Cached Normals in VRayDisplacementMod - Can it look better?

[Alex_M]

I have to use displacement for a water surface and I've been trying to optimize it as much as possible as it is for animation. At the moment the full 1080p image (with water only) takes 2:44 min to render on 2 x i7 4930k. The water itself uses animated vector displacement map and the settings of the displace modifier are as follows:

Type: 3D mapping
Edge length: 8px
View-dependent: On
Tight Bounds: On (doesn't really matter if On or Off, render times are the same)
Static geometry: On (huge boost compared to Off. About Twice as fast render times)

Then I tried the Cache normals option. It made the render take 2 times less time which is great but unfortunately it also makes the displaced water twice as ugly. Please check the animated GIF below. My question is, is it possible to use the Cache normals option but retain the good quality that I get when it's off? Also I'll be happy to hear your suggestions for speeding up the displacement even further (with not much quality loss obviously). At the moment the full 1080p image with the water only takes 2:44 min to render on 2 x i7 4930k.

[vlado]

The only way is to use lower edge length. If you are open to experimentation, recent nightly builds automatically reduce the edge length for parts of displaced objects that are outside of the camera frustum, so that may help with render times and memory usage.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Alex_M]

Thanks for the input. I will also download the latest nightly build and see if this helps with the render times.

[Art48]

[...]recent nightly builds automatically reduce the edge length for parts of displaced objects that are outside of the camera frustum, so that may help with render times and memory usage.

Best regards,
Vlado

I love how you mention these huge improvements/features in such a casual way ^^