Ok thanks for all the great info on how to keep my render from stopping..i am currently rendering and it looks like it may take a long while....my question is can i save my file and turn off my computer and then resume the render where it left off or will it start over again? If I can do I just save as br file and then can resume render? thanks again Timmylynn

If you're not rendering to disk you can pause, save, restart, anything except change something, then you have to start over. Just hit the little button directly right of the big render button to start where you left off.

You can save a partially completed render with a scene if you go to the edit menu (not the edit palette), click preferences, and make sure "Image with scene open/save" is checked. Then just click resume render next time you open the scene, it'll even work with partially completed plop renders (although you may not be able to see the box anymore).

Typical solution is to do final renders overnight. If its still rendering in the morning, then maybe it'll be done after work. After dinner at the latest. Stop the render and saveas, check the bryce forum and galleries. Start it back up before you head to bed.

Just make sure you click the small render button to continue the render. If you click the big one in the middle it starts all over.

It's always a good idea to save often, with at least 2 files. More is just a waste of disk space. Less is risking losing all your hard work.

ok you guys my render is still going...it looks great but is taking so long...is it normal for a glass/mirror piece with lots of reflections and volume lighting to take a while.......its only 23 percent done......yikes.....is bryce ok with hyper threading?

Message edited on: 02/25/2005 23:18 and it may be a matter of my doc size 1600 x 1200......could that be it?

Message edited on: 02/25/2005 23:19

Yeah, you've picked out some of the major things that lead to looong renders, lol. The render will be long if:

the materials are complex
the rays bounce a lot (with reflections and through glass and other transparencies)
there are volumes (lights, volumetric materials, or volumetric world)
imported models have a lot of polygons
there are any special effects like soft shadows, blurred reflections, etc, or you have a higher amount of AA
the render is large
you run out of ram

basically, anything that requires your CPU to do extra calculations is going to take a while ;/

Message edited on: 02/25/2005 23:36

run out of ram.....that doesn't sound good...does that mean it won't finish? now its 24 percent done......

I'm confused about what you guys are seem to be saying about ram. I only ran low on it when I was saving, not rendering. When I was rendering the 4000x3000 Atomic Theory Bryce was using around 85 kb of ram and 25 kb of virtual memory with about 200 mb ram free. Saving it was a completely different animal.

im confused too.....so that makes two of us.....LOL...anyway my render is progressing.....it kept going throught the night and is now at 50 percent.....but it seems to stop processing if i hit alt m and start working on something else......is that what it does...i would like for it to continue while i check out shade or something....or is that due to the ram???????

If you run out of ram it has to swap back and forth using the hard drive and the ram, which can be very slow. You probably haven't encountered this problem, it only occurs with very large files. Working on something else will slow the render down, too, since Bryce is automatically set on low priority then and the processor is used instead for whatever else you're working on.

I've never been able to switch programs with alt+tab, I usually just minimize it.

that's what i said alt m......which is minimize and i have left it there today and its moving right along with me doing other things....thanks for input all....