if it works correctly, how much faster is a render with open gl on poser 6 and a regular render? thanks

OpenGL doesn't really speed up your render. The point of OpenGL is so that you can preview your image without rendering.

i see

exactly!!! you see it faster.....!!!! Before the render. hehe.

The only thing between you and render speed is your RAM, CPU, and FSB! My worry - ala Vue 4 Pro - is how well supported the OpenGL is. I have a high-end nonPro NVidia (GeForce FX 5900 Ultra) and, until my recent reinstall of V4P, it was incredibly horrible - slow, complaining, nasty. Must have been a combination of V4P updates and newer NVidia drivers that fixed this. Cinema 4D occassional has these OGL issues as well (not for me, luckily). So, be on the look out for this.

A good example is Daz Studio's preview.. the opengl preview is very close to the final render.. the advantage of that, is it makes setting the scene up more accurate, and you'll have fewer "render/change/re-render/change/rerender, ect. It should save a lot of time.

As long as it supports transparency and two sided rendering in preview moded, I'll be happy.

Just wondering if Poser6's implementation of OpenGL for screen preview also includes the option to output to AVI... this is apparently possible, generally speaking, and I could imagine that it would be of interest to animators... :-)))

yea TH, it is great idea and I think you can well render animation in preview mode as we can do now, I see still the Displaymode..

"A good example is Daz Studio's preview.."

Man, that makes me worry a lot. If that's called a good example and Poser 6 will be like it, then I may pass on Poser 6.... But I'm pretty sure OpenGL in Poser 6 will be better then in D/S, it just has to be. OpenGL in D/S is one huge slowness nightmare for me even with very small scenes. Using OpenGL with Vue on the other hand on seems to be working fine, got no problems with TrueSpace either.

On the hand I'm not jumping up and down when hearing OpenGL is implemented. It's system draining and with larger scenes it can become a nightmare to use. OpenGL doesn't excite me a bit, what excites me though is the turn off OpenGL button :-)

Message edited on: 02/17/2005 07:57

Wow Cath, that is impressive!!!! I don't think people has to worry about OpenGL. It seems Curious Labs is keeping the software previews which means if your hardware doesn't works with their OpenGL implementation it can be shut down and just use software. Plus the Windows 2000 and XP means improved stability for sure.

Meant to say plus the Windows 2000 and XP ONLY means improved stability for sure.

Holy crap! Cath, that's amazing. It looks better than P5 rendered. Maybe Veritas is right, and OpenGL gaming graphics apps will kick Poser to the curb...

And it sinks in...

Yes, properly implemented OpenGL (hardware level texels, shading, lights, clipping, etc.) is far, far superior to any software method. And the OpenGL standard and its hardware support at the OS, HAL, and hardware level is becoming extremely exceptional.

The reason you don't see Cath's level of quality in most generalized 3D apps (modeling, rendering, animation) is that this level isn't very convenient for overall workflow and requires good OpenGL practices and programming skills. On the other hand, there are those implementing sort of OpenGL-based WYSIWYG previews. Cinema 4D has one (reHardware, I think it is called), but it is very limited in OS and hardware support at this stage.

One of these days, OpenGL rendering might be the norm - one can hope.

Message edited on: 02/17/2005 09:54

I'm just guessing, but if they've integrated the shade render system, then they probably also imported the shade opengl architecture. And if that is the case, it's been in development for many many years. >crossed fingers<

If it is on Par with DS's open GL preview, and can save out animations of the GL mode like Previous poser versions, then I will be sorely tempted to sometimes do -real time "rendering" of some background characters/objects in my animation... Very exciting stuff. Been thingng about stuff like that since Unreal Tournament 2004 came out.

If OpenGL is being supported, doesn't it also mean that final rendering will make use of the processing power of the better graphics cards that are available today? It's nice to have more accurate real-time previews, but a fast final render would minimize some of the need for a better preview. On my aging system, a pro P5 render takes anywere from a half hour to an hour to render, so it's very inconvenient to take an iterative approach going back and forth between previews and renders. I'd generally prefer a faster final render than a better preview, though Cath's image does make me lean more towards the preview.

No... with VERY rare exceptions 3d APIs have NOTHING to do with rendering.

Mec4D: Your example looks more like a raybrush type effect, if so this is different to OpenGL?

Deeppaint3D don't use Raybrush mode.

Raybrush mode is used to paint in 3d directly on rendered picture! I say pictures! One bad thing about that is you need to re-render picture each time you changed camera point of view. I think it works the same way as projection, you paint on the model and if you change the camera view the software write down to the layers.. but ok the image I posted above was from DeepPaint3D and in normal OpenGL mode and not projection.
I use the best setting in my NVIDIA for quality, it is slow but show the best quality of view.
The above image was made while I used ATI Radeon 9800 XL Pro
but after I killed my ATI 2 weeks ago I switched to NVIDIA GeForce. :(
BTW Raybrush mode is used in BodyPaint.

Cath

Message edited on: 02/18/2005 03:30

Thank you for the explanation. That is very good then for OpenGL. I built my own machine using a 9700 ATI card and now use a 9800 Pro vesion myself but have never quite got the sort of quality you achieved. Tried the latest drivers and some of my specialist software stopped working! I eventually found out the reason. The Asus mainboard I use has some compatability issues with the way in which OpenGL instructions are dealt with. So maybe not everyone will gain the full benefits from OpenGL. I use BodyPaintR2 quite often and find it to be excellent. Best Wishes

the quality of what you see is not always thanks to OpenGL
think about the textures, seurface, model and light .
I am happy that I can see the {rendered} effect while I work on.. with the new material room in Poser5 I can get close look on but still need more experience.. i can well recover the image above but it is always a pain to change all models in the scene manually..
Open GL in Poser6 give us for sure better view as we have now and that is good!
What I am well interested in are new OpenGL, New light features.. the rest works fine for me.
Best Wishes to you too Cath

Message edited on: 02/18/2005 06:55

According to the CL website they've been working closely with NVidia to get the OpenGL support working so it shouldn't be a problem for people with NVidia cards, anyone with other manufacturers cards probably won't get the best results from it. At least it should be possible to switch it off or switch to software only if it causes problems.

Hmmm Good thing I'm switching back to Nvidia. Nothin at all wrong with my 9800 pro mind you... (well except in Battlefield 1942) but I am thinkin of getting a dual LCD monitor setup, and need a card with dual DVI ports. 6600 GT here I come.

Several reasons that I switched back to Nvidia: 1. Good dual monitor support. 2. Stereoscopic support (none whatsoever for ATI). 3. Stable drivers. ATI seemed to be getting better at driver-stability from what I'd read, but now seems to be back to the "first driver sucks, second driver works a little better, keep waiting" syndrome. Bye ATI, nirvana with nVidia.

I got a cheap nVidia FX5200 because it was the only card I could find that was passive cooled, affordable and supports DX9.