Boing

we've had a bit of a problem in the office, we have a 1500 frame animation running on 20 machines last night and we're only half way through with a deadline looming. We have to re-start it as we've seen a few problems
Problem number one is it's too feckin slow! problem number two is we're getting small flickering black spots inder the balconies (it's a high level flyaround)

We thought it may be down to the different machines rendering the shadows slightly differently so we thought if we calculated a single irradiance map and made all the machines work from that it would add more consistency and speed things up too.

Now, i've never used this feature before so i need someone to verify if i'm doing this correctly. I plan on rendering every 50th frame on a single computer and selecting "incremental add to current map irradiance map" on the irradiance map box, that should create a complete irradiance map file for all the machines to feed from.

First is this going to work?

Secondly, There's a box beneath which says "auto save" is this to save the incremental map file? should it be ticked?

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slinley

First, yes it will work. Just make sure you save the file on your server using an unconnected network path and then when you send the renders point it to the same file using the same path (Not using mapped network drive letters).

Secondly, don't think you do need the autosave ticked but maybe someone else can better advise.

tayrona

Yes, in the section "on render end" activate DONT DELETE, AUTO SAVE (indicate the path where you want to save de IMAP, that must be the path all computers will find - network path) and if you are going to use the copy of same archive in all computers (recomended) activate switch to saved map.

Dont forget "Dont Render final image" in global settings

Maybe flickering is not a complete imap issue... using precalc will help a lot with time, but make sure to check another settings to fix flikering....

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manta

Yes...what are your Irr. map settings...

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Boing

OK thanks for the replies guys.

First question, whats the difference betwee the save function and the auto save?




Manta heres my settings

mallku

here you have a descrition of Irradiance map details

http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150R...vancedimap.htm

i expect that will be usefull

tayrona

The diference is that the second one saves de imap automatically after finished, I always use that and works perfectly.
I think the first one save what is on cache (the last imap calculated) and you must use it manually (I think is not a sure option).

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Tommy L

You need to use both of the 'save' options you highlighted. Also, your camera will have to be moving quite slow for every 50th frame to be sufficient. I would recommend every 10th.

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tayrona

I disagree Tommy, two options work separately.... for the Boeing's issue, second option is recomended: Auto save in the section "ON RENDER END".

The "save" button is usefull to save what you have in cache at anytime.
but is not necesary to use them both.

May be boing can use "save" button but must be sure to stay in front of computer when precalculation ends, because if computer shut down, he lost the imap.

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Tommy L

If he's sending the IRR map to render on a node thru BB he'll need to use both. Anyway, using both is foolproof.

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