GPU render

[brano]

Hi there,

Is it possible to render with GPU in VrayBlender?
If yes, what should I do? Somehow I get no idea where to switch from CPU to GPU.

[brano]

...and some more info:
I am Windows 7 x64 user using VrayBlender 2.69 and Vray demo 2.30.01, graphics card nvidia gtx660.
In Blender I am able to render on the GPU, but in VrayBlender when I go to User Preferences -> System there is no "Compute Device" option...

[andybot_cg]

I believe what you want to do is select the "realtime engine" option in your rendering panel. When you enable that option, a new section shows up waaay at the bottom that gives you options for CPU or GPU rendering. select the GPU you'd like to use (CUDA or OpenGL) and press render.

[brano]

thaks for quick answer andybot,
I did test animation with 10frames, but when I press render it rendered 1.frame and although I checked output to save the files it doesnt save anything.
On the panel above 3d View it stays showing render progress but VFB stays on that 1.redered frame and nothing happens.
And console says this:

[vlado]

Try using CUDA, not OpenCL.

Best regards,
Vlado

[savage309]

The CUDA engine might serve you better if you have nVidia GPU.

[brano]

I did one more test to be sure that I am using CUDA and not OpenCL, but got the same result. I also see that until a close VrayBlender, the GPU core clock runs on about 60-70%, although I cant see anything in progressa and no saved files. When I close VrayBlender core clock falls down to about 5%.

Any other idea?

Here is my Realtime Engine setting:

[brano]

I made some more tests but no success. All I need is to render animation on GPU, RT is not necessary for me yet.
Is it only an issue of demo version?

blend file and console result attached...

[bdancer]

Your scene works fine for me, however there were an issue with termination of rendering reaching some limit (like Timeout) which is fixed now.
Please, follow the exporter update procedure: http://help.chaosgroup.com/vray/help...art.htm#update
And please let me know if you'll have any issues.

[brano]

Thank you.

After exporter update I can now render and save animation in frames. Ok, I see I need to update exporter more often

I tweaked RT settings and I experience that the result is quite noisy and I cant reach the quality of CPU rendering.
Looks like GPU render is not the right way to render final images. Or is there a way how to reduce that noise?

[vlado]

I tweaked RT settings and I experience that the result is quite noisy and I cant reach the quality of CPU rendering.
Looks like GPU render is not the right way to render final images. Or is there a way how to reduce that noise?

It depends on several things; first, what kind of CPU and GPU are you using? Second, can you show the images? If you are using comparable settings (i.e. brute force GI), the GPU can be quite a bit faster - but then again, it depends on what CPU you are comparing with.

Best regards,
Vlado

[brano]

Sorry for the delay, I was busy last week.

My CPU is AMD Phenom 9550 X4 2,2GHz and GPU Gigabyte gtx 660. So theoretically GPU should be much faster. The times on renders with GPU displays after I press Esc. On the images I set GI with Irradiance Map(IM) + Light cache(LC), but it has also different GI as you can see. On the image GPU BF I changed it to Brute force for both GI engines. For Realtime engine I choose CUDA Device and the rest left at default settings.
Somehow I cant see the advantage of GPU render yet.
May be Im still missing some settings...

[vlado]

The GPU does not support support IM+LC, so it was using BF in both cases, and it is also the reason why it is a bit slower. The look is slightly different because on the CPU the light cache can do more bounces.

Best regards,
Vlado