displacement

[mikeh]

I love the way vray displacement looks on lawns and groundcovers but they tend to kill my render times and i was wondering if anyone had any tips on faster rendering when using displacement. (tips that are displacement specific) I do large exterior scenes where the camera is driving through new housing developments and parks, etc.
thanks.
mh

[MoonDoggie]

Increasing your dynamic memory limit in the System tab I hear works wonders, maybe a test is in order? *nudge*

-Colin

[ruud3dv]

Defining displacement in your material will use the Vray Displacement Settings, which is 3d-displacement, which is slower and i think eats more memory too, but more accurate for complex shapes.

Instead use 2d-displacement with the VrayDisplacementModifier.

[MikeHampton]

I've had the same issues with displacment. LOVE the way it looks on the objects that I want to use it on (grass, bricks, etc). But I also have the same issues... too long of render times.. or my computer crashing and not being able to render the scene at all if I have to go above about 2000 pixels in size.

Haven't tried increasing the dynamic memory or trying 2D displacement. Will try that next time to see if it helps.

Also stuck in 32bit for now.. so I know that doesn't help.

[MoonDoggie]

Crashing when rendering using displacement is usually a memory issue.

[mikeh]

thanks for the tips...i'll try them and see what happens.
mh

[MikeHampton]

Crashing when rendering using displacement is usually a memory issue.

Yea... and I am running at 4 gigs with the 3 gig switch (32 bit of course). Unfortunatly my deadlines and such don't allow much if any time for experimentation. I of course keep an eye on polygon counts, not using soft shadows, not putting reflection on EVERYTHING, etc.. Things that I know start to crank up your rendertimes. So when I run into a situation where something keeps crashing.. if it doesn't work, 90% of the time I just have to get rid of it, no time for troubleshooting/experimenting.

So that's why I keep displacement to a minimum. I don't use it on anything that HAS to have it or it looks like crap. So I use it more as a finishing touch rather than a modeling tool that HAS to be there. That way if I have to render very high res, I can globally turn off displacement and it will still look ok and render without crashing.

Hopefully 64 bit takes care of a lot of these issues.

[Neilg]

I hit problems like this a lot with 3d displacement, but with 2d displacement and I can put it on nearly every object in the viewport. Doesnt look as good, but you get used to it.