output.

Though, proper and more complete buffer export is planned and a pretty wanted feature right now, so I'm expecting improvements soon.

[cohen]

Thanks for the replies. And for thoroughly laying out what I can expect from internal buffer access. Given that its beta still, I dont think this will be an issue for much longer. Do either of you know if Kray takes into account reflective and transparent properties for calculating GI when a ray hits a surface. For instance, in LW 9, there is a new "Directional Rays" option for calculating GI, which gives a nice touch of realism compared to calculating GI on a pure diffuse model without taking into account its reflective and transparent properties. I'm not trying to start a 'my render is better than yours' thing, I just order a copy of the latest beta actually. I'm just curious on Kray's current capabilities while my order is being processed.

[gtanski]

Buffers

I'm going to add them to GUI soon. Probably some bugs there, but they are quite easy to find.

SSS

Support for Lightwave nodes needs some work too. Im going to make they as much compatible with LW as possible. Kray has own build-in SSS shader. It will be exposed (as shader) in near future. There some other Kray shaders to be exposed too (like dispersive glass for example)

BNR

At the moment it requires Virtual Renderer. Plans for internal network rendering solution exists, but its not very near future. It also depends how Virtual Renderer developement will continue. If Sensei will provide node information exchange mechanism maybe VR will remain only network solution (but will allow then to exchange GI information between render nodes)

Limits

Of course Kray has limits like everything. Most cruical weaknesses are always on top of TODO list. There is always area to improve.

Reflection and refraction with GI

Kray takes into account reflection and refraction always when computing lightmaps/photonmap. For final gathering by default they are also taken into account, but you can turn it off on FG tab (FG reflections,FG transparency/refraction) and gain some speed if they are not needed.

[silverlw]

Sorry for a lengthy post, but I have had problems in the past with purchasing tools without being aware of where their limits lay.

Thanx for all your god questions and we all welcome you as a new customer.