Hello,

I have a scene with Jessi (LightEdge_Bob hair) with the hires texture map, James (as he comes standard) and Victoria 3 (Casual hair) with the !MAT V3 MapsHi (!V3MakeUpHi). When in Poser 6 (version v6.0.1.75 with SP1 installed) I start rendering using 'Final' (as indicated by dragging the vertical bar across the settings) all I'm getting is after rendering the shadow maps is ... nothing. Poser just sits there using processor time for over a half an hour (Pentium 4 @ 3.00GHz with 2GB RAM) and nothing happens (after 1/2 hour I've aborted the application because got bored of waiting...).

So my questions is, what is the practical limitation on the number of figures/texture size etc. that beyond Poser is unable to render in reasonable time?

Thanks!

Message edited on: 11/10/2005 21:37

The problem is not in the number of figures, I've rendered 8 Victoria 3 figures with 8 different skin textures and 8 different hairstyles in Poser 6 SR1. The problem lies in the render settings. I'd advise not using the presets, but using manual settings. Usually the following settings work fine: Raytracing: only enable it when using ambient occlusion, raytracedshadows, SSS, reflection and/or refraction. Raytrace bounces: 1 for most of the above settings, 2-4 for reflection/refraction Minimum shading rate: 0.2-2.0, dependingg on the required render quality (lower means better quality at the cost of longer render times). Most transmapped hair renders reasonable at shading rate 0.5, some hair (SapphireFox for instance) needs lower shading rates. Pixel samples: usually 3. Higher for a more antialiased (but also more blurred) look. Maximum texture size: no more than the largest dimension of the render. I often use 1024 Texture filtering: off. Use displacement maps: usually on. Smooth polygons: usually on. The maximum number I got in 1 poser render is 10 human figures, one high-poly ship, a high-poly environment (DNA Macrocosm), reflecting/refracting water, several treess and a background building. Rendered in about 4 hours. The maximum render time I had on a single Poser scene was 57 hours, but I went a little overboard on the options. Only one V3 figure with hires dynamic hair, a simple background prop, AO, SSS, volumetric point light. Oh, one other tip: if using dynamic hair, disable the "Visible in raytracing" option on the hair props. You'll loose ambient occlusion and raytraced shadows, but you'll easily shave hours off the render times.

Those are great tips. A related question is: What are the best memory setting to use in the poser 6 default preference settings?

svdl, Thank you for the tips, I'll try them soon!

Most of the time, switching off texture filtering solves the problem. I cannot understand why e-frontier cannot solve the texture filtering prob - it's pretty basic and has happened since P6 came out; it has not been addressed in either SR.

With all due respect, I'm not sure I buy that you could have up to 8 characters, unless the textures are low-res. I'm not saying you didn't do it, but I can't get Poser to do more than 2 or 3 with high res textures even at 1024 or lower settings. Transmapped hair generates a lot of memory too, as do some props or characters. And I have a fast machine (2.5 Ghz Athlon XP, 2G ram @ PC3200). Poser 6 only lets you set the max memory usage in the preference settings to 1G. If you go higher, it thinks you have NEGATIVE memory, and nothing will render. Sorry, but I'm so frustrated with Firefly. I think the should get rid of it in the release.

I definitely did it, 8 different V3s with hair, in one render. At the lowest quality settings, agreed, without shadows. All characters were wearing textures by Neomea - no low-res in there. All hair models were different - Kozaburo, 3Dream, Danae. No background image or props. Athlon64 3500+, 4GB DDR400 Dual Channel.

Kewl! Sorry if I sounded snitty. :-( I just gotta get used to compositing.

Well, I rechecked and Poser 6 SR2 seems to handle a memory size of 1538 OK. 2048 fails and goes negative, so maybe it has to be slightly less than physical memory.

Where is the memory size field in poser?

For Poser 6 Under the main menu its Edit->General Preferences Then click the last tab labeled Misc At bottom right under Render Memory is an input for Memory limit buffer The values are in Megabyte according to the Poser 6 manual. PLEASE NOTE: I tried this again and apparently I was right the first time, 1024 (1G Byte) is the limit.

Hmm. Have to experiment with that limit setting. The 8 V3 image was rendered at the default setting of 32 MB....

Is the setting in MB? When I use 1024 I get rendering errors about reducing memory. (I have 2GB system memory) I have used 32/64 and 120 sucessfully. Does that mean I am only using 120 MG of my memory for poser renders?

With my Poser 4.0.3 I have sometimes had 30 to 40 characters on stage, but most of the characters were posable kit items and not people.