Just got a press release from e-on software announcing their release of LumenRT 1.2 for Sketchup. The new version shows some fantastic performance boosts:
The auto-scale lighting feature can improve performance by 30% to 300% depending on the size of the model with a resulting tradeoff of lower lighting quality. The new build also adds several quality and reliability enhancements to improve overall performance and stability. As an example, new optimizations in Release 1.2 can lead to a 14x gain on pre-processing time!
In addition, they’ve got a nice Showcase online that shows off some great user contributions to the LumenRT community.
It’s available for $195 and runs on Windows & Mac.
Mac Sketchup modelers have a new tool at their disposal, as Shaderlight for Sketchup is now coming to the Mac! The interactive high-quality rendering plugin for Google Sketchup has been around for Windows users since October 2010, and just now comes to both Windows and Mac.
Kate Marshall commented: “This latest release now makes Shaderlight rendering available to every SketchUp user. We have a waiting list of enthusiastic Mac users who can’t wait to try the software so we’re excited about seeing the results!”
Shaderlight’s interactive renderer for Google SketchUp allows the user to watch their image ‘develop’ on screen as they continue to refine their SketchUp model.
You can get a free 14-day trial and then buy it for $199 at their website, or through the rest of this month you can buy it with a discount code for only $149. Full details after the break.
Another day, another high-end rendering engine for SketchUp. This time from ‘SB2′, the Render[in] engine is a real-time radiosity engine that comes with a few other bells and whistles.
Render[in] is a fully-integrated, real-time radiosity rendering engine developed for SketchUp Free and Pro. Render[in] is fast, easy to use, and works with all the same SketchUp settings, like geometry, camera, sun, colors, textures, etc. You don’t need to change a thing – just render your project! You can also add your own specific settings like specular reflection, point lights, spotlights, and 3D sky and clouds
They have a trial version available for download in the members area, and the full version retails for $160 USD.
ArtVPS has a new promotional competition out for their Shaderlight for SketchUp tool. Simply model a “3D Winter Wonderland” with SketchUp and render it with ShaderLight, and you could win a $150 Amazon Voucher with a free copy of ShaderLight and Sketchup Pro.
Get creative and visualize your very own Winter Wonderland in Google SketchUp and render it with Shaderlight – and you could win yourself some cracking Christmas gifts!
So whether you’re dreaming of a white Christmas or love the festive lights, let your imagination ride with Santa’s sleigh and create your very own interpretation of this festive theme. It can be anything you like – architectural, product or just picture postcard!
A pair of new plugins from AR-Media allow you to view your Sketchup & 3dsModels in Augmented Reality space. In addition to simply viewing the models, they’ve added some impressive Object Occluding technology that I’ld like to know more. You use their plugins to convert your models or scenes into their proprietary format, and then you just need their freely available ‘ARMedia Player’ to view the models.
The bundle provides users with an advanced visualization functionality which serves two main purposes in the design life cycle:
Help to study and analyze virtual prototypes in real environments
Communicate 3D projects immersively and astonishingly
All you need to make AR-media™ Plugin work is a personal computer, a webcam and a printed code attached to the software. A wide range of Head Mounted Displays, including the Vuzix® CamAR, eMagin, i-glasses™ are also supported.
For folks in product design this could be a great tool. You can download trial versions of the plugins from their site. See the demonstration video below.
Google Sketchup users have a new toy to play with, ArtVPS has brought the popular Shaderlight rendering system to Google Sketchup 7 and 8. You can download a free version to try out, but they also offer a ‘Pro’ version for only $199.
Developed as a tool for all SketchUp modellers, Shaderlight echoes the ‘simplicity first’ philosophy behind SketchUp and its familiar UI and simple workflow make it easy to deliver professional results, without requiring rendering expertise. Fully integrated in to SketchUp and SketchUp Pro, Shaderlight offers a range of features including automatic material presets, applied to the SketchUp material collection, and material finishes controlled via the Shaderlight Material Editor. The physically based interior lighting features and advanced global illumination techniques help render realistic interiors. Shaderlight allows users to change background setting with options for SketchUp background colour, image-based lighting environment or custom background.
The free version is limited to 640×480 rendering and lacks some of the nicer lighting effects, but every free download comes with a free 14-day trial of Pro so you can see everything they offer.
It seems Google has quietly released a new major upgrade for SketchUp that includes model geolocation, color imagery, and a new tool called ‘Building Maker’. They’ve added improved tools for photo matching, and all around seem to have done a good job of adapting SketchUp to be a great tool for architectural modeling.
The pro version adds support for basic constructive solid geometry operations like union, intersection, and subtraction, as well as some CAD-like features such as angular dimensions and volume calculation.
Sufferers of March Madness may be able to temporarily alleviate their symptoms by firing up Google Earth and checkout out the newly added Sketchup models of 14 of the arenas.
Here at the SketchUp office, we gathered 14 models of the arenas and added them to a Featured Collection. These models are located all over the country, and largely created by users like you. Especially cool is the model of the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, where you can fly inside and see the interior of the model! Both the Edward Jones Dome and the HSBC Arena are great examples of high quality photo-texturing, and the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis was created using Google Building Maker.
ASGVIS has now officially released the new VRay for Sketchup for both Mac & PC’s, including new support for ambient occlusion, IES lights, and improved parsing times. This is also the first official version that runs natively in the Mac OSX environment. Some choice quotes:
“Amazingly fast! Instead of rendering one image per night I’m cooking five in one day. Great work ASGVIS, rendering on Mac is smooth. I’m sure my interiors will benefit from the new features as IES!” – Johannes Roevens
“The addition of Ambient Occlusion in V-Ray for SketchUp adds a new level of realism for architectural visualizations, making the details and shadows in interiors “pop” and creating an instant convincing dirt effect to exterior surfaces.” – Jackson Barkess
Retails for $799 USD, and is available from http://software.asgvis.com or through an ASGVIS reseller. Full press release with details after the break.
Visual Dynamics ASGVIS has finally brought a native VRay renderer to the SketchUp Mac system, available for $599 for a limited time!
SketchUp is one of the most widely used and easy to learn 3D Modeling software on the market today. With V-Ray for SketchUp, users now have one of the most powerful rendering tools available to visualize their models with the upmost quality and realism. V-Ray works within the SketchUp environment allowing users to be able to efficiently incorporate the task of rendering within their current workflows.
V-Ray for SketchUp Mac Edition offers the world renowned V-Ray rendering system for SketchUp natively on the Mac. Mac users will no longer need to emulate a Windows environment and can now take their SketchUp renders to the next level with V-Ray!
After December 18th the price will return to it’s normal $799. If you want to see it in action, there will be a webinar tomorrow discussing the product but registration is required!
Just got a press release from e-on software announcing their release of LumenRT 1.2 for Sketchup. The new version shows some fantastic performance boosts:
Mac Sketchup modelers have a new tool at their disposal, as Shaderlight for Sketchup is now coming to the Mac! The interactive high-quality rendering plugin for Google Sketchup has been around 
Another day, another high-end rendering engine for SketchUp. This time from ‘SB2′, the Render[in] engine is a real-time radiosity engine that comes with a few other bells and whistles.
ArtVPS has a new promotional competition out for their Shaderlight for SketchUp tool. Simply model a “3D Winter Wonderland” with SketchUp and render it with ShaderLight, and you could win a $150 Amazon Voucher with a free copy of ShaderLight and Sketchup Pro.
A pair of new plugins from AR-Media allow you to view your Sketchup & 3dsModels in Augmented Reality space. In addition to simply viewing the models, they’ve added some impressive Object Occluding technology that I’ld like to know more. You use their plugins to convert your models or scenes into their proprietary format, and then you just need their freely available ‘ARMedia Player’ to view the models.
Google Sketchup users have a new toy to play with, ArtVPS has brought the popular Shaderlight rendering system to Google Sketchup 7 and 8. You can download a free version to try out, but they also offer a ‘Pro’ version for only $199.
It seems Google has quietly released a new major upgrade for SketchUp that includes model geolocation, color imagery, and a new tool called ‘Building Maker’. They’ve added improved tools for photo matching, and all around seem to have done a good job of adapting SketchUp to be a great tool for architectural modeling.
Sufferers of March Madness may be able to temporarily alleviate their symptoms by firing up Google Earth and checkout out the newly added Sketchup models of 14 of the arenas.
ASGVIS has now officially released the new VRay for Sketchup for both Mac & PC’s, including new support for ambient occlusion, IES lights, and improved parsing times. This is also the first official version that runs natively in the Mac OSX environment. Some choice quotes:
VizWorld.com 
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