#Raptor problem
17 messages in this thread
I have a problem with my Raptor that hopefully someone will have a clue as to
what's up, especially Don, from DeskStation Tech.
I am trying to render a scene with the following settings:
104 Frames
84 Objects
14 Surfaces, 9 Image maps
2 Lights (Distant, Spot)
18297 Polygons, 22105 Points
Hi-Resolution Overscan
Field Rendering
Shadow maps, Trace Shadows ON
Adaptive sampling threshold of 8
Nonlinear Backdrop Fog.
Save FrameStores ON
Whenever I start the render process, the Raptor just shuts down by itself! If
I load one of the scenes that come with LightWave it renders fine. Even my
scene renders from time to time, so it's not a problem always (but often
enough!)
Also, I have to render with Automatic frame advance instead of Independent
because I get a message that the RAM disk is full. I tried a suggestion posted
by John Gross and it didn't work with this particular scene.
Any suggestions anyone? Don?
POlo
You are rendering High Resolution for a reason I assume…Med-Res with Lo
antialiasing is broadacst video res…assuming you need Hi-res..you'll
find that each processor is sending back 6MB per file images (the size of
a 24bit un-run length encoded overscan data image). Therefore you'll need
at least 15mb or so free on your control machine to handle the images as
they come through the RAM disk before being converted and saved by
Lightwave. My first suggestion would be to go back to Med-res
lo-antialiasing with an adaptive sampling threshold of 8 for broadcast
work. Next, clear the images and objects after sending them to the
raptor, but before pressing screamer render.
are you sending any image sequences that might also be taking up precious
ram?
The screamer shutdown button is the only way I know besides the power
button to put the baby to sleep like that?!
Good luck…
Grant Boucher – Amblin Imaging
"It's hard to believe grown-ups do this for a living."
Grant,
I'll try your suggestion of a lower res. I have noticed a little better output
using Hi-res/no anit-alias than what you describe though.
I am not sending any image sequences.
I appreciate the suggestion, and any other help you can throw my way
POlo
If you do use Hi-res, no anti-aliasing, and can get around your RAM
problems, scale the images to Framestore/NTSC size/Format in ADPro, not
LightWave. Allen recommends ADPro's bi-linear scaling for these
situations. We have done tests at Amblin at confirmed this. You might
also look into Med-res/med antilaliasing.
If you can render in higher resolution, go for it, Raptors make this
reasonable! But your ram problems might preclude it…Buy more ram :}
Grant Boucher – Amblin Imaging
"It's hard to believe grown-ups do this for a living."
Grant,
Thanks for the reply. I always scale the images down using ADPro, although I
haven't used bi-linear (?)
Do you really think that Med-res/med-antialias is better than
hi-res/lo-antialias? I really think there's an improvement with the latter
setting… Don't you?
POlo
There's certainly more data in Hi-res/Lo AA, but if you let LW autoscale
down to NTSC, you'll get artifacting/jaggies. Med-res is already in FS
scale and then is Med AA. So for NTSC, this is the best way to go unless
you add an additional ADPRO step to scale down NTSC.
We render all of our finals at Med-Res Lo AA, and only the most motion
intensive go to Motion Blur. We have the advantage of Underwater Fog to
help blends our edges etc. but our tests for space and otherwise show the
same results. I prefer to render in Med-Res/Med Motion Blur myself, which
gives me AA, Depth of Field, along with Motion Blur for free :} take
longer but the look is very film like. Raptor users should really try
Motion Blur…
The resolution and AA settings will certainly vary with final output as
well. We recently rendered in 65mm film res (2880×2048) with Hi-AA and
also the same resolution with High Motion Blur….very nice and the render
times were remarkably reasonable!
Grant Boucher – Amblin Imaging
"It's hard to believe grown-ups do this for a living."
Hey Grant… You're going to do the Orlando LW Pro class, right? Are you gonna
get there a little earlier for SIGGRAPH?
Regards, Luke Montgomery CompVid Graphics Services
>Hey Grant… You're going to do the Orlando LW Pro class, right? Are you
>gonna get there a little earlier for SIGGRAPH?
Oh yes…I have family and friends to visit and business to conduct so
I'll be Orlando from the 22nd to the 31st. See you all there…
Grant Boucher – Amblin Imaging
"It's hard to believe grown-ups do this for a living."
PMFJI, but do any of you have a list of the events at SIGGRAPH?
I got all my travel arrangements, and will get the tickets at the door. Do you
know what conferences there will be? Any other info would be greatly
appreciated!
POlo
If you haven't yet, I would try sending the Scene, Objects and Image files
seperately to the Raptor and then clearing all object and image files
(except any image sequences) on the Amiga side and then try rendering on
the Raptor.
JG
John,
No, I hadn't tried that yet. Will do that tomorrow and will let you know what
happens…
Did you ever have this happen to you?
POlo
Yes,
you don't have enough ram on the Amiga side for holding the scene and
related files in Ram PLUS the image that the Raptor is sending back to
save.
Clearing the things out of Ram that are uneeded on the Amiga side will
allow you to save images.
How much Amiga Ram do you have?
JG
John,
I got 18 Megs. I have started saving my frames in Med-res/lo anti-alias since
my last post, and I guess that will have to do until I get more RAM…
POlo
P.S. Are you going to SIGGRAPH?
POlo/Leo
No, I'm not going to be able to make it to SIGGRAPH this year…
JG
That's too bad, I was looking forward to meeting you…
POlo
Try turning off shadow maps. The Screamers had a problem with shadow maps. I
hope its been fixed but most dont use shadow maps in these cases since thay are
a tool for saveing time and make a scene render in a reasonable amout of time
on an Amiga.
Thanks, I'll try that and get back to you on Monday.
POlo