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How can you tell?

Question asked by K. Hampton on Mar 30, 2012
Latest reply on Apr 2, 2012 by Jonathan Ridley

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How can you tell before starting a rendering that the forementioned rendering is going to take hours to complete??

I do renderings quite often. One might take 10 minutes and another may take 2 hours. Sometimes there may be very little difference in the two assemblies being rendered. What is the best method for making an educated guess as to how long a rendering might take before starting the rendering, and then 3 hours later it is too late to abort?

I also thought that this was supposed to be getting better with SW 2012

Tech Specs:

HPZ400 Workstation

SW 2012 SP 1.0

Win 7 Pro 64 Bit

Intel Xeon QuadCore 3.33 GHz

12 Gig Ram

NVidia Quadro FX 1800

Anna Wood Mar 31, 2012 1:49 AM

Correct Answer

What specific cpu model do you have in the Z400? Not all quad cores are created equal. Also is the cpu able to be hyper-threaded? If we know the model number we will be able to check to see if you can hyper-thread the cpu. You will want to enable hyper-threading in the system BIOS if the cpu is capable. It is not enabled typically on Dell machine. Not sure how HP's come configured.

Also be sure under the Windows Power Settings in the Control Panel that you are set to High Performance. Windows 7 out of the box is set to Balanced.

Different materials and textures will affect render times. Some materials and textures are more expensive (i.e. take more time to render).

Rendering can take a lot of time. As you get more experience you will began to understand which materials are more expensive then others.

Probably a good idea to setup your renderings to run at night while you are out of the office. Even better if you have a few seats of PV360 and can run a several computers in the evening.

Cheers,

Anna

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Rob Rodríguez Mar 30, 2012 4:17 PM

You can't really. There are a number of factors that need to be taken into account for final render processing time. These factors are unique to every image.

Larger output size = longer render times

Higher image quality setting = longer render times

Reflective and transparent appearances = longer render times

Slower CPU = longer render times

PV360 does give you an ETA on completion once the image starts processing. It's not 100% accurate but if you check it when it's processing an area of the image that is more representative of the overall image than it's usually pretty close.

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K. Hampton @ Rob Rodríguez on Mar 30, 2012 4:30 PM

I understand. But I use the same output size and the same image quality setting on every rendering. Right now I am doing a rendering of a pretty basic cigarette cabinet. It does have transparent acrylic doors on it. This one is constructed of wood so there are wood grains to be rendered. But I just rendered the exact same cabinet that was painted black vs. wood and it was done in 10 minutes. I am now on 1hr and 20 minutes on the current rendering. All things being equal, the only difference is the wood vs the black paint. But the rendering hasnt even started touching the wood parts yet. It is getting hung up on the acrylic and the things behind the acrylic. Which were all on the rendering I did in 10 minutes. And look at the attached image of my resource monitor. All 4 cores maxed out and Photoview 360 taking up 98%. I would hate to see some really complicated renderings. There should really be a warning or something that says "Hey! This rendering is going to take hours and you will not be able to work on anything else for the rest of the afternoon, Proceed?"

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Anna Wood @ K. Hampton on Mar 31, 2012 1:49 AM

Also be sure under the Windows Power Settings in the Control Panel that you are set to High Performance. Windows 7 out of the box is set to Balanced.

Different materials and textures will affect render times. Some materials and textures are more expensive (i.e. take more time to render).

Rendering can take a lot of time. As you get more experience you will began to understand which materials are more expensive then others.

Probably a good idea to setup your renderings to run at night while you are out of the office. Even better if you have a few seats of PV360 and can run a several computers in the evening.

Cheers,

Anna

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Ryan Brumund @ K. Hampton on Apr 2, 2012 4:54 PM

To make the computer more useable during a render you could set the processor affinity in the task manager so that PV360 is not using all the cores. I've had a number of times where a render was taking longer than I thought it would and I needed to get other work done, so I would take a core or two away from PV. Your render time obviously increases, but you can also do something other than watch PV render.

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Jonathan Ridley @ Ryan Brumund on Apr 2, 2012 5:55 PM

wow cool to know that !

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David Oustifine Mar 30, 2012 4:26 PM

Lighting effects on the component or assembly can have a significant impact on rendering time, what appearances / materials you have specified, as far as the CPU goes what other programs you are running in sequence when you are rending, etc.

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K. Hampton @ David Oustifine on Mar 30, 2012 4:28 PM

nothing but Photoview 360, resource monitor, and Firefox when I am on these forums.

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Alin Vargatu Mar 30, 2012 4:30 PM

If you want to know about all the different factors affecting the speed of the rendering process in details, go to the SWW 2012 Proceedings site and watch this presentation:

Birkett-Smith, Nick

PhotoView 360: Technical Tips and Tricks

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Rob Rodríguez Mar 30, 2012 4:17 PM
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You can't really. There are a number of factors that need to be taken into account for final render processing time. These factors are unique to every image.

Larger output size = longer render times
Higher image quality setting = longer render times
Reflective and transparent appearances = longer render times
Slower CPU = longer render times

PV360 does give you an ETA on completion once the image starts processing. It's not 100% accurate but if you check it when it's processing an area of the image that is more representative of the overall image than it's usually pretty close.
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- K. Hampton @ Rob Rodríguez on Mar 30, 2012 4:30 PM
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  I understand. But I use the same output size and the same image quality setting on every rendering. Right now I am doing a rendering of a pretty basic cigarette cabinet. It does have transparent acrylic doors on it. This one is constructed of wood so there are wood grains to be rendered. But I just rendered the exact same cabinet that was painted black vs. wood and it was done in 10 minutes. I am now on 1hr and 20 minutes on the current rendering. All things being equal, the only difference is the wood vs the black paint. But the rendering hasnt even started touching the wood parts yet. It is getting hung up on the acrylic and the things behind the acrylic. Which were all on the rendering I did in 10 minutes. And look at the attached image of my resource monitor. All 4 cores maxed out and Photoview 360 taking up 98%. I would hate to see some really complicated renderings. There should really be a warning or something that says "Hey! This rendering is going to take hours and you will not be able to work on anything else for the rest of the afternoon, Proceed?"
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  - Anna Wood @ K. Hampton on Mar 31, 2012 1:49 AM
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    What specific cpu model do you have in the Z400? Not all quad cores are created equal. Also is the cpu able to be hyper-threaded? If we know the model number we will be able to check to see if you can hyper-thread the cpu. You will want to enable hyper-threading in the system BIOS if the cpu is capable. It is not enabled typically on Dell machine. Not sure how HP's come configured.
    
    Also be sure under the Windows Power Settings in the Control Panel that you are set to High Performance. Windows 7 out of the box is set to Balanced.
    
    Different materials and textures will affect render times. Some materials and textures are more expensive (i.e. take more time to render).
    
    Rendering can take a lot of time. As you get more experience you will began to understand which materials are more expensive then others.
    
    Probably a good idea to setup your renderings to run at night while you are out of the office. Even better if you have a few seats of PV360 and can run a several computers in the evening.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Anna
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  - Ryan Brumund @ K. Hampton on Apr 2, 2012 4:54 PM
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    To make the computer more useable during a render you could set the processor affinity in the task manager so that PV360 is not using all the cores. I've had a number of times where a render was taking longer than I thought it would and I needed to get other work done, so I would take a core or two away from PV. Your render time obviously increases, but you can also do something other than watch PV render.
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    - Jonathan Ridley @ Ryan Brumund on Apr 2, 2012 5:55 PM
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      wow cool to know that !
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David Oustifine Mar 30, 2012 4:26 PM
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Lighting effects on the component or assembly can have a significant impact on rendering time, what appearances / materials you have specified, as far as the CPU goes what other programs you are running in sequence when you are rending, etc.
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- K. Hampton @ David Oustifine on Mar 30, 2012 4:28 PM
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  nothing but Photoview 360, resource monitor, and Firefox when I am on these forums.
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Alin Vargatu Mar 30, 2012 4:30 PM
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If you want to know about all the different factors affecting the speed of the rendering process in details, go to the SWW 2012 Proceedings site and watch this presentation:

Birkett-Smith, Nick

PhotoView 360: Technical Tips and Tricks
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