daisy parto : graduation project: October 2014

Wednesday, 29 October 2014

speed up rendering

60 Ways to speed up your Vray rendering
if you like it please put like on my fan page

1.) as much as possible limit ur polycount to minimum.the more poly the slower the rendering.
2.) if ur using vray, always proxy the ones with high polycount.
3.) don’t put too much subdivisions on your shadows (as much as possible).
4.) remove unwanted object on your scene
5.) dont use so giant/ultra/high texture if your rendering small outputtry to proportion both.
6.) material wise: avoid using too much glossiness and highlights, a simple diffuse, bump and reflection(with .95 – .75) will do.. try not to use archshaders..
7.) use high polys object only when the object is very near to the view or camera
8.) for exterior: standard directlight(as ur sun) and vray environment light is much more faster to render compared to vraysun and sky.. u just need to tweak the colors to achieved the sun&sky effect..
9.) know the difference between copy and instance.. simple but effective
10.) purge undo window, specially commands on the list that eat up memory..
11.) this i part of my resource management, i always shutoff my antivirus while rendering (or dont install at all), specially anti-virus like norton and mcafee (which sucks bigtime) this are memory hog application, same as old Nero updates, always check taskbar once a while, even screensaver and windows eyecandy specially in vista, i turn them off back to basic.
12.) use map efficiently, instead of modelling small details, in par with [#7.]
13.) use xref scene (but not sure duh, havent tried it yet)
14.) use polygon friendly 3dsmax plugins such as mootools’ polycruncher, best of all its free tongue
15.) be wary of iteration levels when making curves/meshsmoothing
16.) when using irradiance map, check interpolation, par it with reflection and refraction interpolation on the submenu.. (match it with IR min/max rate with interpolation min/max rate)
17.) caustics are time killer
18.) first pass, brute force vs. irradiance map, (case to case basis)
19.) hardcore noisethreshold and AA subdivision rate, (case to case basis)
20.) be wary of glossy reflection and frosted materials..(case to case basis)
21.) instead of using dof in physical cam, Photoshop can do the trick with an ease with zbuffer channel or plugins like Alien Skin’s DoF and DoF Generator PRO by Richard Rosenman.
22.) post process can short the rendering workflow, proffesional composition programs like Autodesk’s Combustion and the likes.. just know variations in renderchannels in vray render elements (F10).
23.) Evermotion Archshaders and Archinterior/Exterior Materials are on overkill settings, dont be lazy to edited it once a while, dont just copy and salvage someone’s craft as it is.
24.) Irradiance and Light Cache (save to file), skip the computation when using the same sets and scene over and over again.
25.) balance with the resolution output and irradiance map settings.
26. before u place all the shaders. try to override first the materials in
the rendering parameters(global switches.).to make sure all polygons are modelled correctly for test rendering so that you would knw the types of shaders u placed individually and u can trace easily which materials could possibly caused the rendering longer.
27).too many lights can also coz the overkill of the rendering.
28). use alwayz the default parameters for fast test renders..
29).For me i prefer ADAPTIVE QMC rather than Adaptive Subdivision…
30).Check your Raycast Parameters too..Like render region division,region sequence etc..
31)If ure using vray displacement mode,try to limit the area if 2d mapping ang setup for it eats a lot of ram.
32) Use 64bit Max
33) The use of X-refs is invaluable–primarily due to their ability to link large sections of scenery together and provide a means to keep your master scene to ballooning to an unwieldy size.
34) Attach those objects – 3ds Max is much more efficient working with 9000 10k polygon objects than 200,000 1k polygon objects. Attaching all the components that are not being individually animated adds a significant amount of speed and flexibility to the scene you’re working on.
35) Geometry Proxies – Ah yes, my new favorite tool! A geometry proxy is an optimized piece of geometry that is designed to load and render much more efficiently in specific render engines such as Mental Ray & Vray.
36) Bitmap Proxies – Bitmap proxies are a great way to minimize the amount of RAM that you are expending on a scene.
37) Centralize your data – Centralizing your data adds a level of organization to any project.
38) Work Locally and Incremental Saves – Why you ask? Well, as you save to the network share, you can run into some traffic issues which can on occasion cause crashing and corrupted documents
39) Layers, Groups and Selection Sets – Any organized 3ds Max user has used these at one time or another, though some more than others.
40) Maxscripting – it can bring repetitive and laborious tasks to heal. This has saved me countless of production hours and has allowed us to tackle projects that would be impossible with the stock tools in 3ds Max.
41) learn Photoshop and other compositing softwares (AE, Combustion). you will save hell a lot of render times.
42) understand photography. train your eyes. its good to have a vision of what you want to achieve before you start with your rendering workflow. for example, you’ll know when to cancel a render process (region render) rightaway soon as you spot something wrong on your buffer rather than waiting for the whole scene to finish then realizing something’s wrong (so much time wasted already) and you have to re-render again. trained eyes helps to influence clients and manage them to understand your vision.
43. Bitmaps – these tend to take up large amounts of RAM, especially if the maps are large. Since textures are managed by 3dsmax, VRay has no direct control over their memory usage. However, you can use the Bitmap pager settings of 3dsmax to reduce the RAM taken up by bitmaps. Turn on and adjust the bitmap pagers into a higher amount, this will address your computer to process the memory in using bitmaps. This is especially useful in rendering large image.
44. You might want to check the multi-threading option if you are using a dual processor.
45. Use Low resolution for rendering tests.
46. Use Rendering Region: render only what interests you. Time to time check your shaders, verify the little differences.. and quickly find the result you’re looking for.
47. Do not add Glossy effects. Add it just when you think that the scene works fine.
48. Geometry – scenes with lots of objects and/or triangle counts require more memory to render. There are several ways to reduce this amount: -Adjust the raycaster settings in the System rollout (reduce Max. levels, increase Min. leaf size, increase Face/level coefficient, switch from Static to Dynamic Default Geometry).
49. Displacement mapping – objects displaced with the 2d displacement mapping method may require a lot of RAM to render, especially with large displacement maps. If this is the case, use the 3d displacement mapping method. Also, if you have several distinct displacement modifiers with the same displacement map, it is better to replace them with one modifier, applied to all the necessary objects. This is because each modifier will take RAM for the displacement map, separately from other modifiers, even if they have the same map.
50. Bitmap filtering – Summed area filtering uses much more memory than Pyramidal filtering. Use summed-area filtering only for smaller bitmaps
51. Shadow maps – these may also take up significant amounts of RAM. Again, these are managed by 3dsmax and VRay has no direct control over their memory usage. To reduce memory usage, you can switch to raytraced VRayShadows instead.
52. Image buffer – large output resolutions require a significant amount of RAM to store the final image. Additional G-Buffer channels increase that amount. There are several ways to reduce this amount: -Use the 3dsmax Bitmap pager, if you are rendering to the 3dsmax default VFB. -If you use VRay’s own VFB, use the Render to VRay raw image file option and then use the VRay raw image file viewer to convert the resulting file to a different format.
53. Image samplers (AA) – the image sampling algorithms of VRay require some amount of RAM to hold all the data for the sampled image. This amount can be quite large, depending on the chosen bucket size and sampling rate. To reduce that amount: -Reduce the bucket size. -Switch to a different image sampler – for example, the Adaptive QMC sampler uses less RAM than the Adaptive subdivision sampler.
54. Global illumination caches – irradiance maps, photon maps and light maps all require additional memory to store them. Each of these has different methods for controlling its memory usage: -For the irradiance map – the memory depends on the number of samples in the map; you can reduce this number by using lower Min/Max rate, and more loose threshold values (higher Color threshold, higher Normal threshold, lower Distance threshold). -For the photon map – the memory depends on the number of photons stored. You can reduce this number by reducing the Diffuse subdivs for the lights, or by increasing the Max. density.
55. If not necessary, adjust your trace depth contols to a lower amount.
56. Even though you select the VRAY VFB as your output, the 3dmax VFB is stil created and thus taking additional memory. If you want to reduce that memory. you need to uncheck the “GET RESULOTION FROM MAX” option. Set the 3dmax resolution to lower value like 100 x 100, and then select your real output resolution in the VRAY VFB option
57. inspect your scene -was there are lots of unused polys, was there are lot of models that only clatters the scene but are not viewable on camera, was there are lots of unused materials on the editor….
meaning, sometimes we think that our render setup is hampering the rendertime, but if we just inspect our scene, the things mention above are factors that affects.
58. another one. sometimes our model in autocad was located far from the axis origin, this happens most of the time. then once we link it up to our rendering program, we just let them as it is. This also prolong the rendertime when executed. Bring it back in 0,0 axis position while still in autocad.
59. Overlapping of Models and meshes. – a scene with much of these will take longer time to render. You need to tweak your setting into higher so as to cover up those splotches.
60. Rendering Large Image – rendering a large output image takes longer time when rendered as a whole. Use alternatives, like split rendering, or some render plugins like Super Render – wherein the scene will be subdivided into bucket window then automatically combining them after the last bucket.

Monday, 27 October 2014

pano2vr

After thorough comparison of either using the combination of Dreamweaver and flash in comparision, The best option

Friday, 24 October 2014

arch models

kitchen decor- 02
lights - 03, 04 // textured lights 28, 50
one man sofas - 05
bathroom sinks -06
electronics - 07
dining room chairs -08
study desks -09
kitchen -10
beds - 11, 36, 37
downlights 12
outdoor lights - 14
bathtub - 15
living room sets - 16
kitchen misc - 18 + 51
stationary 20
corporate - 21
outdoor furniture 22
coffee maker 23
small plants 24

textured living pieces 25 + 26

BATHROOM TOWELS 30 + 46
African Decor 32
traditional dining chairs 33

computer tv desktops 35
textured beds
vase and downlights 38
dressing cupboards and wardrobes 39
dining table acc 40
large plants 41
textured single seating 43
modern living furniture 45

shoes glass etc 49



DA page numbers

HDRi

http://s3.amazonaws.com/estock/fspid9/97/00/32/enfuse-hdri-heiwa4126-970032-o.jpg
http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=2421493&searchId=cbab4ace6cd429d887e82cdff19c212c&npos=1

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

week 11

Slowly heading towards the no sleep direction. I have stumbled on a couple of issues on my project. Which I have documented in my report. These issues ranged from gamma output issues to trying to boost my render time faster. I only realised over this weekend to how long it actually takes to render an image with a high resolution. Which did make me panic and have a casual though minor mental breakdown/quarter life crisis. I have adopted my sisters laptop for rendering and also have been rendering both on my bootcamped laptop and my own desktop. I am considering going to uni and taking up some computers to render as well lol.


I will be nearing the end of my additions to my apartments now. All that I wish from you all is to PRAY FOR ME. Though there is on pro to this visualisation project. While waiting for everything to render I have been able to keep up to track with my report. (Y).

Learnt so many things in the past 3 weeks, ranging from HDRI dome lights, VRayIES lights, and VRay Displacementmaps.

I have been focusing a lot on the quality and value of textures in my renders, which is partially why I think they have been taking so long to render. (due to the 3D mapping).

I have also found region rendering to be more useful, as I tend to make small changes to small parts of scene and instead of re rendering the whole section or if I just intend on testing a section, region rendering comes great in handy.



Experimenting 3d displacement

Heading towards the end of my project I soon came to realise how long it actually takes to render. I only figured out after spending more than 24 hours rendering on an scene that the lag was due to the extensive amount of VRayDisplacementMaps I placed on many of my models in the scene.

These displacement maps were placed on models ranging from carpet, cushions and bedding. Thought scenes like my bathroom and kitchen did not take as long in comparison to the bedroom and living scenes as the bathroom and kitchen contained less Displacement maps

Displacement maps assist in created more realistic textures.


I found it easier breaking apart one aparment into its separate rooms as, I am working with two to three separate computers. It created better workflow, though some class mates of mine beg to differ.

exporting revit to max

- pivot

- selecting the right elements

Sunday, 19 October 2014

lighting

To be completely honest, before I began this project I had no knowledge of the different types of capabilities VRAY lighting had. From first year onwards I had always played it safe with just using a regular VRay light in a plane form.

I have learnt so much in the past semester in regards to scene set ups, lighting, materials. I felt like i ha


3D Mapping via. VRayDisplacementMod for carpet
Vein Cut Travertine
parameters

I tried modelling as much as I could on my own. Until I was running out of time.

Friday, 17 October 2014

fk u gama

Oh my god, 3Ds Max 2014 really did my head in. If I could go back in time, I would advise my past self to NOT select to use 3Ds Max 2014 for Graduation Project. Even though it was a minor change to the 2014 version of Max, it had a large impact on my Project flow. The 2014 version of Max has disabled users ability to edit the level of gamma output and input on their renders. (If I had the time I would gladly write a letter of compliant to Autodesk, haha.)

This issue only arose as I was at my almost final steps of pumping out my final renders. All was well, until I came to the realisation that, as when I was saving the renders, my renders would save as a different version that was shown on the render viewport in Max. The image in the view port was my ideal render and set up, though once saved as PNG. JPEG. or Open as exr. It looked completely different. The contrast was lower making the image more washed out.

After a lot of tears, soul searching and discussions with other class mates, we all came to the realisation it was 3Ds Max 2014's inability to allow users to customise and switch from the default 'Output Gamma: 2.2' setting to the desired Output Gamma setting of 1.0.

Through a load of research done by myself and fellow classmates. There were at least 3 different solutions to this issue. One was to manually edit the CurrentDefaults.ini file in the 'AppData' folder located in the C Drive. This edit involved re-wording one section of the configuration settings from,

"output gamma: 2.2" to output gamma: 1.0"

Once this edit was made, it would save then override the setting in 2014.

The second option was to save as a lower version, open in the older version, alter the settings and continue working on a lower version of Max, e.g. 2012.

Third option followed the first steps as the second which was to open the file in a lower version then alter the Output Gamma settings to 1.0, then after that save then re open in 2014. Which by then will prompt you to either continue to work with the typical 2014 setting of Output gamma setting of 2.2 or co-ordinate itself to match with the recently altered file Output Gamma setting of 1.0.

(For your consideration I tried all three options to see which was best.)

I considered going back to versions such as 2012 and 2013. Though first of all I wanted to try and solve the gamma issue on 2014.

BUT, behold. Truth be told, if I had a clearer eye or a better eye for detail, there is in fact an option when saving an image, to change the gamma settings, just before you save. Now all of this seems like a waste of time. Kool.




Setting up a workflow is always a hard and strenuous process at the beginning. After the first apartment, I started to a created an informal workflow.

About Me

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Currently studying in my final year of Bachelor of Architectural Computing at the University of New South Wales.