Big files not rendering

[gewehR]

Hi,
I was given the pleasure of rendering a 128 MB SU file! Uhul...
V-Ray was processing my scene for more than 4 hours when I canceled it. The render didn't start.

OK, then I purged the file and it became "only" 47 MB! Yeah. V-Ray was processing for 1 hour but the render didn't start again, so I canceled it.

I wanna know if it's normal; if more than 40 MB is considered a huge file to render.
Also, if geometry that's hidden - like furniture inside a room that doesn't show in the exterior scene - affects the render time.

Thanks

P.S. Core 2 Duo 2,66 GHz; 3,25 RAM 800 MHz

[Jackson_cg]

Re: Big files not rendering

40Mb+ should be no problem for VfSU, loads of my models exceed that. How long VfSU takes to parse the file is another matter, as it depends on how much of the file size is made up of large diffuse bitmaps and how much is simply geometry. If that 40Mb+ is mostly made of geometry, then that is a LOT of geometry and VfSU is going to take a considerable time to parse it all.

I assume you've installed and run the "C-G Materials" script which is stickied at the top of this forum?

http://forum.asgvis.com/index.php?topic=5386.0

If not, DO IT NOW!

If you already did and your file still takes ages to purge then there must just be a lot of geometry in the file and you'll just have to be patient. What VfSU loses on parsing time compared to other render plugins it easily makes up for in render times so you still win.

[40th]

Re: Big files not rendering

Also, if geometry that's hidden - like furniture inside a room that doesn't show in the exterior scene - affects the render time.

If by hidden you mean hidden from the camera/viewing point, then yes, vray taking for consideration all geometry that's in the scene. If there are objects in your scene that aren't gonna be visible in the render, it would be best to hide them in sketchup.
You can do this in 2 ways:
1. Separating those object with an individual layer which you can turn off before rendering.
2. Hide those object.

That will lead to less geometry for VfSU to calculate.

[Jackson_cg]

Re: Big files not rendering

Hidden geometry (whether via SU's "hide" command or via layer visibility) will save on render time, but not on parse time. Even if you hide everything in a large skp file when you hit the render button VfSU still has to parse the whole skp file to determine what will and won't be visible in the render. AFAIK the only way to shorten parse times (other than the ruby script linked above) it to delete geometry and use smaller bitmaps for materials and environment, both of which will obviously affect the final render.