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From: Andries Steketee
Subject: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 8 Mar 2003 14:39:00
Message: <3e6a46d4@news.povray.org>
Well i like to program in povray but when my scenes
start to be a little complex, the render starts to
need a real long time...
Are there any patches or programmes to get it
accelereted ?
And does anyone knows if it runs faster in Linux
or doesn't it matters if you run it on windows or linux.
I use a AMD 500 with 256mb ram.


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From: Rick [Kitty5]
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 8 Mar 2003 16:32:38
Message: <3e6a6176$1@news.povray.org>
Andries Steketee wrote:
> I use a AMD 500

Thats your problem..........


--
Rick

Kitty5 NewMedia http://Kitty5.co.uk
POV-Ray News & Resources http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

PGP Public Key
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x231E1CEA


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From: T3X
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 8 Mar 2003 18:55:03
Message: <web.3e6a825452fa3132a97536080@news.povray.org>
Well rick...
It would be nice if you explained a little bit more...
Is it because it's a AMD or is it because the 500 is to low...
Intell isn't it at all...

Greetings Andries


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From: Will W
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 8 Mar 2003 21:55:46
Message: <3e6aad32@news.povray.org>
"Andries Steketee" <a.s### [at] zeelandnetnl> wrote in message
news:3e6a46d4@news.povray.org...
> Well i like to program in povray but when my scenes
> start to be a little complex, the render starts to
> need a real long time...
> Are there any patches or programmes to get it
> accelereted ?

None that I have heard of, or could imagine. It seems like a lot of good
work has gone into making the rendering process as fast as possible.


Things that can help (short of replacing core hardware):

    Add more RAM. It is pretty cheap now.

    Optimize the OS for maximum available ram. Consider setting up a profile
just for POV work, with minimal services, etc. Of course you don't run any
big, clunky apps at the same time you are rendering, do you?

    Within POV-- comment out parts of the scene that you aren't currently
working on.

    Move the camera or change its field of view so that you are only
rendering the detail you are working on at the moment.

    Turn off photons, etc, when you aren't working with the light itself.

    Use simpler substitute materials while you are developing the scene.
Same for objects: comment out the fancy greek column you just put hours into
and sub in a simple cylinder while you work on other parts of the scene, use
a flat, bare plane for the sea while you outfit the boat.

    So basically, bust your big scene up into smaller chunks while you are
working on it, and plan on setting up final renders to run during the night.

    Also be aware of the relative costs of the different primitives, and
avoid fancy slow shapes when a simpler one will do the job. For instance, a
cubic_spline sphere_sweep renders a lot more slowly than the same done with
a linear_spline.

Perhaps others will chime in with their own ideas. I think you've posed an
interesting question.


--
Will Woodhull
Thornhenge, SW Oregon, USA
willl.at.thornhenge.net


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 8 Mar 2003 23:53:55
Message: <3e6ac8e3@news.povray.org>
T3X <hyp### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> It would be nice if you explained a little bit more...
> Is it because it's a AMD or is it because the 500 is to low...

  It means that the main, and basically only way of speeding up the
rendering is to buy a faster processor.

-- 
plane{-x+y,-1pigment{bozo color_map{[0rgb x][1rgb x+y]}turbulence 1}}
sphere{0,2pigment{rgbt 1}interior{media{emission 1density{spherical
density_map{[0rgb 0][.5rgb<1,.5>][1rgb 1]}turbulence.9}}}scale
<1,1,3>hollow}text{ttf"timrom""Warp".1,0translate<-1,-.1,2>}//  - Warp -


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From: Ian J  Burgmyer
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 9 Mar 2003 03:22:01
Message: <3e6af9a9$1@news.povray.org>
Andries Steketee's furious key-hammering produced this:
> Well i like to program in povray but when my scenes
> start to be a little complex, the render starts to
> need a real long time...
> [...]
> I use a AMD 500 with 256mb ram.

The best way to speed up rendering is to upgrade your processor.

If you can't afford to, I know of a few tips that you might find useful (my
processor isn't much faster than yours -- Pentium III 750):

Give yourself two lighting options -- simple and final
------------------------------------------------------
Your simple light would be a simple pointlight/spotlight while your final would
probably be an area light.  You'll also want to give yourself a simple way of
switching between the two.  The following code bite was used from my
Abstractified scene (see povray.binaries.images) and dramatically affects
rendering time (the code has been modified slightly to save space):

/* START OF CODE */
#declare SimpleLighting=on;

#if(SimpleLighting)
  light_source {
    <0,2,-5> rgb 1
    spotlight point_at<0,0,0>  radius 45  falloff 90  tightness 25
  }
#else
  light_source {
    <0,2,-5> rgb 1
    area_light <-2,5,-3.5><4,-1,-1.5>,10,10
    spotlight point_at<0,0,0>  radius 45  falloff 90  tightness 25
  }
#end //if(SimpleLighting)
/* END OF CODE */

Basically, you'd only change SimpleLighting to off when you're ready to render
your final scene.

Make alternate textures or use simple coloring
----------------------------------------------
Some textures (especially those using high-quality media) can take a very long
time to render, even on relatively small objects.

There are several ways you can go about reducing texture quality.  One would be
creating code to disable media using a method such as the one above, and another
would be using the quick_color property for use on lower quality levels (see
POV-Ray documentation, secture 5.2.6.1).

Use simpler objects
-------------------
If your scene uses complex objects that take a while to render, you might want
to consider using simple placeholder objects to take the place of that object
in previews (for example, if you have an isosurface that resembles of a sphere,
you may want to use a sphere as a substitute for it).  If you are using a
sphere_sweep, you may want to use a linear spline for test scenes rather than
a cubic spline (this affects rendering time more than you could imagine).

Disable the fancy stuff
-----------------------
Unless features such as radiosity are vital to rendering your scene, leave them
off until it comes time to render your (hopefully) final image.  These features
take a great deal of time to render, especially as your scene becomes more and
more complex.

Tweak what needs tweaked
------------------------
If you notice any lighting problems or anything like that after rendering a full
quality image, only render part of the image at full quality and tweak your
settings based on that (in Windows, that's as easy as clicking and dragging on
the area of the preview window you want to render).
------------------------

I've found that I tend to use the above techniques more than anything while I'm
working on a scene.  The final will probably take a while to render but it'll
probably look just as good as if you would have kept rendering full-quality
shots (and will take up much less of your time).  Abstractified, for instance,
took over 9 hours to render at 1280x960 on my system but I only had to render
it once.

-- 
/*^*/light_source{100*<-5,2,-5>2}#macro I(i,n)#while(strlen(i)>=n)#local A=asc(
substr(i,n,1));#local a=asc(substr(i,n+1,1));cylinder{<div(A,8)-12,mod(A,8)-4,4
><div(a,8)-12,mod(a,8)-4,4>,0.1pigment{rgb z}}#local n=n+2;#end#end I("ScUe[]"1
/*<*/)I("mkmtlttk"1)//@_$#!,:<"Thhis polysig brought to you by Ian Burgmyer :)"


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From: Rick [Kitty5]
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 9 Mar 2003 09:44:10
Message: <3e6b533a$1@news.povray.org>
T3X wrote:
> Well rick...
> It would be nice if you explained a little bit more...
> Is it because it's a AMD or is it because the 500 is to low...
> Intell isn't it at all...

Its both, however it comes to older processors, Intel is king for FPU
performance (by a mile)


--
Rick

Kitty5 NewMedia http://Kitty5.co.uk
POV-Ray News & Resources http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

PGP Public Key
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x231E1CEA


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From: Rick [Kitty5]
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 9 Mar 2003 09:44:11
Message: <3e6b533b@news.povray.org>
Ian J. Burgmyer wrote:
> If you can't afford to, I know of a few tips that you might find
> useful (my processor isn't much faster than yours -- Pentium III 750):

Yes it is - The P3 has an excellent FPU, where as this AMD 500 will be of
the K6-2 variety


--
Rick

Kitty5 NewMedia http://Kitty5.co.uk
POV-Ray News & Resources http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

PGP Public Key
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x231E1CEA


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From: Ian J  Burgmyer
Subject: Re: Can i accelerate the Povray render ?
Date: 9 Mar 2003 12:32:58
Message: <3e6b7aca$1@news.povray.org>
Rick [Kitty5]'s furious key-hammering produced this:
>> If you can't afford to, I know of a few tips that you might find
>> useful (my processor isn't much faster than yours -- Pentium III 750):
> 
> Yes it is - The P3 has an excellent FPU, where as this AMD 500 will be of
> the K6-2 variety

Hmm, I thought AMD had Athlons as low as 500MHz.  My bad.

-- 
/*^*/light_source{100*<-5,2,-5>2}#macro I(i,n)#while(strlen(i)>=n)#local A=asc(
substr(i,n,1));#local a=asc(substr(i,n+1,1));cylinder{<div(A,8)-12,mod(A,8)-4,4
><div(a,8)-12,mod(a,8)-4,4>,0.1pigment{rgb z}}#local n=n+2;#end#end I("ScUe[]"1
/*<*/)I("mkmtlttk"1)//@_$#!,:<"Thhis polysig brought to you by Ian Burgmyer :)"


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From: Andries Steketee
Subject: Re: Well thank you all...
Date: 9 Mar 2003 14:37:28
Message: <3e6b97f8$1@news.povray.org>
Well thanks to you all.
And a special thanks to Ian and Will.
These answers i was looking for.
Thanks again.
Andries Steketee@T3X


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