“Rendering options” palette

The Physical renderer is better and faster when it comes to calculating some images, preventing problems that may occur with the Standard renderer, such as Moiré effects.

Results can vary depending on the model. So you should do some trial runs to find out which renderer works best for you.

You can choose between the rendering methods GI (global illumination) and No GI. Using GI, you can define the primary and secondary methods.

GI {IR + IR}
Both methods use Irradiance Cache.
This setting is ideally suited for interior views with artificial lighting.
GI {IR + QMC}
The primary method uses Irradiance Cache; the secondary method uses Quasi Monte Carlo. This calculation can take a bit longer.
This setting is ideally suited for exterior views with natural lighting; artificial lighting will also be taken into account.
GI {IR + Lightmaps}
The primary method uses Irradiance Cache; the secondary method uses Lightmaps.
This setting is ideally suited for small-area scenes with several light sources that are near and parallel to walls or similar objects. When you render these scenes with other rendering methods, you sometimes get strange lighting effects, such as light spots distributed irregularly.

Example of a rendering result without and with Lightmaps

Note: Rendered images created by this method are somewhat brighter than those created by other methods.
Rendering result without light mapping (on the left) and with medium Lightmaps quality (on the right)
GI {IR Legacy}, GI {IR Legacy+ QMC}
The settings are equivalent to the GI {IR + IR} and GI {IR + QMC} rendering modes However, these modes use Irradiance Cache of Allplan 2017 and earlier versions.
Use these rendering modes if you want to edit projects from earlier versions. This way, you make sure that the rendered images are similar to those created in earlier versions.
No GI
Rendering mode without global illumination; this mode is particularly useful for doing some quick trial runs.
Rendering without global Illumination produces results in less time. Shining lights and sharp edges of shadows are clearly visible. However, it is not possible to assess lights, colors, color gradients or shadows.

Tip: The GI {IR + QMC} method calculates shadows more precisely. If shadows are very important for your scene, you can also render interior views with this method. However, calculation may take a little longer.
If the resulting image is distorted, you can compensate for this by increasing the quality (see Quality - Default) and optimizing the image for interior views (see Optimize for).

Ambient occlusion is a shading technique you can use together with global illumination. Ambient occlusion produces realistic shadows in a relatively short period of time. Another advantage of this technique is that it emphasizes details by applying shadows to edges and corners.

For example, you can use ambient occlusion to simulate lighting conditions when the sky is cloudy and there is no direct sunlight. You can use this technique both for interior scenes and exterior scenes.

When you select this option, you can define additional AO parameters in the Advanced settings palette.

The following illustrations show the effects of ambient occlusion. The image on the left does not use ambient occlusion, whereas the image on the right uses this technique.

Using the Options palette, you can achieve visual effects and include surface elements in the rendered images.

If you select this option, Allplan will include the virtual ground plane in the rendered image. Otherwise, it will be excluded.

Optimizes the calculation for exterior views (with natural lighting) or interior views (with artificial lighting and difficult lighting conditions).

This setting is directly affected by the Samples accuracy setting in the Irradiance cache area (see Advanced settings palette).

Controls the gamma value and thus the brightness of the entire scene in the resulting image.

Using this value, you can brighten up dark images or darken overexposed images. Dark images result from small values for Diffuse depth (see Advanced settings palette).

Examples of rendered images (1 - 6) with different settings for global illumination (= gamma value) and a constant setting for diffuse depth = 3.

So that you can compare the results, the image at the bottom was rendered with the following settings: global illumination = 1; diffuse depth = 8.

You can select one of the predefined quality levels for the rendered image. Remember: The better the quality, the longer the calculation will take.

Using Advanced settings, you can customize the settings for the quality levels to suit your needs.

Opens the Advanced settings palette, where you can define advanced rendering settings, thus controlling the quality of the resulting image.

Important!
So that Allplan displays spherical panoramas correctly, you must select the image resolution so that it is at a ratio of 2:1 (for example, 4,000 x 2,000 pixels). In addition, you must select the Latitude, longitude option for the Mode and save the rendered image in JPG or TIF format.

Cuboid (cross)
Allplan creates the rendered image as the developed surface of a cuboid. Allplan uses the two-point perspective for the perspective view. Select this setting if you want to create a horizontal 360° panorama (cylindrical panorama with a maximum viewing angle of 360° x 100°).