lstratto27 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Hi Guys, I need help figuring out why my interior ray traces are all coming out grainy and pixelated? Does anyone know what settings I'm using that could produce this effect. Photon Mapping, Caustics, etc? I should mention I have X7 and leave my ray traces for 3-4 hours. I come back to an ok picture but they're still slightly grainy and pixelated. I've experimented with lighting, materials and settings. Watched tons of videos, searched the knowledge base and I still can't figure it out. Also, I sent customer support this question who referred me to the videos. Yeah... those videos are not updated (versions X1 and X3 are a bit different than X7) sorry customer support but on this one you were not helpful. At this point I'm very frustrated and have no clue how to fix this problem. I've spent so much time on this I could scream. Please help!! Thanks, Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich_Winsor Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Hi Laura, while I am no ray trace maven this topic has been bandied about on the forums quite a bit. If you use the search feature in the upper right hand corner it will lead you to quite a few threads. Be sure to change "this topic" to "forums". I entered " ray trace settings" and got numerous results. This is one of the better ones: https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/2803-raytrace-questions/?hl=+ray +trace +settings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_Gavin Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Laura - you should get decent results in about 10 passes or less. IS your system old? What kind of video card do you have? I am no expert on equipment but it sometimes is at the root of the problem. It is a good idea to make your equipment part of your signature and post a picture of what you are getting. MAybe even post the plan for others to show what they can get in what time frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcaffee Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 too many lights? Hmm, could be. Could be a lot of things. Post the plan and hardware config. jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Here are the settings that I have found that have a majorl impact on Raytrace times. Enable Environment Light Photon Mapping Point Light with (Soft Shadows) On a simple plan with one light and these settings turned on a single pass took about 9 minutes. With them off a single pass took about 45 sec. That's more than a 10 fold increase in Raytrace time. I usually run about 10 passes, 90 minutes versus 7.5 minutes. Huge diff. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lstratto27 Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Hi Guys, Thanks for all the suggestions. I've been able to get them to look better but their still a little grainy after 3 hours. My computer is a new Mac OS X, has a great video card and is top of the line. Tried rendering with photon mapping with less lights and different preference settings. Like I said better, but still a bit noticeable. I'll post an update if I still encounter issues going forward. Thanks again for the advice. -Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 3 hours seems like a very long time. How many passes are being done in this time frame? Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lstratto27 Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 @ TheKitchenAbode I think it was a total of 10 passes in that time. It's a really detailed kitchen though with lots of lighting and stainless steel appliances. Plus I'm using photon mapping to get my stainless steel to show up so that setting is suppose to take longer. On another note does anyone know what legacy shadows are (in preference settings) and what legacy compatible texture mapping means under default settings? Also anyone know what hardware edge smoothing does? Just trying to understand the settings and if they could help fix my problem. Thanks, Laura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennw Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Laura, Those things are pretty well covered in the help file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Hi Laura, Never really played with the "Legacy" option but this term usually refers to a method that is considered as a standard that has been around for a long time. Hardware edge smoothing relates to the camera view edge smoothing as you pan the camera. Hardware is faster than the software method but this should not impact on Raytracing as it is an independent program. Same goes for your graphics card, Raytrace uses your main cpu not the graphics card, it's really just a number cruncher. Suggest you check your lights. If any are point lights with shadows on then your trace times will be high. Photon mapping turned on will also increase the time. Keep in mind that the time degradation is cumulative, more lights more time. Suspect the pixilation is due to the photon mapping, 10 passes may not be enough to generate a clean pic. The Raytrace process is progressive, each pass refines the image. The visual impact of each pass follows the law of diminishing return, as the number of passes increase the noticeable improvement lessens. If you need this level of quality then you may have no choice but to let the Raytrace run overnight to see if a higher number of passes will produce the result you are looking for. One other item that will effect the time is the image size set in the Raytrace DBX, the larger the size means more pixels need to be crunched. Make sure the size is not unnecessarily high for the intended presentation. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lstratto27 Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Thanks Graham, great information. Unfortunately, I've let some of my previously rendered images run over night and they look no different than hour 4. However, I'll check on some of your other suggestions and see if that helps. Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Just a thought, maybe the pixelated appearance is actually some weird reflection/shadow effect. Like having a perforated lamp shade that projects bright dots all over everything. Maybe you could post a jpg of this so we can see what it looks like. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now