Getting a Render Warning

pauljacob11

I'm learning how to pose lights and when rendering I'm getting this warning: "warning obscuring the viewport during an opengl render may corrupt the final image."

SpottedKitty

It isn't really a "Something Nasty™ will happen" warning, it's just a cautionary note that, if you're doing an OpenGL render (you can change the render type in the Render Settings dialog) then your computer's graphics card is doing all the work. If you happen to switch to any other active program and do something in that, then your render has a pretty good chance of being corrupted. The graphics card can't split its attention that many ways. This limit doesn't apply if you do a 3Delight render, which doesn't use your graphics card.

In short, it isn't anything to be worried about. Just don't nudge your computer's elbow if you stay with OpenGL rendering, and everything will be OK.

pauljacob11

Thank you SpottedKitty, appreciate your explanation. I changed the render engine to 3Delight and I don't have that warning even with many lights on.

SpottedKitty

As a bonus, you might find your render quality improves a bit, although opinions differ — an OpenGL render's quality depends on the capabilities of your graphics card, a 3Delight render is entirely controlled by your computer's main processor. Lighting doesn't really come into the question.

Herald of Fire

3Delight is for quality renders. OpenGL renders are really intended for a quick check, not for final work. They're lacking a lot of options, and only use the most basic of shader functions.

pauljacob11

Actually I didn't change my render from 3Delight to OpenGL, Studio behaves erratically when I use my Wacom Intuos 3. I'll post about this separately.