ArchiCAD22/23 light sources not rendered correctly

[4zetarchitects]

In ArchiCAD 22/23 (maybe even 21- I haven't tried) a large number of archicad lamps are rendered incorrectly as follows (the list can be fine-tuned):
- Floor lamps, Fluorescent lamps, Archicad area light: light present, no geometry
- Spotlights: indirect light present, no direct light, geometry ok / no geometry with black disc instead of glass material
- Recessed spotlights: no light, geometry ok / no geometry with black disc instead of glass material

Changing materials for glass on light source has no effect.
It happens in interactive as well as in rendering mode.
This bug can be checked on any simple scene, I attach my simpliest one.

On this scene you can test another bug as well, mentioned under topic "Multipass porblem":
In AC23 when setting up Render Elements - Shading/LightSelect and try to add selected light sources, the result is instant crash. No matter if I try to add lights one by one or multiple selections. This was common porblem in alpha 3 for AC22, where adding only multiple selection resulted in crash. In alpha 5 the problem manifests only under AC23, in AC22 adding even multiple selection works fine.

[sessss]

As long as I do this:
Save project 23 as project 22,
In the project 22 setup render elements project,
save project,
Opening project 22 in archicad 23,
You can work with LightMix...
So far so.
:(

[4zetarchitects]

Thanks!
Yes, in the meantime I've also discovered this workaround, but once saved back in AC22, I prefer rendering from there using Corona alpha 4 with no issues on representing lamp geometry.
Hoping that development of Corona for ArchiCAD will be resumed once things come back to some sort of normality...

[sessss]

But in project 23 coatings are restored

[spr0ckets]

The other alternative you can do (which is what I do) is turn off all the lights in their settings, and then copy and replace them with the ArchiCAD general light sources (the ones without geometry) and if possible use the ones that allow you to use IES files and render using those as the light sources with the geometry of the lamp.

If you need to see the lights directly then you can use the Corona light object and set it to "Visible directly" and then place it as close as possible to the turned off ArchiCAD lamp object.

That should give you a good enough effect without getting these strange artifacts or errors or whatever it is with the ArchiCAD lamp objects which seem not to render correctly (I'm suspecting the glass material in the ArchiCAD light object has the wrong setting for the surface material (not transparent) or it's possibly a one sided geometry that blocks the actual light element or object in the lamp except for the edges which is why you get the rings where light escapes through. Unfortunately it's not possible (or easy) to edit the ArchiCAD lamp object (without GDL editing) to fix this error or situation directly or to select a different surface/material for the lamp glass in that part).

Unfortunately I can't offer an alternative solution for the Lightmix problem  ( I don't use Lightmix a lot with the ArchiCAD plugin. ArchiCAD as you know is a memory hog on its own before you throw in a memory intensive option like Lightmix).

It's amazing how capable the plugin is already at this point even with the stalled development, that I can't imagine they were that far away from a mature and fully production-ready tool.
It's far superior than anything that's currently available for ArchiCAD either from in the box (Cinerender engine) or other third party solutions (Artlantis, Twinmotion, etc..).

Hopefully if they ever resume development of the plugin, this will be one of the things they look at fixing, but honestly I'm just fine even with just the ArchiCAD general lights (with IES option) and the Corona light object (which I wish had an option to use IES file information)

[sessss]

Thank you!
I will try...
About results I will write.

[alexhajdu]

Thanks for the report. Seems like it's partially true because some of the lights are perfectly renderable while some are not (attachment). I'll investigate this strange behaviour...