TheKitchenAbode Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 Hi Scott - Agree, you now need to harness that power to generate scenes with improved lighting and more realistic looking materials. Would be interesting if you were to run the original Riverstone from CA as per their settings. On most systems this takes an absurd amount of time to run. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 I DL'd the Bath but there was no exterior scene. Send me the link to the file you are referring to and I will run it and post the results. Hey! and BTW, keep that dang cold weather in Canada will ya! We got our first cold snap last night down here on Galveston Island. Geez! It 54 degrees herel Man, that is too fricking cold for flipflops. HEHEHEHEHE! Cheers to my brother from the great North! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 Graham, Is this the file? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 Hi Scott - The one we were using was the full River stone house model, the plan just above the one you have. Don't forget to extract the textures and you need to open the "active layer display options" to display the cameras. Suggest you also reduce the render pixel size to say 1200 x 612 just so others can provide some comparisons. Happy Rendering!!! Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopsaw Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 11 hours ago, mrscott said: Cheers to my brother from the great North! Scott, You have to go further north than Oakville to experience a real Canadian winter. And you will have to come here for that as it does not export so well as it melts pretty quick above 32 degrees but if you can stay below it sticks pretty well. Expecting more tonight. Did you get your dual licence activation setup for your "Rendering Farm"? P.S. That new setup of yours will be great with the next version. Seems like you are planning ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Okay, Here is what I have so far. File: RiverstoneMB2 (Attached) Preferences of my System:(Attached) 1) Render 2) RayTrace 3) VideoCard Status Detail: All non-essential data has been removed from the plan file. All you will see is the Bathroom area 1) Open and use 1/4 Scale Annotation Set | Electrical Layer Set 2) Select and Open RayTrace Camera (see attached) You will see plan view and RayTrace Settings Screen 3) Select EDIT and Verify "General Tab Settings" are adjusted to the data provided. (Use File path of choice). 4) Select and Verify "Lighting Tab Settings" are adjusted to the data provided. 5) Select and Verify "Advanced Tab Settings" are adjusted to the data provided. 6) Select and Verify "Image Propertied Tab Settings" are adjusted to the data provided. 7) Select "Save and Close" then re-open and Render Camera and post Screen Shot with TImeline. Note: I am rendering as I write with Several programs open so times may very. For me, the whole point is to secure respectable RayTrace times while still using my machine for other duties. I actually ran AIDA64 BURNIN Test at 100% CPU usage last night and it had little to no affect on the RayTrace time. Anyway, I hope those who care, and or are interested, find this helpful Let me know if I have missed anything of importance. Cheers, Benchmark.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 Scott - Is this plan the one that is currently on the CA? From what you posted it looks as if the lights have been altered. I reloaded the plan yesterday from the site and the lights and their type appear different. Just wondering. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Originally, yes. I thinned it out of the non-essential data and made my own adjustments to the lighting. I supplied the files, lighting data and my preference settings so all would be on the same page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Scott - By any chance did you run it as per CAs settings. That's the number I'm most interested in as we already have some benchmarking on this. We can always play with the lights to get a fast raytrace. The one I have attached is 1200 x 612, 25 passes in 4 minutes. Altering those killer lights in the original seems to undermine the benefit of having a really capable system, which is to be able to run complex lite scenes within a reasonable length of time. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 "As per CA settings"....not sure where I would find those. The only way we will ever compare actual performance is to share the file and settings. If you are referring to the post I made last year, and those setting, I can that but to understand how you achieved your last pic, please post your settings. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Scott - You just have to download the plan, open the camera and click on the Raytrace icon and run. You don't have to change any settings other than say the pixel width & height. That way you will be running the scene exactly how CA intended. When I initially got involved in this, one of my issues was that this scene takes forever to run and that the quality is not worth of the wait. The example below is their scene as downloaded. It took 1hour and 21minutes for 10 passes at 1200 x 612 pixel size. As you can see 10 passes is not enough to clean this up but I'm not going to wait all night. Hopefully with your rig you can run maybe 50 passes within a tolerable time frame so we can see the result. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Graham, Where is the Quercus Pyrenaica outside the bathroom window? When I open the default plan and position my camera in the room, it does not look like yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 My results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Anyone have experience using POVRAY? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Scott - Many thanks. Those additional cores over my 4 cores (8 threads) dropped the time down from my 80 minutes to your 20 minutes to complete 10 passes. We have now established that more cores are beneficial in reducing raytrace times. However, through this exercise we have also established that the lighting technique also impacts on raytrace time, and in-fact it can be a more effective way to reduce retrace times than throwing more cores at it providing the resulting image quality is to ones satisfaction. This is demonstrated by my previously posted scene (lights adjusted) that ran 25 passes in 4 minutes. Adjusted to 10 passes it ran in less than 2 minutes. When I compare the two scenes they are different, but is one really better than the other. Personally, neither of them are Photo Realistic so what was the benefit of such elaborate lighting and all of that raytrace time? Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Anyone have experience using POV-RAY? Curious as to how it compares to C.A.'s built-in RayTracing Engine. It is referenced in the HELP file as an alternative RTE (Ray Trace Engine). Why would this be of interest? Well, if I can run POV-RAY on my Dual XEON and simply import a series of camera shots to Render, by queuing them up, I have essentially solved my Render Farm problem. My apologies for not checking to see if there is a separate thread for this topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 1 hour ago, TheKitchenAbode said: Scott - Many thanks. Those additional cores over my 4 cores (8 threads) dropped the time down from my 80 minutes to your 20 minutes to complete 10 passes. We have now established that more cores are beneficial in reducing raytrace times. However, through this exercise we have also established that the lighting technique also impacts on raytrace time, and in-fact it can be a more effective way to reduce retrace times than throwing more cores at it providing the resulting image quality is to ones satisfaction. This is demonstrated by my previously posted scene (lights adjusted) that ran 25 passes in 4 minutes. Adjusted to 10 passes it ran in less than 2 minutes. When I compare the two scenes they are different, but is one really better than the other. Personally, neither of them are Photo Realistic so what was the benefit of such elaborate lighting and all of that raytrace time? Graham For me, a quality 3D RT image is my biggest selling tool. Of course accurate plans and modeling are the backbone of what we do, most clients become lost in the 2D details of construction drawings. Rambling thoughts.... 1) I would like to use my license on a 2nd machine, even if only for viewing and rendering of Stills and 3D Walk-through) would be great 2) Ability to create 3D Raytraced Walk-Through 3) Ability to Send my model to a 3D Printer. 4) Model integration with Lumion 6.0 and higher 5)External RTE collaboration. Graham, thanks for indulging me in this thread. You're much more experienced at Chief than I am and thus your views and perspectives are greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcaffee Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Scott--woof, you're asking a lot. 1) - Already available through deactivate/active. Getting CA to separate Pheobe(The internal RT engine) from the core software might be nice--some day. 2) - Export to... well, this usually involves v-ray and Adobe Premiere Pro CC; maybe some After Effects thrown in. Seriously, at what point do you say I need to hire a professional? Either that or go with the "realism" provided by Lumion. How real do you want to get? Who's your audience? 3) - Already exists within CAX8 4) - Um... 5) - Not sure I understand the collaboration part. Are you interested in Thea/V-Ray/Maxwell training? Or, do you want to look over an Archvis artist's shoulder while they do the magic? (Good luck with that) My suggestion (for what it's worth), learn the full capabilities of the toolset you have in front of you before searching for "greener grass". Have you seen the stuff Jintu is doing straight out of Chief (On the Facebook Users Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/UsersofChiefArchitect/?ref=bookmarks )? Perhaps some paid training would be beneficial to your efforts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrscott Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 3 hours ago, TheKitchenAbode said: Jon, I hope you're felling better these days. Thanks for the comments, and constructive criticism of my rant. 1) - Already available through deactivate/active. Getting CA to separate Pheobe(The internal RT engine) from the core software might be nice--some day. "I am aware of and use this feature when I move from Desktop to Laptop. However. this feature does not solve my issue" 2) - Export to... well, this usually involves v-ray and Adobe Premiere Pro CC; maybe some After Effects thrown in. Seriously, at what point do you say I need to hire a professional? Either that or go with the "realism" provided by Lumion. How real do you want to get? Who's your audience? "I am experimenting (Learning) Lumion 6 Pro. Cool stuff and amazingly intuitive. Like most folk I want it as real as possible. My prospects and clients love the 3D and the more realistic it is the greater reflection on CA's software. I guess, too, it's my feeble attempt at perfection." 3) - Already exists within CAX8 "As cheap as 3D Printers have become, I would love to use this feature for more presentation work but I have seen very little discussed about this feature. What models I have seen are underwhelming." 4) - Um... "Disregard" 5) - Not sure I understand the collaboration part. Are you interested in Thea/V-Ray/Maxwell training? Or, do you want to look over an Archvis artist's shoulder while they do the magic? (Good luck with that) "Since we cannot run two sessions of CA under one license, I'm looking for tools that import Camera views for RayTracing with as shallow a learning curve as possible. I dabbled in 3D Max, Maya and LightWave3D years ago and quickly realized all have a steep the learning curve." I am committed to CA and appreciate this wonderful community of professionals, like yourself, who are always willing to share their wisdom, insight and lessons learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Scott - Thanks for the compliment but trust me, you are over stating my level of expertise. You should post some examples of the quality of output you consider as your "Minimum" requirement, would help when offering some suggestions as to how you might best achieve this. For example, I just ran this in 41 sec., on your machine this would run in no more than 10 sec. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheKitchenAbode Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Scott - Just one more example. Same as above but with Photon mapping. My machine 1 minute 45 sec., your machine about 20 sec. Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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