Render Buffer

[Jesse Cogswell]

I have a couple of questions regarding the Render Buffer when rendering out stills and videos.  All the help file says is, "To help achieve the desired resolution, select a size that is smaller than the Resolution in the Render Movie dialog box."  How much smaller?  Does it need to keep the same aspect ratio as the output?  What exactly does the Render Buffer do?

 

I have a file that I have been working on that is fairly complex.  When I try to render out the video and have the Render Buffer match the output, the render always fails about halfway through and Vision crashes.  However, if I set the Render Buffer to a smaller size than the output, the resulting render has a completely different camera view and effects such as bloom don't appear at all.

 

Below are three images, one is a screen capture from the Vision software and the second and third are the direct output from running the Render Still command immediately after taking the screen shot.

 

1. Screen capture from Vision.  All quality settings at Medium, 1920x1080 resolution.  Monitor resolution 1920x1080.  Notice the exaggerated bloom effect and camera with the bottom of the platform legs just barely in the frame.

 

2. Rendered still.  Output at 1920x1080, render buffer at 1280x720, all settings at High.  Notice the complete lack of bloom and the camera FOV being significantly wider than the screen capture.

 

3. Rendered still.  Output at 1920x1080, render buffer at 1920x1080 with all settings at High.  Bloom is retained and camera, while still having a wider FOV, is at least close to the screen capture.

 

Vision crashed while generating these stills and generally does crash after completing any render, still or movie.  I've attached the dmp file from the last render in a zipped folder.  Analyzing it, it shows a NULL_POINTER_READ_c0000005 error.  No dmp file is generated when it crashes in the middle of rendering out a video.

 

Vision version: 26.0.3.586381

 

OS: Windows 10 Pro 2004 build 19041.867

Processor: i7-8650U @ 1.9 Ghz, 2.11 GHz base speed

RAM: 16 GB

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 6 GB dedicated VRAM

VisCrashDump28.zip

[bbudzon]

On 4/10/2021 at 4:59 PM, Jesse Cogswell said:

All the help file says is, "To help achieve the desired resolution, select a size that is smaller than the Resolution in the Render Movie dialog box." 

I can work with our team to work on updating this so that it is more informative. There's a lot of implication here and I think it can be more clear! Thanks!

 

On 4/10/2021 at 4:59 PM, Jesse Cogswell said:

How much smaller?

The original purpose of using smaller values here was to allow lesser hardware to render something it would otherwise be incapable of. Generally speaking, the more GPU VRAM you have larger this value can be.

 

On 4/10/2021 at 4:59 PM, Jesse Cogswell said:

Does it need to keep the same aspect ratio as the output?

It shouldn't need to be. The intent was the Render Still's Resolution would determine the output aspect ratio, regardless of the Render Buffer Size selected. The Render Buffer Size merely breaks the rendering down into smaller pieces so as to be more efficient (at the cost of time).

 

On 4/10/2021 at 4:59 PM, Jesse Cogswell said:

What exactly does the Render Buffer do?

This is somewhat complicated but I think there is an example for VW users that will make sense here. You know how when you render a scene out in VW using RW, it kind of comes in one "square" at a time? Vision's Render Buffer Size for stills and movies gives you control over how large each "square" is. If the "square" at least as large as the entire viewport, then only one square is needed (this is what is done in Vision for realtime). Using one "square" for rendered movies/stills is ideal, but requires higher end hardware to achieve.

 

On 4/10/2021 at 4:59 PM, Jesse Cogswell said:

However, if I set the Render Buffer to a smaller size than the output, the resulting render has a completely different camera view and effects such as bloom don't appear at all.

Based on your screenshots and how you are describing the camera position/FOV, I think this a bug. I'll have to look into this further and see if we can determine the cause.

Bloom not working is a current limitation of using smaller Render Buffer Sizes. With our current design; if you'd like bloom in a rendered movie/still your Render Buffer Size must be at least as large as your output Resolution. (It seems you've already figured this out! 😉 )

 

On 4/10/2021 at 4:59 PM, Jesse Cogswell said:

I have a file that I have been working on that is fairly complex.  When I try to render out the video and have the Render Buffer match the output, the render always fails about halfway through and Vision crashes.

This is often caused by having a complex scene while having your settings too high. It seems that Vision was able to render the first half of your DMX Recording, but more lights likely kick on near the halfway point triggering longer renders and an eventual crash. To test this, you could try rendering out only the first 25% of the DMX Recording by using the start and stop times. It seems to me like this would succeed. In order to render your full DMX Recording, you may need to lower some of your application/document settings and then using "<Active Settings>" when rendering the movie (do not customize). This should ensure that the Render Buffer matches the output.

 

 

 

There are some general steps I go through at times when working with Vision users struggling with render still/movie.

 

If you're having trouble rendering movies/stills, try using "<Active Settings>" and a low output Resolution (or an output Resolution that matches your realtime Resolution Quality).

If you're still having trouble, try lowering your application and document preferences significantly; to the point that the output is borderline unacceptable. This is simply a test.

If the test passes and the movie/still renders out with all settings floored, then we simply need to start increasing the settings by small increments; testing as we go. Increase the more important settings first. Note that toggling shadows on/off makes significant impacts on the hardware. We're trying to find a balance between your scene, your dmx recording, and what the machine can handle.

If the test fails and the movie/still does not render out with all settings floored, then something is likely very wrong. Odds are, any hardware that meets our system requirements should be able to handle this. It may be that the scene is large enough that Vision is struggling regardless of hardware. This can be tested by rerunning the test in a smaller file. Again, it's just a test; the smaller the better. If this small file test also fails, it would almost have to be a bug in the code. When things are boiled down like this, we can sometimes provide a workaround until the issue can be resolved.

[DBLD]

Hi @bbudzon,

 

I am having similar issue with bloom. If the screen resolution is lower than the render resolution bloom doesn't get rendered.  I can easily set my screen resolution to be 4k and render a still and bloom is rendered but performance is decreased significantly as you would expect. What I would like to do is have the screen resolution set at a lower amount (1920 x 1080) so it runs smoothly, and be able to render high resolution images so they look better. It would be great if this could be implemented.

[bbudzon]

9 hours ago, DBLD said:

Hi @bbudzon,

 

I am having similar issue with bloom. If the screen resolution is lower than the render resolution bloom doesn't get rendered.  I can easily set my screen resolution to be 4k and render a still and bloom is rendered but performance is decreased significantly as you would expect. What I would like to do is have the screen resolution set at a lower amount (1920 x 1080) so it runs smoothly, and be able to render high resolution images so they look better. It would be great if this could be implemented.

Yea, the render still and render movie functions do not handle bloom in this scenario. It is a technical limitation that we would like to address for sure! Frankly, it is just surprising from a user standpoint when it works sometimes but doesn't work other times.

[DBLD]

I ran into this issue again yesterday with bloom not rendering on both a 2k and 4k video. Without bloom the video looks very flat lifeless. I feel that not being able to render a movie at a higher resolution than is displayed on the screen is a major flaw in the software. In my mind the whole idea of rendering a movie is to achieve better looking output than the graphics card can produce in real time. I get a better result recording a screen capture.