DS 4.9.4.117 Not Doing Full Renders
DarkElf
Posts: 505
I upgraded to the most current version of DS from the previous version I am doing test renders that ake all of maybe 2 or 3 minutes and the picture is not fully rendered. It is grainy and unclear.
When I first started using DS I had this problem but learned from others that my problem was my Max Render time was set at the bottom. So, I have already checked that and it is ALL the way up.
I am rendering in NVIDIA Iray engine.
Render Mode is set to Photo Real
I am using an Iray light, Orestes Iray HDRI Environment - Triskele Falls, G8F Rebekah.
The scene DOES render, just not completely.
Can anyone help me please?
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Comments
Oops. I lied. I have Auto Headlamp set NOT a light loaded because it seemed dark previously.
Thanks Barbult. They are currently at the default setting. Don't think I've ever messed with them before. Any suggestions on where they sho
uld be?
If you check the log (Help>Troubleshooting>View Log) just after rendering, scrolling right to the end, you should find a note of why the render stopped.
Thanks for this Richard. I'll try to tremember that. Meantime, I did indeed up the Render Quality as suggested by Barbult and the render takes a LOT longer and looks better. Not know what I should set it at I set it to 10 and I think that is too high since it is taking so much longer.
I don't know what the converged ratio is but it is at 95%.
I raised the "rendering converged ratio" from 95% to 100% and the render definitely looked better - more complete.
Converged Ratio is basically the percent of the image that Daz Studio thinks is finished rendering and clear of any graininess. Quality 10 is probably way to high. I usually use Quality 1 with Converged Ratio 98 or 99. If I have areas that are still not clear, I will up quality to 2 or max of 3. That usually does the job.
The thing to understand is that when any one of the constraints (Rendering Converged Ratio , Max Time, and Max Samples) is met, the render will stop. If any one of them is too low, it could be your problem. Follow Richard's advice to look in the log and see which one stopped your render. It could be that your render just needs a lot of time and samples to finish, because it has lots of reflections, refraction, low light, etc. Some images take a lot longer than others.
Another important thing to know is that when a render stops because of one of those constraints, you can change the constraints and start up where you left off. You do not have to start over! In the render window, where you see your rendered image, look on the left edge. Look for a tiny arrowhead in the left margin and click on it. It will open a pane along the left side of the render and show you some options. You can change the options in the Progressive Rendering section and then click the Resume button on the bottom of your render window. You have to do all this before you hit the Save button. Once you hit Save, the Render window closes and you'll have to start the render from the beginning.
Another important thing to know is that if you set the constraints too high and you see that your render looks good already but keeps rendering, you can hit Cancel and then Save. You don't have to wait forever for it to decide it is done.
WOW! This is GREAT information Barbult! I think the only thing you mentioned that I already knew was the very last sentence. The rest was new and informative for more. Invaluable information! Thank you so much!
I wish DAZ had really detailed user guides for their products. Then I wouldn't have to depend on others to teach me. I could figure things out on my own then.
But, DAZ - IMO - is very weak in the information department.
I want to thank you and Richard for your help. It is greatly appreciated I assure you.
I enjoy helping other users have as much fun with Daz Studio as I do. I am a "Daz 3D Community Volunteer" surfing the forum, looking for people I can help. I'm thrilled when someone like you finds the information valuable!
I thought of another useful tip related to rendering: If you ever accidently close your render window without saving your rendered image, do not panic. Go to the File menu and select "Save Last Render" (not Save Last Draw).
You can use the same tip to save a snapshot of a long render before it is finished. Just Cancel the render (don't close the render window or save the render), do Save Last Render, and Resume the render. I use this for long renders. Just in case something goes wrong later in the render, at least I have a partial render saved. For example, if I am going to leave something rendering overnight, I'll save a snapshot before I go to bed, just in case Windows Update decides to reboot my computer while I sleep. (It has happened.) I won't be able to resume that render later, but if it was almost good enough anyway, I might decide it is not worth starting over.
WOW! MORE cool tips! Thanks again! My memory is getting so bad I think I'll copy and paste these helpful tips into a notepad file so I can refer back to them.
I'm going to try more of your render tips and see what happens. I'll post back here with anything useful I learn and perhaps gleen more helpful things from your wealth of experience based on what I post.
It's nice to have people like you and Richard who are there for us less experienced users and who are willing to share your knowledge with others. I see posts by Richard all the time too and he has helped me more than once in the past.
Thanks again.
Richard is a prolific poster and amazingly knowledgeable about Daz 3D software! I think he has helped EVERYONE!
I'm sure you're right about this. When I set it to 10 it was taking forever! ;-) I'm going to try the settings you suggested.
Do you know about spot rendering?
If most of your render looks fine, but a small area (maybe the character's eyes, or a dark shadowed area) is still grainy, you can go ahead and cancel your render and save it. Then select the Spot Render Tool (looks like a camera). Open the Tool Settings pane and select Render to New Window. Now in the Viewport, drag a rectangle around the area that needs more rendering with the Spot Render Tool. Daz Studio will render just that outlined part of the image in a new window. It will converge that little area much faster. Then save the spot render with a different file name so you don't overwrite the full image. Now use an image editing program like Photoshop or The Gimp to cut and paste that spot rendered area over the same area of the full image.
Hmmmm. Yes. I use the spot render quite often to render just a part of my scene to see what it will look like in the final render without actually having to take the time to render the whole scene. But I have never used it in the way you describe. Intersting.
What do you usually use for a Max Samples setting? Mine was set somewhere around 5000 I think) right at the outset.
I was using Orestes Iray HDRI Environment - Triskele Falls in my test image and something got messed up. So, I closed the image by clicking "new" and NOT saving the existing one. When the new scene opened it had Orestes Iray HDRI Environment - Triskele Falls already loaded but nothing else. How do I load a clean, new scene?
I set mine to the maximum value (15000) most of the time, because I don't want number of samples to stop my render. I want my render to stop when it reaches my selected convergence. Sometimes 15000 isn't even enough and I use the gear icon to open the settings and turn off limits, then I raise the value to 30000.
Hmmm. That should not have happened. When you selected New, it should have opened a scene with the default render settings HDRI (that low res ruins hdr), I believe. Unless you edited your preferences and selected a particular scene to be loaded each time you select New. Try it again and see what happens. Maybe close DS and restart it and see what happens.
As I understand it the quality setting (which works by setting how similar pixels have to be before they count as converged) is a linear setting - Quality 10 will take (roughly) ten times as long as Quality 1.
I close DS and opened it again and my scene window was one solid color. Then I remembered that I had the NVIDIA Iray Draw Style selected. Then I remembered that this happened before with one of DimesionTheory's similar HDRI scenes. Turns out it stays stuck in memory and will show when you load a new scene unless you change the draw style to something other than NVIDIA Iray. It all came back to me then.
See what I mean about my poor memory? LOL.
WOW! No wonder it was rendering so slow.
Hey Barbult ... I tried that thing about changing the render settings and the clicking resume and it worked awesome! I never knew you could do that. It saves a lot of time re-rendering the whole scene. Cool!.
My girl had really grainy skin and I noticed my Converged Ratio was set to 95 again - don't know why - but I upped it to 98 and resumed. She looked better but still grainy. So, I upped it to 99 and resumed again and she looks much better. :-)
Do you have Your Daz Studio preferences set to save the render settings with the scene? I set my preferences that way so when I open my scene some other time it will render the same way.
Didn't know you could actually. I'll check the preferences when my current test render is finished.
I don't know if it's my imagination or not but it sure seems that DS is a LOT more responsive. Things load far faster. I hope it is more stable. I was experiencing a lot of crashes the last month or so.
@barbult "I set mine to the maximum value (15000) most of the time, because I don't want number of samples to stop my render. I want my render to stop when it reaches my selected convergence. Sometimes 15000 isn't even enough and I use the gear icon to open the settings and turn off limits, then I raise the value to 30000."
Pardon the question, but what convergence do you use that can't be reached before 15000 iterations? Most of my renders are photo studio style and I use my photos as my standard for my renders and I'm happy well before 15000 iterations.
Not picking a fight, just trying to understand if I'm really missing something.
Checked the preferences Barbult. They are already set to save the render settings when I save the scene. I'm guessing it wasn't saved because I chose not to save the scene?
I generally use convergence of 98, 99, or even 99.9 on a spot render of a hard to converge area. I have had renders stop at 15000 that I resumed with 30000 to let them get better. Usually it is an area with refraction and SSS that needs extra iterations. I often add some refraction to Genesis 3 teeth, to make them less solid and opaque looking. I often render the exposed teeth in a spot render that uses a lot more iterations. (Maybe I should add that I am a perfectionist!)
Edit to add: I also render fairly large images, often 2000 by 1500 portraits.
Oh, yah, if you didn't save the scene, the render settings wouldn't be saved with the scene. maybe I lotst track of the process you went through when you had the issue. Anyway, is seems that you have your preferences set OK, as long as you don't have them set to ignore render settings when opening a scene (yet another checkbox in preferences).
Nope. Just checked to be sure. No "ignores" set. :-)
Have any of you had a problem with you touch pad intermittently locking up when rendering? I didn't use to but it started happening a few weeks ago.