Taking too long to complete a rendering?

[padre.ayuso]

Hi there,
I'm attaching the Vray log for my most recent job. It takes 5 hours on two Titan X's, so I believe this is just not true. So in reviewing the VRay log, it shows that the rendering finished at 3am and it completed by 5:46am and it saved by 6am and then saved again by 9:36am? 9:36am is probably when I closed the scene and it saved the max file. I don't have this problem when I do smaller scenes or crops, this was rendered in 3K (HD aspect ration). Is there something that can be done to improve the settings so it does not hang there? I have tried this with having lower and higher Ray Bundle Size and that does not seem to make a difference. If ChaosGroup wants the file, please just ask and I'll drop it wherever needed, it may be quite big to email.

Edit: the Vray Log seems to be too big to send over Forum. Please provide a name and email and I'll send for anyone that would like to review it. I'm attaching a view of the end of the log.

Edit 2: Further rendering, when doing a crop render I notice the rendering ends and does its own writing output almost immediately. But for the full scene, this is not the case.

[yavor.rubenov]

Hello,

Those "Saving to file" messages 6:16 and 9:36 are related to Max saving the scene (Auto-Backup maybe ?) and not the rendering itself. The real rendering finished at 05:46. Could you send me the full V-Ray log to yavor.rubenov at chaosgroup.com - I'll try to see if there is anything more we can find out in there.

Best regards,
Yavor

[padre.ayuso]

Hello,

Those "Saving to file" messages 6:16 and 9:36 are related to Max saving the scene (Auto-Backup maybe ?) and not the rendering itself. The real rendering finished at 05:46. Could you send me the full V-Ray log to yavor.rubenov at chaosgroup.com - I'll try to see if there is anything more we can find out in there.

Best regards,
Yavor

Sent it to you. But these files of mine don't take more than 30 seconds to save. Are you sure the GPU is still not doing something? I can send you the file as well if you want to take a look at it.

[yavor.rubenov]

Thanks for the log - wrote you an email about it. Seems like a scene would be best for further investigation.

[padre.ayuso]

So sent you the scene. I never thought of using Max Paths/Pixel. You mention 10,000 to 20,000. I tried 20,000 on one scene and it estimated 20 hours to complete with two Titan X's. So I stopped it, it did not seem feasible. Then I tried 10,000 or 5,000 I forgot and it seemed to do it in about 3 hours, I don't know because I went home after a long night to meet a deadline. But what in a 3K scene would be the recommended Max Paths/Pixel? What would clean it up? I can do some more tests, but just wanted to see what thoughts are out there.

[yavor.rubenov]

I've received it and will start tests on it soon.

The initial estimation of 20 hours is not very precise and shouldn't bother you so much - after few passes we do an initial calculation based on the time it took for them. But when pixels start reaching the desired noise threshold passes go faster and faster. In your case I think that 20,000 passes would still take less than 4 hours.

It would be best to experiment with some high number like 15-20,000 and check the noise level.

[padre.ayuso]

Yeah, I noticed.... I just sent another file to test the bump map on the metal, and at 3k that file took 9 minutes with two Titan X. Granted it is not a complicated scene, but I had put 20,000 paths/pixels and worked like a charm. I shall be using this more and more. I noticed Chaos does not have a tutorial or document with recommended settings for RT. You have a file explaining what different things do, but I missed that on the Paths/Pixels. It would be best to develop this document a bit further so as to invite other people to use RT, in general it is a great took, with some bugs to iron out and some more utilities to be developed, but overall all I like the look and feel of the renderings.

[savage309]

Yeah, I noticed.... I just sent another file to test the bump map on the metal, and at 3k that file took 9 minutes with two Titan X. Granted it is not a complicated scene, but I had put 20,000 paths/pixels and worked like a charm. I shall be using this more and more. I noticed Chaos does not have a tutorial or document with recommended settings for RT. You have a file explaining what different things do, but I missed that on the Paths/Pixels. It would be best to develop this document a bit further so as to invite other people to use RT, in general it is a great took, with some bugs to iron out and some more utilities to be developed, but overall all I like the look and feel of the renderings.

You are right that we do pretty bad job with the RT GPU tutorials.
I will make sure to put the max paths per pixel setting with big letters somewhere in the FAQ. Probably we have to change the default for the next SP as well. And we are already working on video tutorials for RT GPU.

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

[padre.ayuso]

You are right that we do pretty bad job with the RT GPU tutorials.
I will make sure to put the max paths per pixel setting with big letters somewhere in the FAQ. Probably we have to change the default for the next SP as well. And we are already working on video tutorials for RT GPU.

Thanks a lot for the feedback.

Thanks man! Good to hear. I have tried this 20,000 max on another scene and it is currently rendering and seems a lot more predictable. It is rendering as we speak. It just reached the threshold of 0.005 within 55 minutes of starting. It seems that it is doing quite well to finish wrap up the image, although the estimates seem to be wrong as it was saying that it will be another hour and it has been going down to just a minute since reaching noise threshold. So I don't really trust the estimates at this point.

Edit: Putting the Max Paths/Pixel value at 20,000 is a good way to go. With no issues, it stops the rendering when reaching Noise Threshold and saves the scene no issues. Just the estimates, it seems to not be right.