CompuServe Thread

#Speeding up rendering?

7 messages in this thread
#140965From: PATRICK MALONEDec 9, 1994 10:32 PM
Everyone… awhile back I got a list of things that can all have an effect on rendering clarity and quality. I'm hoping for the same thing when it comes to speeding up renderings. As an example: A scene I'm rendering has only 4486 faces <4486> 3 objects, all metal reflection materials, Highlight on one object very slight. No background and 3 omni lights. On a DX2/66, 32 meg ram excess HD space. rendering out to the par. it's taking almost 14 mins a frame at the point where the objects take up most of the screen. What can I do/turn on and off/not do that will speed up rendering times without affecting the quality of the final images?? All you guys I admire……I await your suggestions!! Patrick Malone 70461,3646
#140974From: MARTIN G FOSTERDec 10, 1994 1:10 AM
Patrick, >> What can I do/turn on and off/not do that will speed up rendering times without affecting the quality of the final images?? << your scene is pretty minimalistic. The only things I can think of are to check that your geometry is optimal. In other words, is the geometry more complicated than it needs to be. You might not need as many faces as you have. Try a few stills using lower face-count spheres on the frame where the spheres appear largest. Go with the lowest face-count geometry you can before you start to see undesirable edge profile effects.
#140986From: Don LandisDec 10, 1994 2:40 AM
4000 faces is not very many to result in 14 minutes/ frame. You didn't mention whether you have any IPAS's running that could take time like Glow. The only other thing I can think of that would make a rendering drag out is the Ray tracer for shadows but You didn't mention this. Are you using Automatic Reflection? What part of the rendering process (red bar) is taking most of the time. I tend to favor some hardware diagnostics on your computer at this point. Do you have any bench mark software for your CPU? such as Norton desktop or Norton Utilities? Be sure you have your internal and external cache turned on on your CPU in the CMOS setup. What speed RAM do you use. It should be 70 ns. FWIW I have a DX2-66 with 32 megs and a quick test rendering of a similar project with 6000 faces and 5 objects and three omni lights is taking 38 seconds per frame.
#141053From: ALAN IGLESIASDec 10, 1994 1:36 PM
Patrick, are you using standard reflection maps, or automatic reflection maps? -Alan
#141084From: bill "digr" lundeenDec 10, 1994 5:25 PM
In addition to what the others said…make sure u are not asking 3DS to check many unnecessary paths for maps. Esp. if the are on CD Rom. I know…this will not add minutes to a render but 20 to 30 secs per frame over many frames does add up! Just my two cents. Bill
#141156From: Larry MintonDec 11, 1994 9:51 AM
Also make sure power.exe is not being loaded in your config.sys/autoexec.bat (not sure which one it gets stuck into). LAM
#141201From: M. G. BATCHELORDec 11, 1994 3:27 PM
<< On a DX2/66, 32 meg ram excess HD space. rendering out to the par. it's taking almost 14 mins a frame at the point where the objects take up most of the screen. >> You haven't given *nearly* enough information for anyone to likely help you. But, based on your extremely minimal description of the scene, I'm betting that you are using Auto Reflections to the extreme. If so, try reflection maps instead. BILL