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4.3 to 4.8 problems - rendering time and shadows

jazzcmshine_1869cb6e81jazzcmshine_1869cb6e81 Posts: 15
edited December 1969 in New Users

Hi, I'm still getting used to the system. I was using (I think) Daz Studio 4.3 and I just upgraded to 4.8. Since then I'm having a few problems; most notably rendering time, which used to be fine at around 45 seconds for a single frame for most of my renders, now seems to take an enormous amount of time. I haven't stuck around to find out quite how long, but I assume some default settings have changed or something. Can I change this back to a reasonable rendering time? How do I speed it up?

Also, I was previously able to play with the shadows in the lighting | cameras tab by simply selecting a light and then clicking on 'shadow', which would bring up the settings. Now 'shadow' is still there, but no settings. Where can I find things like shadow softness, rendering method and switching it on/off?

Thirdly, can I switch off the shadow that is rendered on the fake grey floor behind my character? I want to render .png files with no background so I can insert a backdrop of my own, but I still want the shadowing on the objects and characters themselves.

I know these are real beginner questions, but thanks for any help.

Comments

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Go to Render Settings...there should be a line "Engine:" with a drop down box. Change it to say 3Delight. That should restore the style of rendering you are familiar with.

    The big change is switching from 3Delight as the default renderer to Iray. Iray is a physics based photo realistic renderer. Without an Nvidia graphics card with sufficient onboard memory, it will be a CPU only render...with all the bells and whistles of full GI lighting (occlusion, shadows, bounce light and so on). And just like in real life, if you have light, you have shadows.

  • jazzcmshine_1869cb6e81jazzcmshine_1869cb6e81 Posts: 15
    edited December 1969

    Excellent, thanks, that's solved my problems. I probably just don't have the power in my graphics card to handle Iray - the results were looking nice, but way too slow for my needs.

  • Steven-VSteven-V Posts: 727
    edited December 1969

    I have an uber-laptop (yes, it's a laptop, but the thing is a gaming rig and desktop replacement) with 8 GB of vid ram and 24 GB of system ram and Iray STILL takes for freaking ever compared to 3deLight, at least to render., So it's not just your system, although an older system would, of course, make it worse.

    The thing that seems like it is faster in Iray is lighting. In outdoor scenes, I can load up an HDRI, and once I figure out where to rotate it to get the sun the way I want, render and done. I can even change exposure on the fly if it is not bright enough or too bright. So I do a lot less trial and error for that.

    For indoor shots with mesh lights, to be honest it has not saved me any time and if anything is worse than 3DL because I have developed an intuition for 3DL. And the resurfacing can take a while too.

    All in all, it is not a wash, but I find the more realistic lighting look to perhaps be worth the extra effort. and time. I'm not 100% sure though... jury's still out.

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    edited December 1969

    steven.viscido said:
    but the thing is a gaming rig and desktop replacement) with 8 GB of vid ram and 24 GB of system ram and Iray STILL takes for freaking ever compared to 3deLight, at least to render.

    Note that Iray was developed by NVidia, to work with recent high-powered NVidia graphics cards. Is your graphics hardware from NVidia? If not, then no matter how fast or powerful it is, your Iray renders will drop back to running only on your CPU, which will be much slower.
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