CGTalk - cache shadow maps

egselent

11-07-2006, 12:03 PM

Hi - this is something that has bothered me for a while but I've never gotten round to solving ( if it can be solved). Whenever i cache shadow maps the renderer ALWAYS spends most of its time rerendering the shadow maps. I thought once cahced they don't have to be rendered any more???

STRAT

11-07-2006, 12:40 PM

but if you slightly change a light setting or move a scene object between renders it'll cache the shadow maps new every time.

chi

11-07-2006, 03:30 PM

afaik you can get away with changing light parameters as long as those parameters don't directly affect the shadow...so you can changecolor and brightness easy and i think falloff...but you cant move the light or change the size at all.

egselent

11-07-2006, 03:52 PM

I've tried all that - haven't changed a thing - not a jot - and it still calculates shadow maps every time!

LucentDreams

11-07-2006, 07:40 PM

is something animated?

chi

11-07-2006, 09:39 PM

oh...also caching shadows only works with soft shadows

mustardseed

11-08-2006, 01:06 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that be because soft shadows are the only shadows that are cached? My understanding is that they are buffered maps as opposed to hard and area shadows, which are raytraced.

ollle

11-08-2006, 07:41 AM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't that be because soft shadows are the only shadows that are cached?

Right: only the soft shadows are cached!

egselent

11-08-2006, 03:33 PM

yep! - all shadows are soft. On the nothing being animated bit - there is an animation in the scene but it isn't featured in the specific render which is a still.

In an unrelated subject - I don't know if I should start another thread with this - I've recently installed v10 and hair etc.

Any time I use hair C4D freezes up for about 40 seconds, anytime is click on the hair object or the texture. I couldn't figure it out until i disconnected my computer from the network and then it runs fine again. I'm connected to a server that 3 other people share.

I've been on to Maxon but they say they've never heard of this problem before.

deljs

11-08-2006, 06:31 PM

> Any time I use hair C4D freezes up for about 40 seconds, anytime is click on the hair object or the texture.<

Happens here too. I get around it by changing the texture preview in AM to Default instead of Hair. Same concept works for S&T mats too.

egselent

11-09-2006, 10:07 AM

Good to know theres a solution - forgive my ignorance though. I presume by AM you mean attributes manager - if so I can't find where you can change the texture preview?

deljs

11-09-2006, 05:27 PM

Yes, Attributes Manager. However, it appears that in the Standard Layout, AM doesn't display material channels. So, instead, double click the material icon to bring up the Material Editor, then right click on the preview window and select Default instead of Hair. This can also be set globally in Preferences>Hair>Default Preview to make all new hair mats display this way.
Drastic speedup on my system.

It seems to be somehow related to the Texture Paths you list in Preferences. Its as if it has to fully traverse all of the texture paths before displaying the hair or stroke mat preview for Hair and S&T. If I clear all texture paths, the problem disappears as well. None of mine point to network locations.

Anyway, works for me, hope it helps you.

egselent

11-09-2006, 05:49 PM

yep that works perfectly!! thanks a million deljs - you've saved me a lot of hassle!

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