lighting Lighting Appears Dim in 3D

[CalebHeikkila]

When I add lights to the inside of my house, I can barely see a difference between when they are on or off (I created the GIF below to show what I mean). The lights are turned up to full brightness, but they are still dim, and the interior lights do not light up the windows enough. Also, the exterior lights seem to only reflect off the windows, instead of lighting the outside walls, roofs, etc. I like the sunlight option best right now, but for simulating the house at night, I want the lighting to look behave more similarly to the way it does in the photograph on the right. Does anybody have any tips on how to make lighting and shadows more vibrant/realistic?

 

I am using Chief Architect's Home Designer (Architectural), Build 19.0.3.49x64

 

[DavidJPotter]

Standard Render cameras in all Home Designer titles use "Open GL" render software. Open GL only supports 8 light sources per render, so no matter how many you place, only 8 get randomly selected. You can control this to a degree at least as to which 8 lights are to be "ON" in a render view by way of "3D-Lighting-Adjust Lighting" dialog and singly by way of each light sources' dialog (Electrical Services Specification Dialog). To really get the appearance you desire, will require an upgrade to Chief Architect Premier that has a render engine that supports as many light sources as you desire (Called Ray Tracing). Never the less, much can be done to improve the appearance of your Architectural Render views, it just requires more intervention and manual editing by you, especially adjusting Material Properties in camera views (materials definition tool, icon looks like a tri-color and only appears in camera views, the Define Materials dialog has a "Properties" tab for adjusting the appearance of materials. 

I know you were hoping for a simpler, more straightforward solution but frankly, there isn't one available, just hard diligent study and practice to get the most out of render views.

 

DJP