renderworks object limits?

[what cheer]

Hi,

Is there any limit on the number of objects RenderWorks can work with? Is there a way to gauge how many are compiled into the Build List for a particular render?

Is there any way to pre-estimate the time your scene/processor will require?

Thanks for any general discussion of optimizing for render times...

g

[Dave Donley]

Hello what cheer:

There is no limit other than the available RAM, which is about 2.5 GB on the Mac and 1.5 GB on Windows.

Rendering times can depend on geometry, texturing (like reflections and refractions from glass), shadowing, indirect lighting through radiosity or final gather, and the number of pixels being rendered. All of these have an effect on rendering times, but different scenes have a different balance between these things. (The polygon render modes rely entirely on the amount and complexity of the geometry.)

To reduce the time from geometry, eliminate geometry from the scene through invisible classes or by deleting the geometry, or by lowering the geometry detail setting in the Custom RW or Custom Radiosity options.

For shadowing, use less lights or less lights that cast shadows, or simpler lights (point lights versus area or line lights, or a few directional lights versus an HDRI).

The reflection setting in the Custom RW and Custom Radiosity dialogs can have a big effect if you have a lot of shiny surfaces. I don't set this more than 2 anymore. The refractions setting does not affect speed much and I leave that like around 32 or more.

All of the radiosity and final gather controls are intended to balance speed versus quality.

For viewports reduce the sheet layer DPI to render less pixels while doing previews, or use the Render Bitmap tool with a lower DPI, or zoom out in the design layer to render less pixels.

HTH,

[what cheer]

Thanks Dave,

I saw some 2005 posts on VW to maya advice. Do you have any current thoughts on how to prepare for dxf/dwg exports to maya? Are there alternate common format routes between the apps?

g

[Dave Donley]

Hello again what cheer:

You might try using 3DS export instead of DWG.

HTH,

[what cheer]

Hi Dave,

Sure - I'll try that.

On a slightly different issue, I'm having difficulty getting texture resource changes to apply down through the hierarchy of nested groups - I have tried both the select objects/resource and click Apply, and also the select groups and toggle the OIP class attribute to the appropriately textured class. So far the only reliable thing seems to be un-grouping all the way down, and then making the change. But, then it is difficult to keep the intermediate group levels intact, when I re-group up the hierarchy.

Any thoughts on tis one?

Thanks again,

g