PBR View Goes Black When Lights Over 100 Lumens Are Present

[whitefantom]

I keep running into an issue with PBR rendering: the entire view goes black (and remains that way until I close the view and re-open it from the camera) depending on the strength of the lighting in the room. (This happens with saved cameras as well as new cameras.)

 

As long as all lights are set to 100 lumens or less, the problem doesn't occur, but when I bump the lumens up beyond that, the view will either go black immediately (always happens with any light 850 lumens or above), or the view will open, but at some point after I start moving the camera, the view will go black (this happens when lights are between 150 and 850 lumens). It doesn't seem to matter about the *combined* lumens of lights in a single fixture or in a given area, though, but rather is specific to individual light sources, whether there are ten light sources on a single fixture, or just one. If any one of them are above 100 lumens, the view will go black eventually--if not instantly. This obviously makes PBR mostly unusable, since I need to be able to set room lights brighter than 100 lumens.

 

My system specs are in my signature, but I also want to note that I'm experienced with 3D graphics in general, and I regularly use Blender for modeling and rendering and never have issues, either with Eevee (the real-time PBR renderer that's probably the closest equivalent to what HD is using) or with Cycles (the full raytracing renderer), so I know my system should be able to handle anything HD can throw at it (short of hardware raytracing, anyway).

 

I've installed the most recent driver for my video card, and I've been through the steps in the troubleshooting article in the knowledge base, plus a few other things (i.e. uninstalled Asus AI Suite, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z, since an older thread here in the forums from someone with this same problem using the exact same video card and CPU as me was able to solve their problem by uninstalling AI Suite; sadly, that didn't help me with my issue at all).

 

 

[DavidJPotter]

Here are some articles and videos on "PBR" at the Home Designer website: Search the Home Designer Website (homedesignersoftware.com)

 

With my new computer (see signature) I often now just Ray Trace since it is lightening fast using Chief Premier. I probably like you have found PBR to be a "dice roll" in that sometimes it works and sometimes not. Since it is fast I often try it first. It is very sensitive to light, material and light settings, especially "Sun" settings and backdrop.

 

DJP

[solver]

Send your plan and problem description and system specs to Chief.

 

https://support.chiefarchitect.com/

 

They are in the best position to help with this problem.

[DavidJPotter]

Just keep in  mind that when the Tech Support people look a copy of your plan they will be using their more modern, up to date computers and not YOUR computer (which may be why you are having the problem you ARE having), they cannot address the problem like you are seeing it due to the different hardware involved on each computer which IS a variable in terms of outcome.

 

DJP

[whitefantom]

I just submitted a support ticket, but as David pointed out, it may or may not be helpful given that my issue is either directly rooted in or strongly influenced by my particular hardware configuration.

 

I did search the forum before posting this thread, though, and I noticed several people who've had a very similar issue (including one person whose video card and CPU are the same as mine, though his solution didn't work for me), so it's clearly not *just* my specific system--but even if it were, I'd still like to have a solution to the issue so I can actually use the PBR option (it may not be the full-fat professional Chief Architect software, but I still spent a fairly good chunk of money on the most current Pro version of Home Designer, so I'd certainly like it to be able to render a basic PBR scene at least as well as the completely free software I use to create 3D scenes from scratch )