[Radiance-general] Five-phase Method Tutorial: Errors in generating direct sun coefficient matrix

[Alireza Hashemloo]

Hello,

I am pursuing the Five-phase Method Tutorial (
http://www.radiance-online.org/learning/tutorials/fivephasetutorialfiles/Tutorial-FivePhaseMethod_v2.pdf)
and I have encountered the following errors in my attempt to generate
Direct sun coefficient matrix in Example 2:


Question/Error #1:


OS: Windows 7 (64-bit)
Radiance: 5.08
Command Line Environment: Git Bash


Command:

$ vwrays -c 4 -pj 1 -fa -vf views/view_A.vf -x 600 -y 600 | rtrace -h -opn
-fa -ab 0 model_nosuns.oct | rcontrib `vwrays -vf views/view_A.vf -x 600 -y
600 -d` -fac -fo -o viewpics_ds/back_%04d.hdr -e MF:6 -f reinhart.cal -b
rbin -bn Nrbins -m solar -c 4 -I -ab 1 -ad 100 -dt 0 -dc 1 -lw 1e-2
model_suns.oct

Error:
rtrace: warning - no light sources found
rtrace: system - write error: Invalid argument


Description: I have tested the same command on Windows shell (cmd.exe), and
I receive an 'rcontrib' error in addition to the 'rtrace' errors that I
encounter in Git Bash:


OS: Windows 7 (64-bit)
Radiance: 5.08
Command Line Environment: Windows shell (cmd.exe)

Command:

vwrays -c 4 -pj 1 -fa -vf views/view_A.vf -x 600 -y 600 | rtrace -h -opn
-fa -ab 0 model_nosuns.oct | rcontrib `vwrays -vf views/view_A.vf -x 600 -y
600 -d` -fac -fo -o viewpics_ds/back_%04d.hdr -e MF:6 -f reinhart.cal -b
rbin -bn Nrbins -m solar -c 4 -I -ab 1 -ad 100 -dt 0 -dc 1 -lw 1e-2
model_suns.oct


Error:
rcontrib: fatal - missing required modifier argument
rtrace: warning - no light sources found
rtrace: system - write error: Invalid argument


Question #2:

The original command  in the tutorial includes the "-n $procs" as part of
the options passed to the 'rcontrib' call. However, I do not know where I
can find the definition for "$procs" ?
According to the Radiance documentation available for rcontrib, the -n
option is specified for multiple processes to accelerate computation on a
shared memory machine. The Git Bash on Windows can handle 3200 open files
as the maximum value passed to a "ulimit" call. But apparently,  windows
shell (cmd.exe) must be able to handle more open processes.


Thank you,
Alireza
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