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Shadow Map time

SteveM17SteveM17 Posts: 987
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

For some reason my last few renders have taken a lot longer to create shadow maps than they used to. I render in 3Delight. I thought it might be to do with the textures I was using as some of them may be for Iray without me knowing, so I set up some lights in an empty scene, and the shadow maps still took ages to create before rendering even though there's nothing to cast any shadows. I haven't made any drastic alterations as far as I'm aware. My shadow maps used to be much quicker than this! Any ideas?

Comments

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    edited January 2018

    I haven't used shadow maps for a long time so no idea why, you might want to consider starting to use raytraced shadows as they render a lot faster nowadays than shadowmaps.

    ETA: What version of DS are you using?

     

    Post edited by Sven Dullah on
  • SteveM17SteveM17 Posts: 987
    Sven Dullah said:

    I haven't used shadow maps for a long time so no idea why, you might want to consider starting to use raytraced shadows as they render a lot faster nowadays than shadowmaps.

    ETA: What version of DS are you using?

    I'm using 4.8 pro. I tend to avoid updating things because the latest versions of software always changes/removes a feature I don't want it to. Thanks for your advice, I'll give raytracing a try, not used it for ages (I always thought it took longer, but maybe that depends on the complexity of the scene?). Cheers.

     

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    SteveM17 said:
    Sven Dullah said:

    I haven't used shadow maps for a long time so no idea why, you might want to consider starting to use raytraced shadows as they render a lot faster nowadays than shadowmaps.

    ETA: What version of DS are you using?

    I'm using 4.8 pro. I tend to avoid updating things because the latest versions of software always changes/removes a feature I don't want it to. Thanks for your advice, I'll give raytracing a try, not used it for ages (I always thought it took longer, but maybe that depends on the complexity of the scene?). Cheers.

     

    Yep, I think you'll be pleseantly surprised;) And note that shadow bias have to be decreased when using raytraced shadows. I usually start with 0.1 and go from there.

  • SteveM17SteveM17 Posts: 987

    Just tried a quick one person/one raytraced spotlight render and it was quicker. Will continue to experiment, thanks.

  • Sven DullahSven Dullah Posts: 7,621
    SteveM17 said:

    Just tried a quick one person/one raytraced spotlight render and it was quicker. Will continue to experiment, thanks.

    No prob;) Happy rendering=)

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