Is my Imac hampering my rendering?

[chris]

Hi there,

I work for a kitchen design practice and we have historically always worked in 2d on Vectorworks. However since I have joined I'm trying to expand our horizons and offer 3d drawings to our clients. I am very keen to try and produce the best renderings possible but I'm struggling to get anywhere near photorealistic renderings on Vectorworks. I'm no expert, but have spent countless hours watching every single online tutorial for Renderworks. I'm wondering if the Imac I am using is up to the task of rendering?  For some reason it really struggles when I start adding lighting, or playing around with bump textures and displacment maps. Whatever I try I cant seem to get back lit / glow textures to work, and I've copied the process step by step from online tutorials and it just doesnt seem to work. I'd be happy to upgrade to whatever machine is needed to make the renderings work, and also try to reduce rendering time. Can someone advise me if its worth the investment of a good machine? I have attached my best render so far, as well as the spec of my Mac. Also is there any good online resources for downloading textures? Any pointers would be really appreciated, Chris.

[PVA - Admin]

For backlit/glow not working, what rendering mode are you using? Do they still not work when using a Renderworks Style with Indirect Lighting enabled?

A core i5 is going to be quite a bit weaker than the i7 choices specifically when it comes to rendering and core count, the key indicator of rendering performance. However for a 5K iMac, its also important to note that if you render on the design layer, you're always rendering in 4K. If you aren't already, make sure to do your test renderings at least in viewports on a sheet layer set to around 100-150 DPI, and for your final renders you can increase this DPI to 300 or whatever is needed.

[rDesign]

14 minutes ago, chris said:

Also is there any good online resources for downloading textures?

 

Browse through the posts in the Resource Share - Textures section of the User Forum, you’ll find many links of good resources to download Textures for use with Vw.

[chris]

23 minutes ago, JimW said:

For backlit/glow not working, what rendering mode are you using? Do they still not work when using a Renderworks Style with Indirect Lighting enabled?

A core i5 is going to be quite a bit weaker than the i7 choices specifically when it comes to rendering and core count, the key indicator of rendering performance. However for a 5K iMac, its also important to note that if you render on the design layer, you're always rendering in 4K. If you aren't already, make sure to do your test renderings at least in viewports on a sheet layer set to around 100-150 DPI, and for your final renders you can increase this DPI to 300 or whatever is needed.

Thanks Jim, I dont tend to use the indirect lighting, but I'll turn that on and see if that helps with the backlit textures. I do use viewports on a sheet layer for rendering.

Also another problem i have is that while the images are rendering in a viewport, I cant print / pdf any plans if I am working on another project at the same time? It just freezes the computer and I have to force quit. Any ideas?

18 minutes ago, rDesign said:

 

Browse through the posts in the Resource Share - Textures section of the User Forum, you’ll find many links of good resources to download Textures for use with Vw.

Great, thats really helpful thanks!

 

Chris.

[PVA - Admin]

10 minutes ago, chris said:

I dont tend to use the indirect lighting, but I'll turn that on and see if that helps with the backlit textures

It should, Indirect lighting is required for Glow and Backlit textures to emit light, theyre categorized as an Indirect light source unlike regular Light objects.

[Kevin Allen]

I can produce pretty exciting and realistic renders using a much less powerful machine. Happy to look at the file

[mjm]

1 hour ago, JimW said:

For backlit/glow not working, what rendering mode are you using? Do they still not work when using a Renderworks Style with Indirect Lighting enabled?

A core i5 is going to be quite a bit weaker than the i7 choices specifically when it comes to rendering and core count, the key indicator of rendering performance. However for a 5K iMac, its also important to note that if you render on the design layer, you're always rendering in 4K. If you aren't already, make sure to do your test renderings at least in viewports on a sheet layer set to around 100-150 DPI, and for your final renders you can increase this DPI to 300 or whatever is needed.

What @JimW said. Rendering in a viewport/sheet layer has improved my life hugely.

[Mike Lamb]

Hi Chris,

 

Here are some pointers...

 

1)  Looks like your ambient lighting is up abit high and washing everything out, this might be hiding the effect of your glow textures?  Try reducing the ambient lighting(or turning it off completely), and making your existing lights brighter, or adding more lights.

2)  The little details add to the realism, like pulls on the cabinets, a towel hanging somewhere, electrical outlets, light switches, HVAC vents, fruit setting on the counter, etc.  

3)  Create the viewports on a sheet layer, then make a copy of that sheet layer and set the DPI to something low like 25 DPI.  set all the quality settings to low, turn off displacement mapping.  Use these viewports to tweak the lighting settings to get the effect that you want, your rendering times will be much shorter.  Then crank up the quality and DPI settings.

4)  In the reflection of the backsplash, I can see there are windows in the room.  Try this...  Use a helidon, crank up the brightness, and edit the glazing texture of the glass in the window, indirect lighting options, and check portal.  Adjust the helidon so the light shines in thru the window and onto the wood floor, it will reflect in the room and give the room a nice warm color.

[Pat Stanford]

One more trick is to set the Sheet Layer / Viewport Resolution to something really low (like 10 dpi) until you get things set up so that the lighting/view is to your liking. Then turn it up to do the fine details. The preliminary renders will be much much faster.