Redshift Renderer: Current limitations

At the current stage of development, you will experience certain limitations when using Redshift to render in Archicad (version 25 and 26), as compared with Cineware. Please check the following notes and recommendations.

Surface channels

Notes on surfaces: General issues

Notes on surfaces: Default catalog

Shaders

Light sources and objects

Basic Rendering settings

Detailed Rendering settings

Other known limitations

Surface channels

Blending among layers

When using multiple layers, try to set them up as simply as possible. More complicated layer combinations - even with blending mode set - might result in unexpected texture display.

Bump, Reflectance and Transparency

For many surfaces, the Bump, Reflectance and Transparency channels should be turned off or used with low values (1-15)

Alpha

On Mac only: You may encounter problems with alpha and alpha transparency

Other surface channels

Redshift renderer does not support the following surface channels:

Diffusion

Environment

Fog

Glow

Displacement

Grass

Illumination

Other channels only work in a simplified way (not all additional parameters work)

Notes on surfaces: General issues

Brick

Rendering is slower

Bump channel should be turned off or used with low values (1-15)

Concrete

Diffusion

Bump channel should be turned off or used with low values (1-15)

Layering/foldering issues

Glass

Reflectance and transparency issues

Bump overrides transparency

Metal

Bump channel should be turned off

Reflectance should be turned off or minimized

On Mac: You may encounter problems with alpha and alpha transparency

Water

Bump channel should be turned off

Reflectance should be turned off or minimized

Notes on surfaces: Default catalog

For the default basic textures, be aware of the following:

Metal

Reflectance should be turned off or minimized

Roof

Reflectance color layer overrides color channel texture

Brick and Mortar

Bump, Parallax and Displacement issues

Air

Color layer in the alpha channel doesn't work; the texture is completely invisible in the rendering.

Foliage - Leaves Tree Small and Foliage - Wild grapes

The sun highlights the texture, so the Reflectance channel in Surface Settings should be turned off.

Concrete 02

Rendering with the Low quality preset will result in inferior textures as compared to Cineware. (Higher quality gives better texture backing.)

Insulation - Fiberglass

Alpha channel in Surface Settings should be turned off.

Metal - Nickel

The texture becomes black in the render. To avoid this, Reflectance channel should be turned off. (Other metals may also produce odd results due to Alpha and Reflectance layers).

Pavement - Brick Moss

Texture can be fine-tuned by turning off the first Noise layer in the Color channel or by modifying the Noise layer’s Blend mode and Blend strength values.

Water - Wavy and Water - Pond

Reflectance channel should be turned off.

Glass - Lamp

Does not illuminate nearby surfaces.

Shaders

Keep in mind the following shader-specific limitations.

Fresnel

Will override the surface texture

Gradient

With 3D types, the texture is misaligned

Colorizer, Filter, Fusion, Layer, Posterizer

These texture options build on other textures, so there may be inconsistencies

Shader effects and Sketch

Most of them work, but with inconsistencies

Variation effect does not work at all

Procedural shaders

Textures may be misaligned

Light sources and objects

Limitations related to light objects in renderings.

Area Light

Works only with Rectangle and Disc shapes in Redshift

Parallel Light

There is no shadow behind the light source in Redshift

Window Light

The light source does not illuminate nearby surfaces without Global Illumination

Light is very bright

Sun Object

Differs from Cineware (can be too bright)

Light Effects

Not supported

Basic Rendering settings

Shadow quality

Doesn't work due to lack of Shadow Casting function.

Detailed Rendering settings

By design: several “Detailed Settings” parameters do not appear on the Archicad interface, because they are not supported. See notes below.

Defaults have been set to be as useful as possible.

RedshiftDetailed.png 

Photographic Exposure

Use these camera settings to easily make interior/exterior renders darker or lighter.

Shader Baking

Adjusting this setting can improve texture quality if needed. Shader Baking affects textures even when using Sky.

Denoising

Denoising effects may differ depending on Win vs. Mac, as well as the video card used. Optix is available only for Nvidia (Win)

Global Illumination

The default setting is Irradiance Cache and Irradiance Point Cloud. Leave these as-is for faster renders.

For final-quality renders, Brute Force is preferable, but be prepared for long rendering time.

Options - removed

Grass and Antialiasing removed

General Options removed

Shadow Casting - removed

Environment - some parameters removed

The following parameters are removed:

Sun Shadow: Color, Transparency, Accuracy;

Sky: Intensity, Ozone;

Atmosphere

Fog

Rainbow

Sunbeams

Effects

The following effects or parameters are removed:

Caustics

Cel Renderer

Color Mapping

Color Correction

Depth of Field

Vignetting

Monochrome model (works only with White Model)

Distance Fog

Lens and Filters

Spherical Camera

Use Stereo Rendering

Other known limitations

Parallel rendering does not work: Redshift cannot render two or more images at the same time

HDRi sky is dark. Additional sunlight should be used in this case