From: Mike Hough
Subject: RC5 photons and render time
Date: 26 May 2002 23:53:03
Message: <3cf1ad9f@news.povray.org>
It was suggested to me that I do a comparison using the example scene
"optics.pov" to show the difference in render time between MegaPOV 0.7 and
POV-Ray 3.5 RC5. The only change to the scene was to replace the keyword
"collect off" to "ignore_photons". MegaPOV appears to render the scene
about 7 times faster. I'll post the images in the binaries group. To me
there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two.
Resolution - 640x480 AA 0.3
MegaPOV 0.7 - 6 minutes 31 seconds
POV-Ray 3.5 RC5 - 47 minutes 51 seconds
From: Dave Dunn
Subject: Re: RC5 photons and render time
Date: 27 May 2002 00:11:16
Message: <3CF1B1C3.4C8010FF@aol.com>
Mike Hough wrote:
> It was suggested to me that I do a comparison using the example scene> "optics.pov" to show the difference in render time between MegaPOV 0.7 and> POV-Ray 3.5 RC5. The only change to the scene was to replace the keyword> "collect off" to "ignore_photons". MegaPOV appears to render the scene> about 7 times faster. I'll post the images in the binaries group. To me> there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two.
I can confirm a similar discrepancy using the "photons example" file in the
3.5 Insert Menu. The only change to the file was to convert fresnel reflection
to MegaPOV syntax. Stats below:
MegaPOV 0.7 1578 pps -- 3min 15sec -- memory 2078333
3.5 RC5 190pps -- 26min 56sec -- memoy 1793608
Resolution was 640x480 aa.3 on a P3 600 running Windows 2000, with 96M of RAM.
Speed difference was over 8 times slower for 3.5 RC5.
From: Nathan Kopp
Subject: Re: RC5 photons and render time
Date: 27 May 2002 03:39:14
Message: <3cf1e2a2$1@news.povray.org>
Confirmed. The quality is actually much better, even though you don't see
it. However, I'm adding a new feature that will bring back the performance
and put more control in the hands of the user. :-) The new feature will be
part of the radius keyword within the photons block within global settings.
-Nathan
"Mike Hough" <Ama### [at] aolcom> wrote...
> It was suggested to me that I do a comparison using the example scene> "optics.pov" to show the difference in render time between MegaPOV 0.7 and> POV-Ray 3.5 RC5. The only change to the scene was to replace the keyword> "collect off" to "ignore_photons". MegaPOV appears to render the scene> about 7 times faster. I'll post the images in the binaries group. To me> there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two.>> Resolution - 640x480 AA 0.3>> MegaPOV 0.7 - 6 minutes 31 seconds> POV-Ray 3.5 RC5 - 47 minutes 51 seconds>>
From: Mike Hough
Subject: Re: RC5 photons and render time
Date: 27 May 2002 05:07:46
Message: <3cf1f762$1@news.povray.org>
> Confirmed. The quality is actually much better, even though you don't see> it. However, I'm adding a new feature that will bring back the
performance
> and put more control in the hands of the user.
That was quick. :)
Anything to make tuning easier will be a big help. One thing that I liked
about photons from early on was how good they could look with a small number
of samples, particularly for animation.
From: Dave Dunn
Subject: Re: RC5 photons and render time
Date: 27 May 2002 08:53:37
Message: <3CF22C31.E45B003E@aol.com>
Nathan Kopp wrote:
> Confirmed. The quality is actually much better, even though you don't see> it. However, I'm adding a new feature that will bring back the performance> and put more control in the hands of the user. :-) The new feature will be> part of the radius keyword within the photons block within global settings.
So what you're saying is that this is one of the few cases where it really IS
not a bug, but an undocumented feature. ; }
com> wrote...