CRITICAL SPEED ISSUE WITH APPLE M SYSTEMS

[frv]

Just checked AMD and they have new 7000 series threadrippers these days even at 96 cores. 10k+ euros.

Problem is though that renders don't get paid that much anymore. I get offers for less than 350€ per image. The past years I keep having this feeling that Unreal Engine is where things are going. For free and the quality has already caught up a good bit. All my asset libraries are updated and available now for Unreal.  Hardware can be basic and clients are totally happy with the results. I am actually surprised I don't see a lot of UE archviz stills all over. There must be a catch I am not seeing.

[James Vella]

I am actually surprised I don't see a lot of UE archviz stills all over. There must be a catch I am not seeing.

There's quite a lot of content I see on this Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/UnrealArchviz

[runx]

Anyway, constructing/building  the model in CAD/3D is the main part, what is timeconsuming!
In serious Arch VIZ this takes days or even weeks on larger projects. not to mention the communication with architects/developers.
Preparing for render in whatever engine is the fun part.
So, Threadripper or M3, 40 min or 20, noisy or silent -
How can this be done for 350.- ??
( when you haver to make a living out of that?

[runx]

Btw, the new RC1 Release is much slower on Asimos Testscene
( with Corona Bitmaps)
What was 1.38 is now 3.11 min
In a M1 Ultra / 128 / c4d 2024
How is that ??????

[frv]

Thanks James,
indeed impressive what is done with Unreal. Not sure though that Unreal already has a time efficient workflow. I see a lot of work that took weeks, months. My projects need to be finished in a day or two.
But it's clear Unreal has a place now in Archviz and it's only getting better.

[frv]

Latest build 11 RC1
C4D 24.1.0
OSX Mac Ultra 128 Gb.
11.15 slightly faster than with previous builds at 11.36.

[James Vella]

Thanks James,
indeed impressive what is done with Unreal. Not sure though that Unreal already has a time efficient workflow. I see a lot of work that took weeks, months. My projects need to be finished in a day or two.
But it's clear Unreal has a place now in Archviz and it's only getting better.

Not to hijack the thread but Yep, timeframe is always the thing with Archviz, especially when you have so many cooks in the kitchen changing the recipe daily :D

Datasmith was made to crunch that timeframe I suppose, same with Chaos Vantage. I suppose once you get your head around the workflow just like any software you find your ways to improve input/output speed. Unreal is always sitting on my desktop waiting for me to double click... but years go by and it just collects more dust while I wonder if ill ever use it :D I suppose it comes down to your needs, if you do lots of animation then I would say its probably worth learning.

[ASIMO]

Hello

I also tested the new built. The improvement is only seconds. From 10:52 to 10:36. So nothing significant.

The same scene using Corona-Bitmaps renders in about 2 min with the latest official hot-fix – so more than 5 times faster !

Something is still fundamentally wrong with native bitmaps (textures) and I really have to start questioning my whole setup.

With the current downgrade I can no longer work on a professional level using CoronaRender on new Mac Computers.

Is there anything in development the Chaos group might want to share ?

Thanks

[handz]

Crazy!  I lost my hope in future with Mac as well because of this.

BTW - what does "corona bitmap" means here? That you put textures under Corona Bitmap tags? Not directly into diffusion / Texture ?

[CambridgeCreative]

Hi Handz,

Regarding Corona Bitmap, for each texture map you want to use within a material, your workflow would be:
e.g.
texture>plugins>corona>bitmap - then select the texture map you want to use
or
Glossiness>plugins>corona>bitmap - then select the texture map you want to use

[ASIMO]

Hi Handz,

Regarding Corona Bitmap, for each texture map you want to use within a material, your workflow would be:
e.g.
texture>plugins>corona>bitmap - then select the texture map you want to use
or
Glossiness>plugins>corona>bitmap - then select the texture map you want to use

Exactly. This works in increases render-times dramatically on ARM-Chipsets ! But one has to do this for hundreds of models and textures that use non-corona bitmaps ...

[frv]

Not sure if that's right about the Corona bitmaps. Does the converter does not do this automatically. I have actually never set a texture (bitmap) like that. I just drag and drop textures from a folder into a CRmaterial. You can even drag and drop maps from for instance diffuse to glossiness. You can even drag and drop in to several selected materials at once.

[CambridgeCreative]

I don't know about when converting a material that it adds the Corona Bitmap for you, but when you create a new material, you do need to add the Corona Bitmap plugin for each channel you want to add a texture to. Corona will accept textures without the Corona Bitmap, but it won't read the texture quite the same and the benefits of the plugin won't be seen either. This has been talked about in other posts and requests for this to become an automatic feature when creating new corona materials.

[frv]

Interesting. I do wonder what the difference is to make up for the huge hassle to set maps that cumbersome way. I have never done that and have also never seen any difference. Although I don't care much for render speed if its a minor difference.

[CambridgeCreative]

You might find using the Node Material Editor a quicker way of setting up materials with Corona Bitmap. If you create a physical material and then create a Corona Bitmap shader and then copy that enough times for the number of textures you want to use. Then, connect the output node of each bitmap to the input node and then go into each Bitmap and select the texture you want for each one. Attached is a quick screenshot of what I mean above.

The added benefit of this is if you want to use the same texture file more than once in a material and you can connect one output to multiple inputs.