Okino Knowledge Base and Frequently Asked Questions

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F.A.Q: Rendering and Usage Issues for NuGraf

This section contains questions and answers about Okino's NuGraf software, mainly dealing with rendering and user interface issues.

1. How do I solve an "Out of Memory" condition?
2. How do I view error, warning or statistic information output by the program or its converters?
3. What is the secret to making realistic images?
4. Why do anti-aliased images take longer to render than non-anti-aliased images?
5. My rendered images have jagged edges in some locations. What is wrong?
6. Are there any limitations to the NuGraf software such as the maximum size of an image, the level of antialiasing, the number of lights/cameras/surfaces/textures or the number of objects in a scene?

1. How do I solve an "Out of Memory" condition? - Top

If the program should report an Out Of Memory condition during rendering then you will either have to increase the size of your existing swap file or buy more memory. It does not seem too common that our customers run out of memory, unless you are rendering a truly large number of polygons, or you are trying to import a 200+MB IGES file with lots of curved surfaces and something in the neighborhood of 50,000 or more object names.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

2. How do I view error, warning or statistic information output by the program or its converters? - Top

Press the F2 key to make the message and error window visible. This window will contain all error and warning messages printed by the geometry import/export filters. In addition, these error messages are saved to the disk file "errors.log" located in the main NuGraf/PolyTrans distribution directory.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

3. What is the secret to making realistic images? - Top

The secret is to get the correct balance of ambient, diffuse and specular light shining on a surface. During a typical rendering session you will typically perform these steps repeatedly:

-Select an object for whose surface definition you want to modify.
-Please the "Edit Surface" button on the Selector Window.
-Press the "Surface Colors" button on the Surface attribute editor dialog box.
-Modify the sliders contained in the "Surface Colors Intensity" group box.

The recommended starting slider values are: ambient component = 0.3, diffuse = 0.4 and specular = 0.7. To make a texture mapped object appear stronger in the image increase the ambient value closer to 1.0. To make an object appear shinier increase the specular value closer to 1.0.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

4. Why do anti-aliased images take longer to render than non-anti-aliased images? - Top

To remove the jagged edges from an image the renderer has to perform between 2 and 16 times more shading calculations per pixel. This increases the rendering time proportionally. To speed up the rendering process please refer to the memory optimization and rendering speedup tutorial. - Updated: October 1, 2007

5. My rendered images have jagged edges in some locations. What is wrong? - Top

You have to enable the anti-aliasing rendering option (scanline renderer only; the ray tracer has anti-aliasing enabled by default). A recommended value is (x=1,y=4). This causes the renderer to compute more information at each pixel so that the jagged edges can be removed.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

6. Are there any limitations to the NuGraf software such as the maximum size of an image, the level of antialiasing, the number of lights/cameras/surfaces/textures or the number of objects in a scene? - Top

No, there are no limitations at all in the software, memory limiting. This basic principle of no limitations has been adhered to closely since the inception of the NuGraf software.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

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This section contains questions and answers about Okino's NuGraf software, mainly dealing with rendering and user interface issues. 1. How do I solve an "Out of Memory" condition? 2. How do I view error, warning or statistic information output by the program or its converters? 3. What is the secret to making realistic images? 4. Why do anti-aliased images take longer to render than non-anti-aliased images? 5. My rendered images have jagged edges in some locations. What is wrong? 6. Are there any limitations to the NuGraf software such as the maximum size of an image, the level of antialiasing, the number of lights/cameras/surfaces/textures or the number of objects in a scene?

1. How do I solve an "Out of Memory" condition? - Top

If the program should report an Out Of Memory condition during rendering then you will either have to increase the size of your existing swap file or buy more memory. It does not seem too common that our customers run out of memory, unless you are rendering a truly large number of polygons, or you are trying to import a 200+MB IGES file with lots of curved surfaces and something in the neighborhood of 50,000 or more object names.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

2. How do I view error, warning or statistic information output by the program or its converters? - Top

Press the F2 key to make the message and error window visible. This window will contain all error and warning messages printed by the geometry import/export filters. In addition, these error messages are saved to the disk file "errors.log" located in the main NuGraf/PolyTrans distribution directory.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

3. What is the secret to making realistic images? - Top

The secret is to get the correct balance of ambient, diffuse and specular light shining on a surface. During a typical rendering session you will typically perform these steps repeatedly:

-Select an object for whose surface definition you want to modify.
-Please the "Edit Surface" button on the Selector Window.
-Press the "Surface Colors" button on the Surface attribute editor dialog box.
-Modify the sliders contained in the "Surface Colors Intensity" group box.

The recommended starting slider values are: ambient component = 0.3, diffuse = 0.4 and specular = 0.7. To make a texture mapped object appear stronger in the image increase the ambient value closer to 1.0. To make an object appear shinier increase the specular value closer to 1.0.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

4. Why do anti-aliased images take longer to render than non-anti-aliased images? - Top

To remove the jagged edges from an image the renderer has to perform between 2 and 16 times more shading calculations per pixel. This increases the rendering time proportionally. To speed up the rendering process please refer to the memory optimization and rendering speedup tutorial. - Updated: October 1, 2007

5. My rendered images have jagged edges in some locations. What is wrong? - Top

You have to enable the anti-aliasing rendering option (scanline renderer only; the ray tracer has anti-aliasing enabled by default). A recommended value is (x=1,y=4). This causes the renderer to compute more information at each pixel so that the jagged edges can be removed.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

6. Are there any limitations to the NuGraf software such as the maximum size of an image, the level of antialiasing, the number of lights/cameras/surfaces/textures or the number of objects in a scene? - Top

No, there are no limitations at all in the software, memory limiting. This basic principle of no limitations has been adhered to closely since the inception of the NuGraf software.
- Updated: October 1, 2007

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