Chaos Corona Forum

Chaos Corona for 3ds Max => [Max] Feature Requests => Topic started by: HTKsean on 2021-05-20, 20:17:56

Title: GPU Option for Interactive Render
Post by: HTKsean on 2021-05-20, 20:17:56

How feasible is it to offer an option to use GPU for the interactive render?
I am rendering a scene with 3.9m faces, one Corona Sun and an environment map. If I start the interactive render, CPU use goes to 100% and 3dsMax starts lagging tremendously, like click and wait 15-20sec for a response. Click once too often while waiting and Max will crash. While the CPU is maxxed out, the GPU is sitting at 0%...

I have  Xeon W-2125 @ 4.00Ghz, 64GB Ram, Quadro RTX4000, running Win10 Pro for Workstations

Thanks, Sean

Title: Re: GPU Option for Interactive Render
Post by: TomG on 2021-05-21, 15:17:55

Anything GPU rendering would require a complete re-write of the rendering core, whether "just for IR" or otherwise :)

Title: Re: GPU Option for Interactive Render
Post by: HTKsean on 2021-05-21, 20:00:38

Thanks TomG for the reply. I guess a GPU IR is completely out of the question. I've been using Corona for about 5 yrs now, for mostly low poly product renders which it is perfect for. However, we're beginning to add architectural context to the shots now and Corona just seems out of its element. I have to use IR like the old school test render: render for 5-10min to verify lighting materials etc. - cancel the render - adjust scene settings - render 5-10min - cancel - adjust - render etc, etc,

Is anyone else having this issue?

Sean

Title: Re: GPU Option for Interactive Render
Post by: TomG on 2021-05-21, 20:15:43

The aim of IR is you can see within 10 or 20 seconds the general look of the scene. We'd need to know which host software, which version of Corona, an example of the kind of scene you mean. I sure never need IR to run for long for the general overview, and even a minute will do fine - and why cancel the IR btw? You can just change when IR is running (saves recalculating displacement, GI, etc. unless you are changing things that affect those of course, but even then no need to stop and start).

On another note, sorry to say that the Xeon W-2125 is not a great processor, it benchmarks at 4 minutes (https://corona-renderer.com/benchmark/results/cpu/W-2125) which means it is at least 4 times slower than even a modest machine using another processor (e.g. even my 7 year old dual Xeons benchmark at 1 minute 30s, bought refurbished 3 years ago for $1,500) and my 3960X benchmarks at under 40s. With that in mind, IR will not be as responsive as you might want on that hardware :(