Light through stained glass

[Brian Jones]

I’m late to this thread but some notes on render speed.
Trying to match the shot you posted as Jim did, and as noted without some of the correct imagery, I’m seeing per frame render times of:
– Physical renderer, Adaptive Sampling Quality Medium – 7:30
– Physical renderer, Adaptive Sampling Quality Medium AO off – 6:45
– Physical renderer, Adaptive Sampling Quality Low (AO on) – 1:52

– Standard renderer AO on 35 seconds
– Standard renderer AO off 31 seconds

Can you drop to low quality sampling? I’m just rendering a single frame from a perspective that neither of the cameras in the scene file go to (but that does sort of match the fire in the cage shot you posted) and I don’t see any obvious difference between the Med 7:30 image and the Low 1:52 image.
And can you use the Standard renderer? Physical is the best choice not always. It depends on the features you are using. The differences I see in that limited render example are the bump on the stone wall is a little more crisp in the Standard render and the reflection (specular really) on the iron cage is slightly enhanced in the standard renderer.
And finally AO. From that perspective AO is making a big visual difference with the pillars and the steps but you have it on scene-wide and it doesn’t do anything visible to the metal-cage thing but it’s being calculated everywhere, setting AO into the materials via the Diffusion channel could save some time (a bit but not as much as the renderer choices/settings).

Threadripper 1950X 16 core

[Jim Scott]

Thanks for the input Brian. You obviously have a much faster computer than I do.

[Brian Jones]

Yeah I had an early 2008 Mac Pro (and had Macs for 21 years – Amiga before that) and while I was looking at upgrading for a long time it didn’t look right to do the Mac Pro 6,1 ( trash can) I waited for a time while considering a hackintosh (a buddy at work built one) but there is enough trouble with those I decided to build a PC, the Intel’s are kind of pricey and the Ryzens came out… given the pricing of the modular I’m glad I jumped since I can’t write off the price as part of a business. Short story long I guess…

[Jim Scott]

Wow, what a coincidence… my first computer was an Amiga too. And I also had a 2008 Mac Pro until I bought the 2012 three years ago. I felt the same way about the “trash cans,” which is why I decided to go with a refurbished and fully loaded 2012. As a hobbyist I try to get as much use out of each one as I can. I’m certainly not going to be buying a new Mac Pro, so who knows what I’ll end up with next.

[Rick Morton]

Jim… do you know why I’m getting a flickering on the stone texture as I push in towards the wall and the throne? The client noticed it. I can’t figure it out. It’s just a standard stone texture from the presets. Thanks. Can’t seem to upload the mov file. Keep getting errors.

[Jim Scott]

I see you started a new post concerning this, so I’ll let Brian (the real expert) help you out.