IR and LC Question

[Smalerbi]

Hello,

I have a camera pass that consist of 1500 frames. Is there a way I can render the IR & LC maps over a rendering farm, for example – machine 1 frames 0-200, machine 2 – 200-400…etc. and then blend the maps together to make one IR and LC map?

Thanks,

Scott

[MoonDoggie]

Yes, you can easily use IMAP mode: Animation (prepass) to render them if you have moving objects, or just render every 20-30 frames using "Multiframe incremental"

[Smalerbi]

Yes, you can easily use IMAP mode: Animation (prepass) to render them if you have moving objects, or just render every 20-30 frames using "Multiframe incremental"

Hi Colin,

Thanks for getting back to me. I’m a bit confused. Perhaps you did not understand my question or I do not understand your answer. Let me try to elaborate a bit…….I do have a scene with many moving objects, cars, people….etc. The LC pass is not the problem because it takes care of the entire camera path at every frame anyway. The problem is with the IR calculations. If I render 1500 frames on one machine it can take some time, so I’m attempting to spread the IR passes over several machines to speed things up. So getting back to my original question…..how can this be accomplished? If I try to understand your answer, are you saying if I use the “Animation pre-pass” setting for the IR map and send it out through backburner, this setting some how gathers all of the individual frame information from the rendering slaves and saves it to one map?

Thanks,

Scott

[maxedesa]

You aren't limited to one render node using Animation pre-pass mode; each render frame blends several imaps at render time.

(Hey Colin.)

Caleb

[Smalerbi]

Thank you.....I will give it a try.

[Smalerbi]

You aren't limited to one render node using Animation pre-pass mode; each render frame blends several imaps at render time.

(Hey Colin.)

Caleb

I attempted to use the “Animation prepass” for the IR calcs, however, the results are less then stellar. I’m getting a lot of GI noise in areas of the animation. I wanted to post a brief side by side video clip showing the results but there must be a different way to attach video clips as opposed to stills. If someone could please let me know how to post video, I will post the sample video so you can see what I attempted to describe.


This is the first time using this setting so I can only assume it is operator’s error. Here is my step by step description. First I calculated the LC map on a single machine and then loaded the saved LC map (From File). I then set up the IR settings and the mode was set to Animation (prepass). Hit render and sent the IR calculations to the rendering farm. Once completed, I ended up with 1500 separate IR maps representing each frame calculated. In the mode section, I switched from “Animation prepass” to “Animation rendering”. I selected and loaded in the first saved IR map…Frame 0000. I then rendered the animation and ended up with results you see in the video. The only different rendering setting between the two is, the one on the left, I checked sub-pixel mapping and clamp output. I was getting some glossy flickering from the car so I wanted to quiet that down a bit.

Did I do everything correctly?

Thanks,

[MoonDoggie]

You did not post a video (I'd like to see it)

Try it with 60 frames first so you can nail down the settings, then do your full 1500 frames.

Try this:

Irradiance Map:
Mode: Animation (prepass)
Autosave: (save your imaps)
Interp. frames: 2 (this is how many imaps each side of the current frame vray will blend together)

Light Cache:
mode: "Fly-through"
check: "Store Direct Light"
check: "Use Light cache for glossy rays"
check "Use camera path" (not exactly sure you need this one, as it's probably overridden by "Fly-through"

Post results (Hey Caleb!)

[Smalerbi]

You did not post a video (I'd like to see it)

Try it with 60 frames first so you can nail down the settings, then do your full 1500 frames.

Try this:

Irradiance Map:
Mode: Animation (prepass)
Autosave: (save your imaps)
Interp. frames: 2 (this is how many imaps each side of the current frame vray will blend together)

Light Cache:
mode: "Fly-through"
check: "Store Direct Light"
check: "Use Light cache for glossy rays"
check "Use camera path" (not exactly sure you need this one, as it's probably overridden by "Fly-through"

Post results (Hey Caleb!)

Hi Colin,

Thanks for getting back to me. In the post was a question how to post videos. I have posted stills before but for some reason, I can not post the video the same way. The video is about 4megs. It is a short split screen sample showing one method over the other.

All the settings you suggested where checked when I calculated the IR maps. Interesting that the Interp. Frame setting is grayed out but the default number is 2.


Please let me know how I may be able to post the video.


Thanks,

Scott

[MoonDoggie]

It's only grayed out till you switch it to "Animation (rendering)" in the IMAP mode.

Once you have the imap rendered: turn your GI IMAP to Animation (rendering) and turn your secondary bounces GI Engine: to "None". and render some frames for us.

to post videos, just use a dropbox account or something and link us the url of the video.

[Smalerbi]

It's only grayed out till you switch it to "Animation (rendering)" in the IMAP mode.

Once you have the imap rendered: turn your GI IMAP to Animation (rendering) and turn your secondary bounces GI Engine: to "None". and render some frames for us.

to post videos, just use a dropbox account or something and link us the url of the video.

Thanks Colin.....below is the link

https://www.dropbox.com/home#/GI%20test%20animation:::

[MoonDoggie]

I can't create a dropbox account at the moment, how does it look? did you try my suggested settings?

[Smalerbi]

Try this link:

http://www.drealm.net/Projects/Vray/GI-Test.mp4

[MoonDoggie]

Not too bad, you mean the plants aren't supposed to be wave-like?

Try blending more imap interp. frames (3-4)? More than that is silly. See if that helps. Anyone else have suggestions? I haven't done a whole lot of animated irradiance maps. If I need to do animated objects I usually do brute force (but at a big cost to rendertime).

[MegaPixel]

Just to Verify

I just wanted to verify that I fully understand the recommended setup for Moving Objects in combination with IR and LC GI. I attached my settings for my Precalc and Rendering phases. I'm still shaky on knowing when it's appropriate to use the "use camera path" feature. I've seen it mentioned that it depends on how far the camera is moving? If I use this feature, do I just use it for Precalc phase (IR and LC) only or do I use it for Final Rendering phase also? If I'm essentially shooting the entire camera path each frame (like flythrough mode does for LC), then should I raise my quality/subdiv much higher then I have them now? I'm also trying to get a handle on what a good Interp. samples / frames value for the IR is on the final rendering phase. Interp. Frames controls how many IRmaps are loaded before and after the current frame and there's not much point in going much higher then I have correct? What does Interp. samples do in the rendering phase?

Sorry for bringing this old dog of a topic back to life but there's just too much conflicting information out there.
Thanks - Pixel

[flino2004]

http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150S...ials_anim2.htm
I'm testing this workflow, so far it works very well.
AA 1/10 quadratic