normal C4D lights

[STRAT]

In all my time in Cinema and Max I've never been an area light fan. i dont like the concept and the way they work. never have done. i've always preferred to use other lights.

For archi rendering, both interior and exterior, area lights dont really lend themselves freely enough in my opinion. not flexible enough and too finiky to use.

I know Vray strongly leans towards areas, but i thought i'd try using C4D's normal lights as well within Vray, without Vray light tags. They work really nice and interact beautifully with my vray scene.

My question is am i going down a dodgy route? should i not be using regular C4D lights? what are the downsides? because at the moment they're looking great. (apart from not being able to have area shadows on normal c4d lights, which is a problem to be honest. Can this be easily resolved or not? )

[stefan]

well i think you can,
you just loose some extras of the vray light capabilities.
and of course you might loose the perfect calibration.

it is up to your choise i guess:-)
the light tag is no must, it is an addon or extra feature.
cheers
stefan

[Fluffy]

You don't have to use area lights with the Vray light tag. Just set your light to omni or spot, and you'll even get your area shadows (but no shadow maps).
You can also get 2 different falloffs.

[STRAT]

Stefan, can i put in a quick request please?

i appreciate Daniele has fixed a few issues with the standard infinite light, but can this be applied to all other standard c4d lights too please?

as it stands the use of area shadows and light intensity is disabled when using non vray lights. Is it hard to turn these features back on? as i'm finding the standard c4d lights much much more controllable and flexable as far as falloff and shadow shape and intensity etc etc is over the vray lights.

It would be lovely to have a choice of standard of vray lights. at the moment the standard lights have several basic features disabled if using the vray renderer.
Vray is pushing heavily on the vray area light, but i'm just not an area light fan for architectural rendering.

thank you

[stefan]

hi strat,
donr really understand all c4d lights work, all kinds,
also with light tag all work, not only arealight.
i just recommended them as they are the best.
cheers
stefan

[STRAT]

hi strat,
donr really understand all c4d lights work, all kinds,


no they dont. if i use a normal c4d lights i get most of the vital functions disabled.


hi strat,
also with light tag all work, not only arealight.


this is true, but again, flexibility and functionality is lost compared to what normal c4d lights will give me.


hi strat,
i just recommended them as they are the best.
cheers
stefan

no probs mate, i just disagree :)


all i ultimately want to do is use cinema's normal lights, without a vray render tag, and have the usual full functionality out of them. as you said up there, the vray tag will give me 'extra' features, which is great, but i also want the 'normal' features :)

[stefan]

well yes the tag is probably needed. it is a totally other engine, dont forget this. i find you have much more possibilities in vray lights, are you sure you have explored all?

area light is a matter of taste of course. i mean it is the the only one that "behaves like real light2. all other are cg lights only, but do have thier sense of course....

cheers
stefan