OTOY Forums

Hi all,

I'm setting up an architectural visualization for a client, we want to realistically track the movement of the sun around a property.

I have the position of the property from Google Maps which I plug into the physical sky, and I know which way north is in relation to the property (it's at a right angle to the property).

The format of the coordinates from Google Maps is like this, I use the second ones I'm assuming. Is that correct?
20°00'00.0"S 20°00'00.0"E
-20.000000, 20.000000

My questions are:
- How do I ascertain which direction north is in Lightwave, I've rotated the model to 0,90,180, 270 and none of the lighting looks correct.
- What is the North Offset, in the manual it says 'North Offset: The North offset slider can be used to adjust the actual North direction of the scene. This is useful for Architecture Visualization to ensure the direction of the sun is accurate to the scene.' If your coordinates are correct why would you need the North Offset, has this any bearing in this situation?

As always any input is hugely appreciated.

Regards
Carlo
--

Hi,
first if you want precise location, used a website for find longitude and latitude , like here or another ( is free )
https://www.mapcoordinates.net/en
Enter the GPS coordinate in Day light environnment.
Second you can adjust the north offset ( the angle depand of the angle orientation of your model in lightwave between north by defaut in lightwave/octane ).
Adjust north tool is used for to avoid to rotate your model
by default, North in top view in layout ( north is top of screen ), when you created a new camera , this camera look the north by default.

Hi,

Thanks for feedback.

What you have described is exactly what I did initially, but the results looked incorrect to both reality and the results I got out of SketchUP.

Possibly it's due to me using 2015.3 -- what version are you on?

The LightWave version should not matter. Are you sure that you have the right sign in the coordinates? Perhaps you have the longitude position inverted.

Thanks,
-Juanjo

Hi Juan,

I'm using them directly out of Google Maps in this format -33.991523, 18.450117

I align my model to north in layout, but the lighting results are incorrect in all 4 directions.