Off screen

[glorybound]

If I have water out of my cameras view will it contribute to render time? The water might be caught in reflections, but I am not sure. I have a scene with 1,876,950 polys and pretty low settings, but it is taken 1 1/2 hrs to do the light cache precalc.

[glorybound]

Off screen

I did a quick test and it doesn't seem to matter, at least in my scene. My issue was I had my site model copied 1/4" above itself with a opacity blend on it, trying to mix up my grass with dirt.

I think my next step in creating images would be rendering textures to file and using PS. I would guess this is part of most of you guys/gals work flow. Any tips to get me started?

[Morbid Angel]

if your object outside of the camera contributes to any of the ray calculations such as gi, reflection, shadow, then it will affect the render time.

[victor.nsy]

It's kinda good to also be reminded that Photoshop and other
post tools are good for adding effects you need ... not everything
should be done in 3dsmax ...

Editing them later is easier too.

[glorybound]

Post

Funny you say that. I have been fighting with a project for a month now, one camera view, and now I realize it is a water material. I could have saved hours just doing the reflection in post anyway. I found this out because I struggled through the view and went to the next view without any issues. The only material in the previous view was the water. So next time I'l l probably set up the water and let my light cache calculate a little just to see the reflection and duplicate it in post.

[victor.nsy]

sometimes we get too geared in working all in one shot ... where
many professional studios does rendering in multiple passes ...
always remember the power of post.