Images are automatically anti-aliased during multiple rendering passes.

• See: Antialiasing
• See: Antialiasing

AutoBump - using SketchUp materials as bump maps as well as color images.

This is not quite correct, but can often create an interesting 3D effect.

• nXtRender provides a check box to turn Auto Bump on and off.
• IRender nXt allows fine tuning of bump and color intensities.
• See: Automatic Bump Maps

Background Images are special images which you can place behind your model.

• Simple Background - you can use any image as a simple background for skies or other pruposes
• HDRi Skies - for full illumination and reflection of a background image, you will need to use an HDRi Sky
• Image Layer WIzard - backgrounds can easily be positioned using the Image Layer Wizard.
• See: HDRi Skies
• Video: Background Wizard Video
• See: Background Image

External Rendering exports the model to a file, and then renders the file in a separate process.

This allows you to make changes to the SketchUp model wihtout having to wait for the rendering to complete

• See: Remote Rendering

Foreground Images are special images which you can place in front of your model. They can be used for logos and pattern masks, as well as stencils placed in front of the rendering.

• See: Foreground Image

This means that the IRender settings are stored in the SketchUp model, so you do not have to make changes if you reload the model, or for subsequent renderings of the same model.

Rendering settings and rendering functions are all available from a SketchUp toolbar.

• See: Fully integrated into SketchUp

HDRi Skies are special images to represent skies which contain extra information about intensities of the colors.

HDRi (high dynamic range imaging)is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRi is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows.

IRender nXt offers support for HDRi Skies - used as visible skies, as sky reflections and for illumination from the Sky.

• See: HDRi Skies

Indirect Lighting refers to the IRender nXt feature of processing light reflected from mirrors and other surfaces.

This creates a realistic lighting effect which improves with each successive rendering pass. Indirect should be used with most interiors scenes to soften the lighting effects.

• See: Cove Lighting
• See: Indirect Lighting

Special collection on the Google 3D Warehouse for lights, mirrors and other components which are ready for use with IRender.

• See: IRender Ready Content

Adding lamps and light fixtures will provide lighting for your Interior Scenes or Nighttime Scenes.

• SketchUp lamps - many SketchUp lamps are automatically used as light sources.

• Create Lamp - the lamp wizard makes it easy to add custom lamps.
• Components and Lamps - the Object Properties Wizard makes it easy to turn any surface or object into a lamp.
• Video: Interior Lighting Basics
• See: Create Lamp or Light Fixture

The Presets lets you choose predefined settings for the most common lighting situations.

There are a lot of settings to create special lighting effects. The presets make it easier to get a good rendering without having to make all the setting manually.

Standard Presets

• High Dynamic for subtle shadows for exterior scenes.
• Exterior - for exterior scenes with sun and sky.
• Interior with Sun - Interior scenes with lighting through doors and windows.
• Interior no Sun - Interior scenes with no external lighting.
• HDRi Sky - Exterior scene with a sky full of clouds.
• See: Lighting Presets

Applies reflection and transparency directly to SketchUp materials. Changes are made easily with a slider bar.

IRender nXt sets multiple settings for a single material - such a setting both transparency and index of refraction for glass materials.

• See: Material Wizard

Create a full 360 degree panoramic image which can be turned into a movie and embedded in a web page.

A Panoramic image is created by rotation the camera while rendering to create a full 360 x 360 degree image.

• See: Panoramic Views

Make any SketchUp material reflective with a simple right click edit.

You can start with a default Reflective Material and use a slider bar th change the amount of reflection.

You can also add other special features - such as shininess/bluriness, glossiness or metallic reflection.

• See: Reflections and Mirrors

One click rendering from inside SketchUp and SketchUp Pro.

• See: Render directly from SketchUp

Resume Rendering lets you continue a rendering which has been completed - either because the number of passes or rendering time limit has been exceeded, or because you clicked the Stop Rendering button.

IRender nXt is a multi-pass rendering system. The early passes allow you to quickly check settings - such as lighting and materials.

You can then either make changes and restart the rendering, or use Resume Rendering to add more passes for better results.

• See: Resume Rendering

Create custom, fractal, trees and plants. The quality of the tree is regenerated when the tree is rendered.

• See: RpTreeMaker

Click the Save button on the Toolbar to Save your Rendered Image

• See: IRender Toolbar

Image Formats

• JPEG - with and without comments.
• PNG files - compressed and no loss of quality.
• Transparent PNG files - compressed and no loss of quality.
• Native nXt Image - nXtImage format contains the intensities, depths and materials for use with with the nXt Image Editor .
• HDRi - saves the rendering image with an intensity channel.
• EXR - another format with intensity information.
• See: Save Rendered Image Wizard

Self Glow illuminates a surface as if it had light shining on it, without actually making it a light. For objects which you want to appear bright, but which don't need to illuminate other objects, this is much faster than making lights out of them.

• See: Self Glow

SketchUp components are automatically scaled and rotated properly in IRender.

• See: SketchUp Components

SketchUp materials are automatically rendered as materials in IRender nXt.

You can set reflection and other rendering properties by right clicking on a face containing a materiel to set its rendering properties.

• See: SketchUp Materials

IRender nXt uses sun and shadow settings from SketchUp.

In addition, lamps and lights can be added for additional lighting and shadow effects.

• See: Sun and Shadows

Allows light to pass through non-transparent materials.

• See: Translucency

IRender nXt automatically uses SketchUp transparency settings. It includes refraction, reflection and illumination through the transparent surface.

You can edit the transparency settings with a slider-bar, change the Index of Refraction , or add other special effects such as Translucency and Caustics

• Video: Transparency Video
• See: Transparency

Keep vertical lines parallel while panning the view. Perspective views set in SketchUp are rendered properly in IRender nXt - This makes your exterior view more realistic.

• See: Two Point Perspective

View spot light beams as if shining in a hazy room.

This feature creates a transparent lamp beam with a pattern to emulate light passing through a smoky or foggy room.

You can define a visible light beam on the spot-light creation wizard.

• See: Visible Light Paths