irradiance map save mode for cam-based anim.

[cocolas]

Ok,
I've seen a few topics and a couple tips on vray.info about this (saving methods of irradiance maps when rendering a fly-by w/ only camera moving) but I'm confused about one thing:

these are some of the sources I read:
http://vray.info/entry.asp?entryID=23
http://www.vray.info/entry.asp?entryID=94

a)
some say to render the irradiance map w/ "incremental add to current" mode EVERY Nth frame, and then go back and use that imap solution to render the entire anim.

b)
others say to just do the "incremental add to current" and render all at once...

Now, with the first method (a) seems to me that one is doing the same thing almost twice: one has to wait for the Nth frame and imap to calc for the Nth fram and THEN rerender the WHOLE thing again w/that solution. now if you're under a deadline, it doensn't seem very efficient.....

so my question is: what's the advantage of doing it like the (a) method rather then just render/calculate incrementally every frame, all in one go???

thanks

paul.

[GoncaloP]

If only your camara moves in the animation, better use the incremental option because the light solution will be the same and Vray only needs to collect the necessary samples to do cover all the objects in the diferents camara angles.

But if you have objects moving in the scene or light changes, you will have dferent light solutions for every frame, so you need to calculate the irradiance map for every frame too.

Gonçalo

[cocolas]

right, i understand that, but my question is within that incremental method option, is it better to do it (save every Nth frame and then rerender the whole animation w/ that solution) or is it better to render with incrtemental option for EVERY frame, as the render sees fit ??
why should I render every Nth frame for the incremental option when I can just render the whole thing at once incremetaly for every frame.....
i though this method was set so it will ONLY add to the imap when it needs to therefore it would make it unecessary to first render every Nth frame and then renreder everything....

hope it makes sense what I'm asking...


paul.

[GoncaloP]

It will be longer anyway because Vray will need to ckeck it for every frame, but I think you can do that...

Gonçalo

[egz]

The second solution might give you some flickering since the irradiance map is changing slightly with each frame when new data is added. For flickerfree flythroughs you should use the first one. Also it will most likely be faster to render in 2 passes, since you can turn off the image rendering for the first pass, and only gather the irradiance data from the Nth frames.

[cocolas]

this may be a dumb question but here it goes:

in the 2 pass solution (1- calc. irrad map every Nth frame and then 2- rerender the whole anim with that irradiance map)
is there a way to automate that process??
in other words, can i set vray to render the Imap every say 10th frame and when its done with that AUTOMATICALLY have it restart the rendering of the whole animation with that saved irradiace map??
so that I don't have to wait for vray to finish calc. the imap and then have to manually set it to use that "from file" method and hit render again for the whole animation, this time........I'd like to set it once and then go home and do the two pass thing by itself automticaly.

hope it makes sense....
thanks for the quick replies, really appreciate it!!!

paul.

[egz]

It should be possible to script that.

Maybe someone could create the script..

[cocolas]

Maybe someone could create the script..

hehehe.......can you do it?? :P :P .......I don't have scripting skills or I'd jump on it......


I think it'd be cool to set it up at night and just go home knowing it would calc. the imap every Nth frame and then it will restart rendering the whole thing....come back in the morning and voila`!!!! it's done


paul.

[egz]

no time right now