Rendering in SketchUp

Fig. 29.12: 
The Shaderlight Candela menu 
option

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Part 6: Shaderlight by ArtVPS
Quality Settings
The specific Quality settings you’ll need depend on where you are in the iterative rendering 
process, as outlined in Chapter 20 and Chapter 26. When you’re running drafts, do not set 
Quality above 60 percent, because this will automatically set Shaderlight to rendering in Tiled 
mode (Fig. 29.14). This can take a considerable amount of time when you’re rendering with lights.
However, for final renderings, you’ll need 70 to 100 percent Quality in order for the lighting 
scenes to render correctly. In most cases, for final renderings, you’ll set the Quality to
100 percent (Fig. 29.15).
Lighting Settings
The following section details settings for different light types. It focuses on Candela strengths 
and Exposure settings. These settings work in tandem to achieve the desired output image.
exposure
In order to achieve good rendering results for simulated lighting, you’ll need to adjust the 
Exposure setting (under Lighting). For most simulated lighting renderings, Exposure will 
range from +1 to +7. Determining the value is one of your most important tasks during the 
draft-to-final iterative process.
However, the Exposure setting is easy to work with: you can adjust it up or down and it will 
update the image automatically without restarting the rendering process. You can do this even 
after the render is complete. This makes 
it easy to assess the amount of exposure 
needed for an image prior to setting the 
final render.
The exposure dynamic update works only 
if Update is set to Auto. Once Quality is set 
between 70 and 100 percent (typical for 
final renderings), Update will change to Tile 
mode and prevent all dynamic rendering/
updating, including exposure.