Render-Optimization question

#1

Hi

What is the most critical setting for faster rendering? I understand it all depends on geometry and shading too and if Fg/Ao activated.

Let’s say i have Fg/ Ao switched off (just a standard render more or less) with render aliasing set to min 1 & max 2.

I’m rendering fairly simple scenes and yet it takes like forever to render them. It seems like XSI is calculating way too long on blank areas. And i have the raytracing depth set to standard 5/5.

Is there a way to optimize it so XSI doesn’t calculate that long on blank areas of a scene?

#2

stop using AA min to 1
you are already oversampling your image.

Set min to 0
max to 2 and reduce the threshold.

#3

damn, that alone made a significant difference!

thanks much!

(not sure why i had min at 1, there’s no loss in quality now)

#4

In many shots/scenes I can usually get away with min -1…

Though some of it is now out of date, check out the videos on rendering at: http://www.vast.ws/resources/xsi/tutorials/tutorials.html

The AA one is quite enlightening.

#5

I agree- people often over throttle the AA settings. On top of this they take a blind approach to it where they find a setting that worked OK for one scene and resolution and ALWAYS use it…gulp!

I’ve seen some suggested AA settings for peeps on the board seeking help that were made without even seeing the image AND were sure to slow the render WAY down for no good reason. Many of these renders would have probably also benefited from other optimizations such as elliptical filtering etc.

There is a reason most suggest that you touch AA and filter settings LAST when optimizing…

This is a long way of saying thank god people like Saturn are around to set us all straight!

#6

Saturn is right. That’s the most efficient and easiest way to generally reduce render times.

#7

You could try lowering AA settings to -2/2 and setting the Sampling Contrast to something lower, down to 0,05. This way you can get shorter render times compared to 0/2 and SC 0,2 and all the edges and details look very well. One downside i noticed is flickering of very very thin and small elements, like flowers that sometimes “blink” for a frame or two. The same goes for their shadows. Apart from that i find it very useful for scenes with landscapes, lots of hills, skies etc. Saved my ass many times ;]

#8

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