Hi guys !

Coming from 3DSmax, Vray and FumeFX, I'm tryng to move over Houdini.
For my first i got a rendering problem : I'm trying to color a smoke simulation with colored lights but the viewport preview's colors look ways better than my actual mantra render …
It let you see the attached print screen.

I guess it's just some parameters i don't know about.
Does someone know why is there so huge difference between the viewport and the actual render ?
If i could have the same in the render than in the viewport, I would be a happy man !

Thanks for any suggestion !
Raphaël.

Running a simple test here - viewport and render are the same.

Perhaps upload your scene.

Yes , that's true Raphaël Tillie2 !
Specially for Explosions , That's because Viewport renderer using different settings for Lights , Attenuation , Shadows and Pyro Visualizer , Also Pyro in the viewport is a little noisy that it make more your details.

But you can solve it in the rendering with changing some special parameters in below :

(parameters in the Flame shader)
1.Final Amplitude for Smoke
2.Smoke Brightness (In the shading page)
3.Scattering Phase (In the shading page)
4.Shadow Color (In the shading page)
5.Shadow Density (In the shading page)

Also be careful about your light parameters such as :

1.Intensity
2.Attenuation options

About Mantra Node , Pixal Samples and And Stochastic Transparency are so important and I suggest you to use default Ray Tracing engine.

Also if you have fire or explosion , the Ramp Parameters in the flame shader are VERY VERY IMPORTANT !

Running a simple test here - viewport and render are the same.

This is not a BUG or problem !

In your rendered images I think your warm light doesn't affect all of the cloud and you should change it's position , Also you should increase your smoke's shadow .
I made a simple project about last parameters that I posted , please chack it.
Also upload your project if you can't fix it :wink:

About rendering Realistic Fires , I made a simple project with some important notes in the Houdini Forum , You can find it in the below topic :

https://www.sidefx.com/index.php?option=com_forum&Itemid=172&page=viewtopic&t=30857&highlight=fire [sidefx.com]

:wink:

Hi !
Thanks guys !
Thank you Joker386 for all those advice ! I'm going to try to play with those parameters and post something if i can arrange it !

Thanks for the cloud test too and the topic about rendering fire !
Lots of cool stuffs

I'll keep in touch !

I think the biggest different with viewport and your rendered image is Shadow density , the Shadows on the viewport is more than Render :?