Ray Trace Passes

[jfhomedesign]

How is one to know how many passes a Ray Trace is going to make and know when it is going to be done? I am intentionally making a high res Ray Trace, but 30 hours and 700+ passes I have no idea when it will be done. Thank you for insight and information. (X12 Version)

Edited January 5, 2021 by jfhomedesign
added the version I am using.

[jfhomedesign]

What happens if I stop it? Can I save it where it is in the process?

 

[Rich_Winsor]

6 hours ago, jfhomedesign said:

What happens if I stop it? Can I save it where it is in the process?

 

As Solver says the Stop button will stop the

ray trace regardless of the pre-set Duration

parameters, but once stopped the ray trace

can not be resumed. You will have to start

a new ray trace. You can of course edit the

ray trace image you created using the Adjust

Image Properties tools and you can save the

image using the Export Picture button.

 

[TheKitchenAbode]

If you are running CA X12 you have the option to Pause your Raytrace and then Resume it, there is a pause and play icon. To fully terminate it you close the Raytrace window, a pop-up will ask for confirmation. You can save your scene at anytime, even while it is Raytracing.

 

Concerning as to when is it done, there is no defined done, that's up to you to decide if and when the scene looks right. However, it's important to understand that just running 100's or 1,000's of passes does not guarantee a high quality pic. The quality of the pic is primarily determined by your lighting and material property settings and the Raytrace DBX settings. Personally, if after say 30 passes your scene is not looking all that good I would suggest revisiting those settings.

[Chrisb222]

I run a tiny (like 200 pixel) test RT just to check lighting, shadows, and overall balance. Then adjust, repeat. If something's wrong, I can usually tell in one or two passes, which takes just seconds at this size. Most shots will show whether they're good to go after about 6 passes, which takes only about a minute. With this method I can get a really good idea if the shot is gonna work without spending a ton of time doing full-res trial and error. Once all is set I run 15-20 passes at full res, depending, with clean up, sharpen, and final balance done in Photoshop or Gimp. This gives me satisfactory results in the least amount of time, in my experience, and really does not take that long at all.

[PMMully]

I have a kitchen image that is at ~760 passes and counting at about 5:20 hours. I have seen some example shots of the RT that look absolutely amazing. This is the public stuff on the CA sites, etc. Given it is an image at the end of the day, is there any way to capture the metadata that was in place at the time in the DBX settings that were used to generate the image? I have seen this in digital cameras where there are properties captured like exposure, etc. It would be nice to be able to learn what allowed those images to be generated in such a fashion, and when the number of passes starts hitting the point of diminishing returns.

 

The reason I ask is like everything, it sure would be nice to get a feeling of what lighting/material properties are most beneficial as the @TheKitchenAbode points out.  I take it these are the "base settings".  What would be common changes to those settings?

 

@Chrisb222 thanks for posting your process. When you say "Then adjust, repeat. If something's wrong...", what adjustments are you referring to? How does the image properties compare to external tools like Photoshop?

 

I was also able to play with the image settings on the fly, and some of them had immediate and drastic results. I did find the defaults to be the best settings for this one drawing.

[TheKitchenAbode]

2 hours ago, PMMully said:

I have a kitchen image that is at ~760 passes and counting at about 5:20 hours. I have seen some example shots of the RT that look absolutely amazing. This is the public stuff on the CA sites, etc. Given it is an image at the end of the day, is there any way to capture the metadata that was in place at the time in the DBX settings that were used to generate the image? I have seen this in digital cameras where there are properties captured like exposure, etc. It would be nice to be able to learn what allowed those images to be generated in such a fashion, and when the number of passes starts hitting the point of diminishing returns.

 

Unfortunately Chief does not save any data with the pic, would be great if it did. Concerning how a particular pic is attained is dependent on a number of variables, sun settings, light source settings, material properties and the available settings in the Raytrace DBX. As you can deduce, this can amount to a lot of variables that can impact on your pics quality and the look you wish to achieve. Sorting through this can be daunting and I would suggest you search this forum as there are numerous discussions on this and many users have attempted to provide some guidance on their approach. A great way to obtain some specific recommendations is to post an example of your output.

[glennw]

You can save Ray Trace Configurations and name them appropriately for later recall and reuse.

This information is not saved with the image, but is available in the configuration and can be related to the image and reused or edited for another image.

[Chrisb222]

14 hours ago, PMMully said:

 

@Chrisb222 thanks for posting your process. When you say "Then adjust, repeat. If something's wrong...", what adjustments are you referring to? How does the image properties compare to external tools like Photoshop?

 

You're welcome. The adjustments I'm referring to run the gamut. Material properties, material definitions, ray trace settings, lighting, placement of objects... basically anything I see that needs adjusted. If by image properties you mean those within the ray trace settings, I find them very difficult to use mainly because they're very touchy, but with a limited useful range. That's why I usually need to process in a true image editor.