too long rendering times and AA selection

[CarlosBZ]

Hello!

I'm absolutely new on 3dmax, Vray and GI software. I’m a rookie and new in this forum.

This is my first test with Vray and I need a help with rendering times and AA, the purpose of the rendering is to make 600 frame animation.

My question is: is it normal 12 to 20 minutes for this render? I wish not. I expect maximum 6 or 7 minutes AA included.

area AA (click to enlarge)
No AA (click to enlarge)

Relevant information is:











System information is:

OS version Windows* 2000 version 5.0 Service Pack 4 build 2195
OS memory 1,047,220 KB RAM
Processor Genuine Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 Processor
Processor speed 2.00A GHz
Bus speed 400 MHz
Physical memory 1,024 MB RAM
Memory speed DDR266
Memory type DDR, Synchronous

Any help will be appreciated.

Best regards.







IMHO, I suggest the introduction of a new sub forum: quick support , where, of course, you may ask any question freely*. I have found so many information everywhere (glass/Search found 965 matches*) I'm really confused on what start with. Sometimes that research is overwhelming and your own trial and error is a direct shot in the foot, or a plain waste of time, Vray software controls are a “little” bit dense! and many answers I have found through the forum and online manuals one really need to have a thorough knowledge of Vray to understand and apply.

* Understandably many Vray vets complain of people asking basic stuff.

[flipside]

The first thing to do is to read the online help files, they explain every setting pretty well and with lots of examples.

You can't expect to learn a max/vray in a few hours.

Since every settings matters, you need to have a basic knowledge first of all these settings. Again, the online manual is great for that (even if you don't understand it all, just keep on reading so you read about every settings once and know what is possible).

I made some tutorials on vray that might help you a bit (click www button below).

To speed up animation, you can do a lot besides the AA issues. Instead of calculating GI for every frame, you can first calculate the GI for the entire anim (every 10th frame for example), and reuse that map for the final anim. There's a great tutorial in the online help for that.

From the looks of your scene, I would suggest using adaptive subdivision AA with min/max=0/2 (if you have large undetailes areas like your walls, they don't need much AA, adapt subdiv is your best bet).

Use the other AA methods if you have lots of glossy effects in the scene.

[CarlosBZ]

To speed up animation, you can do a lot besides the AA issues. Instead of calculating GI for every frame, you can first calculate the GI for the entire anim (every 10th frame for example), and reuse that map for the final anim. There's a great tutorial in the online help for that.

From the looks of your scene, I would suggest using adaptive subdivision AA with min/max=0/2 (if you have large undetailes areas like your walls, they don't need much AA, adapt subdiv is your best bet).

Use the other AA methods if you have lots of glossy effects in the scene.

Thanks flipside.

There's a great tutorial in the online help for that

done that, twice, maybe three times, and a lot of readings included your posts in every forum, very interesting and enlightening all, in fact, the result of what you're seeing is that online manual guidance and a sort of tips & tricks pulled from all those possible readings.

I have tried all AA possibilities based on the online manual! my question still on the air: is it normal 12 to 20 minutes for this render? based on that system (proc+RAM), I wish not, I expect I'm doing a huge mistake! I found also that without glasses rendering speeds up substantially but I can't get rid of them.

[flipside]

Are these rendertimes with ir map calculation included?

A 2.0Ghz pc isn't that fast, so my first guess is that these times are probably normal...

[CarlosBZ]

Are these rendertimes with ir map calculation included?

yeah! ir included

A 2.0Ghz pc isn't that fast, so my first guess is that these times are probably normal...

Then, hopefully you're right, so as an educated guess, what will be for you a render time for an interior scene? what can I expect with Vray? (I need to do my numbers, it's just that, just a guess! include system specs, say you proc+ram, so I can match something around)

thanks!

[Da_elf]

can you show us settings for secondary bounce GI? on interiors those settings are usually extreamly important

[CarlosBZ]

can you show us settings for secondary bounce GI? on interiors those settings are usually extreamly important

yes, here they are



By the way, all information is posted, I forgot to advise to click on labels to enlarge, each one of them are related sorry.

[CarlosBZ]

setup information:










scene information:

[percydaman]

your noise threshold of .001 is pretty low and will contribute to render times. If your using adaptive subdivision for AA it doesn't need to be that low. The default is .005 and that might actually be a little low as well.

Also try losing the glass and see if it renders any faster.

[CarlosBZ]

your noise threshold of .001 is pretty low and will contribute to render times. If your using adaptive subdivision for AA it doesn't need to be that low. The default is .005 and that might actually be a little low as well.

Thanks! I will try and post time benefits.

Also try losing the glass and see if it renders any faster.

I found also that without glasses rendering speeds up substantially but I can't get rid of them.

losing means not to render? if yes I tried but... I need them!

[percydaman]

of course you need them. but theres ways around that. like loosing the glass for the irradiance map and then saving it and unhiding the glass for the final render. You can also render out the refraction and reflection gbuffer, and save them, then when you render your final, have the glass hidden and then comp the glass in afterwards.

At the very least I would try unchecking visible to GI for the glass so it doesn't contribute to the irradiance map.

[CarlosBZ]

Time benefit was good.

settings are:

adaptive subd
0/2 (as flipside)
t is 0.2 normals 0.1 (myself, I don't know if normals affects)
AA filter Area
QMS sampler
noise t 0.008 (as percydaman)

[CarlosBZ]

of course you need them. but theres ways around that. like loosing the glass for the irradiance map and then saving it and unhiding the glass for the final render.

done that already. That was the way I did irra and lc files.

You can also render out the refraction and reflection gbuffer, and save them, then when you render your final, have the glass hidden and then comp the glass in afterwards.

sorry don't get it can you explain? sounds interesting, let me process a little bit, that would be my first procedure on that direction, as I understood I process all WITHOUT glass and then final render (no glass rendered) then I will composite that final renders with something you call the gbuffer but I don't know how to gbuffer only the glass rendering out the refraction and reflection.

At the very least I would try unchecking visible to GI for the glass so it doesn't contribute to the irradiance map.

before irra file? or after irra file? I already process irra file without glass because at lc fly-through glass turns black all light coming from outside...

[percydaman]

11 minutes for an anti aliased image such as the one you showed seems very doable.

[flipside]

Yes those rendertimes are good.

For the glass:
- select all glass and go to the max properties and turn off cast shadows
- go to vray properties for these objects and turn off 'visible to GI'

That way you don't need to render without them and reload IR map etc...


But 11 minutes is with the loaded IR map? So the time to calculate ir map is not included in these 11 mins?

The best way to speed things up is by using a better pc... Or a second one and use network rendering. Especially for animations only 1 pc is hard to work with...