First renders - Paris apartment early previews

[Juraj]

Edit: This project has since been finished and can be seen here: http://talcikdemovicova.com/classic-apartment-by-jessica-vedel/ or here :- )

[click to see higher res]




















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I've pondered the idea of trying out new renderer for quite some time. 2 years ago, when I first began with 3D, I actually started with Octane beta, no idea how I came across it istead of Vray. I still remember the comfortable workflow but my scenes quickly outgrew gpu vram capacity.

Well, turning point came this week, after spending close to 60 hours, trying to come up with best "visual quality" scenarion in Vray, which is BruteForce, SubPixelOff,ClampOff, and even though I ended up conquering it, it cost me lot of frustration and I just didn't like the look that much for so much effort. I desperately expected bit more.

Other solutions I qucikly looked through included Maxwell and Arion. Maxwell doesn't even have damn converter and it would deferred me completely from animation territory. I still wanted same renderer for stills and animations. Arion does have converter, but not even damn forum and same problem with animations, on top of that, mostly oriented towards GPU.

So all in all out, Corona, which I honestly didn't put much faith in ( I am very sceptic person...). But damn my ego, I was so wrong.

The installation, converting my scene in one touch of button and pressing render took less than 5 minutes, and after 5 minutes of default PT+PT 16 I already enjoyed satisfaction of what I saw.

Edit: Duh, I only briefly studied manual yesterday, and since I am mostly after visual quality, times be damned, this is 4k (3840x1800px), rendered using PT+PT and 64 samples. I let it render overnight, although it looked pretty good after 3 hours, this one is saved after 12. The only post done is slight glow from MagicBullet Looks.

It is lit completely using custom HDRi in environment (can't be seen, the outside is 3D geometry as well), and very weak softbox behind camera using Corona Light. No portal lights.

Well, my second render is done now and I am beyond satisfied !! That's the results I was looking for. I love the subtle noise and little shadow detail all-around. Also, in-render DOF !

It's 100mil poly scene so far, this time only with HDRi, windows are far away. 7680px, full unbiased PT+PT, 16 samples only now, MaxInt. 0. Super super satisfied. It took 30GB ram, (it was 18 at 3840px, so it does seem to scale quite a lot). Not sure if I should keep Internal res=2 even if I go to such high res like this ? I do plan to render 8k most of my renders.

Well I am happy. I no longer need to worry about rendering, and go back to actual work. Lot's of modeling ahead, but my mind is at peace.

I think Corona will truly be revolution !

[ecximer]

Fast start and a good result.
Welcome to our sect ... :)
Still, I would advise to use the portals to the window and the engine PT + HDCache. Will be cleaner and faster at times.

[Ludvik Koutny]

Yes, as pointed above me, there are numerous ways to optimize rendering further. Try to set secondary GI to HDcache. Also, since lighting is not complex, you don't need 64 PT samples, default of 16 will work just fine.

I am not sure if portals are available with Alpha V4, but they will definitely be available in Alpha V5 which is coming soon. Alternatively, you can ask Keymaster to provide you with access to nightly builds to get Alpha V5 RC version.

Lastly, a general advice is to never put real solid glass in windows. Just make window glass just one polygon (no thickness) and apply glass with twosided mode on it. You will get glass in windows with nearly no effect on performance.

[Ondra]

[Juraj]

Hi Rawa,

the glass panels are hidden :- ) they wouldn't be much visible anyway. I am only concerned about accuracy of GI, so I would like to keep using only path tracing for stills like these, and LC for animations or simpler modern scenes.

As for the samples, what actually happens between the different numbers ? Does it affect the result visually ?

As I said, optimizing times is not important at all. We have dual-octacore Xeon machines and i7 SBe, and when DB will come, quite a lot of cores (64) available too. I only wish for the best visual quality, everything is, is not important for me.

Daily build could be cool, but if Alpha 5 is around the corner, maybe it doesn't matter :- ). I wanted to experiment with Bidir, but it ignored my clipping planes so I couldn't compare it. I don't see portal lights, though I see PortalLightMaterial which I applied to geo. Will see how it goes.

[maru]

Fantastic render! It's cool how it takes so little time to learn Corona. I can't imagine what happens after it gets even better...

[Juraj]

My sentiments. I have bit of grudge against learning even though I am quite fast then, I dread the start. Even installing Windows bothers me these times.
I used Vray for 2 years, and each month, I've redone my workflow and settings, always found "better" way to do things. I wasted so much time...for what.

But I was really suprised how easy and straight-forward everything was. Much easier to teach others who work with me too !

[Polymax]

Very good! And very fast to learn!

[Juraj]

One more thing I love :- D Might not seem like big catch, but for me it is. The material preview ! Which actually really corresponds to what I get in render. Even better that it is directly integrated into Max mat editor, and not some new weird obscure UI on top of everything like every other renderer. The clean integration within Max is what makes this such and effortless experience.

I am really charmed, feels better than first date.

[Ondra]

I am really charmed, feels better than first date.

then get the latest daily build. It is better than sex :D

[Ludvik Koutny]

I still think that very slight difference between PT+PT and PT+HD does not justify the rendertime difference. Maybe for personal projects, but if you ever have to race deadline, it's not worth it. I suggest you try both. Make one PT+PT render, then switch secondary gi to HDcache, increase settings a bit (PT samples in HDcache to 2048 for example) and then try to compare look of both renders.

I think you will be surprised ;)

Other things like portals do not affect quality of render at all, they just simply speed it up ;)

[Juraj]

I will play big time with every possibility there is, I am systematic and curious enough :- ). But time is really not important in this project, even if fully unbiased will provide 2-3perc. better image, I am all for it.

I must say the rotating smilie more than enough supplements that need to watch buckets go away. Even without buckets, the screen is still magnetizing.


Well, I off to beer, but I gave up rendering another preview. 8k px, pt+pt,  and DOF, really wonder what's gonna happen ! So far looks great

[Ondra]

btw to get true unbiased result you must also set max sample intensity to 0

[Juraj]

Yes, I have it set that way :- ) Made the effort to read the manual (and every topic on forum too) yesterday

[Polymax]

You can also try set diffuse level of white wall to 0.7-0.8 (value=255) to get more contrast.