Engineering

FAQ & troubleshooting

It will not run

"No GPU with DXR 1.1 found." The graphics card cannot ray trace. If the machine has both integrated and discrete graphics, force Photonica onto the discrete one in Windows' Graphics settings.

A CreateComputePipelineState … 0x8007000E error. The GPU is out of memory — close other 3D applications, or other copies of Photonica, and restart.

SmartScreen warns about the download. The build is not code-signed yet. More info → Run anyway, or check the file against the release page if you prefer.

The numbers look wrong

Focus rows show "–" or "collimated". The beam is parallel on the way out, so there is no focus to report. That is an answer, not an error.

The detector section is missing. Fewer than 50 photons reached the screen. Check that the beam actually lands on it, that an iris is not closed, and that polarisers are not crossed.

Measurements changed when I switched to white light. Several readouts trace at the source's own wavelength when the spectrum is mono, and at 532 nm otherwise. For a measurement at a specific wavelength, use a mono source.

A tilted part blocks its own beam. Posts are solid geometry. Lift a part well above the beam height and its mounting post will get in the way — which is also true on a real bench.

The render looks wrong

The beams are invisible. Raise Haze in the Photo panel — with no particles in the air there is nothing to scatter light toward the camera, exactly as in a clean room.

Beams fade out over distance. They should. Haze both scatters light toward you and removes it from the beam, so a beam dims and softens as it travels — that is Beer–Lambert extinction, not a rendering fault.

The image is noisy. Photo mode accumulates. Stop moving the camera and it cleans up; raise photons per frame for a faster convergence.

General

Is it free? Yes, and there is no account.

Mac or Linux? Not yet. The renderer is built directly on DirectX 12 ray tracing.

Can I use it in teaching? Please do. Share benches as .photonica files or through the community collection.

How do I report a bug? Open an issue on GitHub. Attaching the JSON report (Ctrl + Shift + C) makes it reproducible immediately.