TurboLux Rendering

TurboLux is a state-of-the-art rendering technology which exploits Physically Based Rendering (PBR) techniques. PBR models light and materials based on the laws of physics, accurately simulating the flow of light, resulting in eye-popping images of photographic quality.

Materials, Luminance and Rendering

TurboLux provides superior rendering qualities by simulating environmental properties and the flow of light. It does this by using PBR, a physically-based rendering technology which uses state-of-the-art algorithms to produce photographic-quality rendering.

TurboLux Materials

Tools | Palettes | Materials

TurboLux Materials added to parts represent physical properties and highly accurate shadings. The metal shader, for example, is powered by Fresnel-based values which allow control over the angle of the beam, such as the soft-edged spotlight of car headlights. These materials can further be adjusted texturally to degrees of roughness and degree of refraction.

TurboCAD Platinum provides support for PBR-compatible Materials in the 2022 release, with over 800, fully-editable TurboLux materials in the TurboCAD Materials Palette.

In the example below, a part is selected and the material properties are set to Plastics > Polished Plastics.

Using the TurboLux Render Manager to set the properties of a part. 

Lights

When rendering a part, a light source in the form of an HDRI High-Definition Range Image is required. This is a 360° image which is ‘wrapped around’ a model to provide lighting and background context. Area Lights and Sun/Sky Lights are also available.

Light sources are not added to the design by default and must be added independently using the Luminance Palette Toos | Palettes | Render Manager or Render Manager.

HETEROGENEOUS COMPUTING

This provides a vastly diverse array of liquid and solid-state materials by harnessing the GPU of your device. See System Requirements below.

Denoiser and Caustic Rendering

TurboLux uses PBR Progressive-based rendering to sample pixels to a final rendered image.

Denoiser is used to de-pixelate and increase smoothness when normal rendering leaves the render with flat or unlit pixelation, similar in effect to degaussing.

(A) Normal (b) Denoised

Denoised Images after 20 Samples

Caustics is used to show reflection and refraction through solid (such as glass) or water materials. bi-directional paths can be traced from the camera to the lights in the scene to render highly realistic images.

System Requirements for TurboLux

TurboLux rendering harnesses the power of the GPU Graphics Processing Unit or your device and requires a graphics card which supports OpenCL 1.2 (or later) or NVIDIA’S CUDA version 10 (or later) to efficiently process rendered images. These drivers can be downloaded from the vendor’s website and are installed to work in compliance with your GPU.

TurboLux Engine

Options | TurboLux Engine

This is the dialog box where fundamental settings for TurboLux can be found, shown below.

TurboLux Settings

OCL Mode

Should you intend to harness your device’s GPU to produce photographic-style rendering, the OCL option must be activated, shown below.

Use OCL Mode

By activating the OCL mode, a message prompting the restart of TurboCAD will be displayed.

If GPU-dependent rendering is not required, the ‘Use OCL modes’ should remain deactivated.

TurboLux Scene & Environments

Options | Drawing Styles | TurboLux Scene

By default, the light settings are optimized for exterior (outdoor) scenes where the Sky Light or Sunlight options are activated.

For interior or studio-type renderings the Environment Map is activated and the Sun Light checkbox is deactivated, shown below.

Using the Options, shown below, an HDRI image to provide environmental mapping can be selected.

Environmental Lighting

In the example below, the sample file, studio_001.hdr provided with the software is used. This is accessed by activating the the Environmental Map > Options, shown above, then selecting the File option.

This sample file can be found at the following path, but any HDRI image can be used.

[drive] Program Files\IMSIDesign\TCW2023\RenderSceneEnv\Env_maps\HDRI

Camera Settings

View | Camera Options | Camera | Properties

The TurboLux rendering type is used for the Draft and Quality Render options and the following conditions apply :

TurboLux Draft Render

If OCL is activated, the single CPU-based rendering option RT Path CPU Fixed FPS is available.

If OCL is not activated, a choice between 2 GPU-based rendering options can be selected, with RT Path CPU Fixed FPS being the default, shown below.

Setting the Camera property for Draft and Quality Render

TurboLux Quality Rendering

When OCL is activated, multiple rendering options are available for both CPU and GPU-based rendering, shown below.

CPU and GPU-based rendering options

 

TurboLux Render Manager

The lighting of the rendered scene environment is provided by Luminance and these settings are accessed using either the Luminance palette Tools | Palettes | Luminance or by selecting the object to be rendered, right-clicking in the editor and selecting Properties > Luminance, shown below.

Using the Luminane options in the Properties sheet

In the example below, the Material properties of the parts have been set to Metals > Chrome and the Luminance set to Color. The color luminance properties are shown below.

Worked Example

Open the components drawing here.

The components in this drawing are shown below. This image is rendered using Draft Render > Visual Style > Conceptual.

Select Tools | Palettes | Materials to bring the Materials palette into the editor.

Select each part independently then use the Materials palette to apply materials to the selected part. This is done either by double-clicking onto the material or by dragging the material onto the selected object, shown below.

In the example below, Part 1 is selected and the part is isolated using Edit > Isolate Objects. The Stainless Steel material can be dragged onto the selected part.

To restore the hidden part in the editor, select Edit > End Isolation.

Luminance is added to an isolated part or a scene by selecting the part, then using the options in the Luminance palette. In the example below, the HDRI map 3 is used. In the example below, the wheel part is hidden in the editor.

Applying Luminance prior to render