Render Optimizer V1 build(20110523)

[thorsten hartmann]

Hi Guys,

Render Optimizer Update build (2011091...

I have added three string Option.

- "importon emitted" If specifies the total number of importons to emit and overrides the "importon density" string option. The options are similar, but "importon emitted" specifies the value which is independent of the image resolution and thus is better for tuning.

- "rast hair disposable" improve the memory

- "hair caps" The hair endings may be flat or rounded caps. A global option allows to control the creation of caps for all hair objects in a scene in case of ray tracing.
have fun!

mfg
hot chip

[Remydrh]

Hi Thorsten,

I just noticed, and correct me if it's changed, that your Unified Sampler settings are powers of 2.

Unified Samples operates linearly and you lose some efficiency making large jumps like that. (Not that I change the max samples from 100 a lot)

But rather than follow the logic of the UI from Max where it defaults to powers of 2, making the samples a scalar value is of use. Especially since the Unified Sampler can undersample if you use, say 0.1 min samples. Now it will sample once every 10 pixels or so.

So setting a scalar from maybe .1 to whatever linearly might allow for more control. As well as the Samples Quality being a scalar. I would also probably recommend that production levels for Unified Sampling be between 1.0 and 2.0 as opposed to higher numbers. If you go very high, then you should invoke the Error Cutoff but not generally useful before.

Thanks for the great scripts!

[thorsten hartmann]

Hi Remydrh,

yes you are right. At my first Version was the input scalar. But we are 3dsmax Users, want simple inputs. Many Guys want the samples steps. But i can change it.

[moulder6]

But we are 3dsmax Users, want simple inputs.

Absolutely not true ) But then again, this is probably why A'desk keeps the mental ray features implemented so simple, that they are often useless

[Remydrh]

I think a simple scalar control (or integer for some things) is fine. You may lose some efficiency by skipping steps in powers of 2.

I think the old power of 2 thing was a result of the fact that processors were efficient when measurements were done in that scheme. (Ignoring the sampler that was tied to powers) I don't think that means quite as much as it used to. Using a linear scheme should be more intuitive and allow for a sort of binary search when looking for good settings. This way you're not locked in "Not good enough, but the next setting is too high."

Anything with a curve can get crazy pretty quickly. It will mean a change in thinking process but I think it should make more sense in the long run.

[thorsten hartmann]

ah ok, thank you for the info. i hope i understand and will fix it at the next Version. do you mean the Cutoff Value= scalar ( we nead floats) and the Sample Value= integer? I have programming to optimize all Material a Sample Curve in my Shader Utiltities. Can i use this for all Sample Typs?

[Remydrh]

For Unified Sampling you can use:

Samples Min/Max: float This means any value from a fraction to whole numbers. This way you can specify undersampling for quick renders/testing
Quality: float Same as samples, but an advanced collapsed tab can be a color (three floats)
Error Cutoff: float Also like Quality where it can be float and an advanced tab can be a color.

You can see an example of these type of settings with the Maya Standalone UI. These settings were created and arranged based on what Nvidia designed with some testing from some studios. And remember that Unified Controls can be used for the Rasterizer and Progressive. So having this extra control instead of locked notches will pay off when using it as a control for other algorithms where a power of two doesn't make as much sense.

Shader samples can be integer, just linear scale instead of powers of two.

I think settings like this may become more common as things move towards simplicity but maintain a good amount of control. You may also find that as things become more efficient, like BSDF shaders, MIS, IBL etc, you won't need a lot of samples. 32 and higher will become really way too high.

Something more like 4 or 6 will become enough for some things. Especially with Unified Sampling. Your renders will become much faster. Unified is a good example of this.

By the way, we've discovered that increasing the Quality parameter of Unified Sampling (as opposed to changing samples) has a performance that's logarithmic. So more and more quality begins to impact render times less and less as you increase it.

[thorsten hartmann]

ok, the cutofff and quailty as color ( because better finetuning) and the Samples as integer scalar.

[thorsten hartmann]

Hi Guys,

it give a small Update build (20111024), I have fix the Quality and Cutoff Input.



mfg
hot chip

[michael.reuter]

Thank you Thorsten. Great work.