Render time, and other questions.

#1

Hey!

While learning lightning, I pretty quick figured out that the render times are getting long.
For a new guy, to lighting like me, it would be great if there would be some kind of list with things to avoid if possible. Is there already a topic like this with tips like (couldn’t find anything):

  • only use raytrace shadows if… to decrease render time.
  • don’t use this and this if possible…
  • try to avoid…
  • only do this if really needed

Also, wich renderer would you suggest for me to begin with?

  • Maya Software or Mental ray?

I already got problems in mental ray trying to render layered textures and light glows, it seems mental ray doesn’t render it.
On the other side, maya software needs about 2x longer to render the same scene, then mental ray and the shadows depth map shadows don’t look as good as the raytrace shadows. Ok I’m sure there is a way to manage better shadows using depth map, I just don’t know yet.

Really thankfull for all your advices and tips.
Diamond.

#2

Since you have the option of mental ray, use it! And honestly, your shadows need never be depth-mapped again, if you’re using a modern computer with two or more cores. Sure, some of the native Maya shaders don’t work in mental ray, but you should be using the mia_material_x for almost everything at this point, if you’re going for realism anyway.

Most of the render tuning in mental ray happens via overrides, either on a per-object (shape node) basis or per-material. The mia_mat_x itself has numerous tweaks and speed-ups, most notably the threshold options in the reflection and refraction rollouts.

But your main speed gains will occur by tuning your main render settings, and after you dial those in you can crank up the details in the objects that aren’t coming out as clean as overrides, leaving everything else to render much faster. For example, with Final Gather settings… The default Point Density of “1” is great for final renders, but for test renders lowering it to .1 decreases your FG calculation times roughly tenfold. So if you had a 10 minute FG calc time at 1, then at .1 it would be (roughly) 1 minute. There are many other tweaks as well to speed up rendering.

I’d approach it on a per-scene basis at first until you get a feel for what works. And of course, post your questions here or better yet in the Maya forums for quicker responses, and never hesitate to ask questions!

#3

Caching of GI and FG maps as well. I have also started messing with Irradiance Particles instead of FG/GI and its fast and nice. For me it’s hit or miss on render times with it atm…but I blame my lack of doing it right on that.

#4

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