Quesition #2 is a two part question and please refer to the two images in this thread as visual examples of the settings I am speaking of....

Image #1 is a question about Crease Angles. The reason I am asking is that my Hairs (*and a few other items Mostly Hair, and some Architechture, but that could be the construction) are comming out more "ragged" and angular, also broken up looking (*or say the strand is like pixelated?! Like poke thru w/o the poke thru!). So is this setting where it should be for a smoother render? I already have smooth polygons and gaussian on 2 set. So I am looking for a reason for some of the renders do this "breaking up" thing. I am rendering in Firefly and there is no Anti-Alias setting that I can find, and that was what first occurred to me.

Image #2 is general setting question. Is this my optimum choice of setting to use with Larger DPI and Size renders??? Should the Memory Buffer be set higher? How about the Adaption Threshold?

ThanX to You for helping. Now that I am getting better at P6/P7 I want to be even better. I am starting to experiment with IBL and Ambient Occlusion...but that would be another post! :)
regards,
Ariana**

Oh! Sorry there is a fourth question that refers to Image #3!
How about the setting for minimum displacement bounds??? I that setting of 0.000 a good setting?
ThanX!
Ariana

Well, answering question 1... changing your dpi from 300 to 500 on a 3000x3000 image would give you a 6 inch square image, not a fifteen. The way to calulate this is to divide your pixel dimension by the dpi to get your print dimension. Thus, is you want a 3000x3000 pixel image to print at 15 inches square, then you need a dpi of 200.

As to the others... not done enough tinkering with the setting myself to come up with a definitive set of 'killer' settings, so can't help you there... :)

jonthecelt

I usually do my dpi settings dependant on what the finished image is to be used for, for example:

Publisher says I need it 9" X 6" for printing so I set my render dimensions for that size and then adjust the dpi for printing [usually 300]
Doing it that way means I don't make mistakes with calculations and jonthecelt is right with what he says on it!

Crease angle I have never changed from whatever default is so can't help with that.
If you have hair issues you could try using texure filtering!

Post filter I have set on "box" as that gives a nice average [IMO], others will tell you different!

For Minimum displacement bounds, refer to the manual page 354, that explains it much better than I could!

**Wonderful! Nice to "see" speak to you again Gwynn! jonthecelt....ThanX for your help and input too!!! I wonder why my print company told me that 3000x300x300DPI is 10 inches? Well I will try doing it the way you suggest.

I need to be rendering a 11x17 inch images that will expand to 30x36 inches if need be for Poster work and also the 10 inch format for shirts. Is there a dimension chart for conversion available? I really suk at math! LOL! I used to render at 4800 x 3600 at 1500 DPI...I got great detailing out of this size, but was told it was wrong. So....

As far as using Texture filtering...it buggers up my poser every time! Should I turn the Ray tracing off or Down? Suggestions there?   I have gotten some awesome renders of late...except when I changed my setting down, and may have changed the texture filtering for another reason.

Gwynn I know what you mean about changing for the situation, isn't it funny...the more that you learn, the more there is to know! LOL! Have you seen my latest render? You should peek at my gallery...I think you would like it! :)

OK, any and all suggestions are still welcome!!!

PPS....Gwynn is the page in the manual the Poser6 reference manual (in my box) or the Poser6 revealed I got at the store?
ThanX!
HuggerZ!!!
:)
Ariana* 

Oops, sorry that was the page from the P7 manual but there's not much difference in them so it's there or there abouts [LOL], Oh! Poser manual [in the box]

As for ray tracing I have mine set at 3 bounces which I find sufficient for most things, the max I've used is 5 and that didn't make much difference as I recall!

As for bucket size, Yes I have the "adaptive bucket size" ticked but again use the default settings for the rest [lazy!] and I always start with 32, no more!

Quote - Hello Forum :)
OK, Question #1
If I am working in P6, and I am rendering at 3,000 X 3,000 @ 300DPI, and this creates a 10inch print work image. Does increasing my DPI to say 500, create an image capable of printing at 15 inches? and so on?

It isn't "DPI", it's actually "PPI", pixels per inch.

If you want a 15 inch x 15 inch print with a resolution of 500 PPI, you would have to be working with an image that was 7500 x 7500 pixels.

Quote - **

I need to be rendering a 11x17 inch images **

To print an 11 inch x 17 inch document at a resolution of 72 PPI your image would have to be 792 x 1124 pixels.

If you change the resolution to 300 PPI your image size needs to increase to 3300 x 5100 pixels.

If you increase the resolution to 500 PPI, your image size needs to be 5500 x 8500 pixels.

Here are some links to help you understand PPI and image resolution:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/photoshop/l/bllps502c.htm

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/resolution/a/realproblem.htm

ThanX Acadia for the links and advice! I left you a post on your Dell BTW! :)
E-Mail me!!!
ThanX Gwynn....I have P7 too in the Box, but I have been swamped this holiday and haven't loaded it yet. I'll check it out.
HuggerZ!
Ariana

*OK, now I am really confused....Thee articles are refferencing Photo Shop settings. Well poser uses DPI, not PPI! So this only makes it more complicated. And why if this is the case do my renders print so well? sigh....I am even more confused.
Ariana

Poser uses the term DPI erroneously. DPI stands for dots per inch, which is a means of reckoning printer resolution. Until you actually begin printing, however, all your images are in PPi, or pixels per inch. A standarad screen resolution is 72PPI (so a 72x72 pixel image should take up about 1 inch square of your screen).

That said, the actual term used doesnt' matter, aside from technical corectness. Poser is measuring the same thing as those pages Acadia offered you for Photoshop.

Hope this helps.

Jonthecelt

I dunno if there is any printer available to consumers which will show any difference between prints at 300 dpi and those at 600 dpi or higher. it has to do with the way the ink colours are laid down, and the way they spread (or don't spread).

PPI = pixels per inch DPI = dots per inch Pixels and dots are the same exact thing, only referred to different devices :) Pixels are for monitors, dots are for printers, both are the smallest amount of information you can obtain from the device. In reality, you can refer pixels as dots, as this is what they really are....dots ;) As a convention (or better, approximation), a monitor displays 72 pixels for every inch, providing you are using the "classical" resolutions: 800600 for 15", 1024768 for 17", 1600*1200 for 19" and so on. Obviously, a printer can put a greater amount of colored points in every inch, up to 1440 and over, hence the little confusion: when you set your DPI (or PPI, same thing) in conjunction with the image size in inches, you are really adjusting the image as it will be printed, not shown on your monitor, ok? EDIT: Damn, too much time rereading my post, beat me!!!!

*ThanX Ms Nancy and especially luscstef! Maybe I forgot to mention this is going to print with a professional print shop. It is just embarrassing after reading this thread that I may not have the right quality to do my pro prints (I can't stand looking stupid to a pro printerby saying I don't even obviously know the basic concepts).  :(   When I print at the Kinko's laserjet printer at 11X17 inches, my prints are clean, sharp detail and brilliant colors. So it seemed that I was doing something right. Just when you begin to think...you find out what a dumchit you really are. **Is there anyway to save the pics rendered at the above mentioned settings? Or are they worthless to take to them? I was under the impression higher DPI was resulting in a denser, sharper image. Or so I was led to believe.
Ariana  **

It's true that higher dpi's result in a denser concetration of ink used by the printer, which can lead to more detailed work. A lot of it depends on the complexity of the design you're wnating to print, and how finely detailed it is. As we said earlier, 72ppi/dpi is fine for an image you're going to use for screenwork... but for print, you're obviously going to want something more. I tend to use 300-600 dpi on my home printer, because for an A4 sheet, on the apers I use, that's probably about as god as it's going to get. For a hih quality laser print job on a large sized poster, however, you might e best giving them a call and asking them what the best format is for you to use. You won't look stupid or naive - the fact you know what to ask shows you have some knowledge of the thing. But it saves you going in with an image saved at 15,000dpi (for example) ony to find out that 1500 would have been more than enough.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the more pixels per inch you have, the more data you're packing into that image - and so your image files can get pretty hairy. This is why when I'm working on my theatre company's publicity, I always save two versions of the image - one for print (either by myself or a pro printer's) at a higher resolution,  and one for emails, web, and so on squished down to 72dpi.

Jonthecelt

Ill try and answer some of those none DPI questions to the best of my knowledge.

Crease Angle :

This is used when you have smoothing turned on under the figure/props settings.

the angle amount (default is 80) is the amount of degrees difference between 2 polygons before poser will render a sharp edge between two smoothed areas.

a good example in a corner of a wall. the angle is 90 degrees, so poser will create a "crease" at the corner o that the edge looks sharp, and not rounded.

what alot of people dont know is that if you turn off smoothing in the figure/object properties, poser will use the smoothing groups assigned by the model to decide what to smooth, and where to place creases. this is by far the most ideal choice in 90% of situations, as most modellers add smoothing groups as there modelling.

the smoothing option I am referring to is in no way similar to the smoothing option in the render settings window. which is actually a sub-devision option.

a handy thing to note. should you turn on mesh smoothing in the render settings window, it will smooth out curved surfaces BETWEEN creases. the actual crease itself is not sub-devided, which can make for some wierd looks!  also, too low a resolution models can have issues when this option is turned on because they look like they bulg or bloat, as the sub-deviding system tries to create a smooth curve with only a few polygons as a surface guide.

ok, got a little carried away there.

Minimum Displacement Bounds:

as far as I can remember, this setting simply tells the rendere to ignore displacement mapping that is less that the number specified. this is handy in scenes that you need to have displacement mapping running, but the scene is creating a heavy load already. at a setting of .01 any displacement that is 0.01 and below will be ignored. this also means that if you plug a bump map into the displacement channel, and set it to 0.02 displacement, the actualy rendered displacement will be from 0.02 down to 0.0. Poser would ignore any part of the bump map that drops the displacement to below 0.01.

hope this helps/makes sense

Firstly, monitors do not display at 72 ppi. They display in width by height, e.g 1024 x 768. An image at 72 ppi or 300 ppi takes up the same amount of screen space.
Also, changing only the ppi of an image with an image editor does not alter the file size. There is no physical difference between an image saved at 72 or 300 ppi. They will take up the same amount of disc space.
The only hardware that cares about the ppi is the printer. For screen display, it's irrelevant.

To get more details from your hair textures decrease the setting for "minimum shading rate" to 
a value between 0.2 and 0.5.
This will increase render times but give much more detailed render.
At the same time you should uncheck "visible in raytracing" for the hair.
That will keep the render times from going thru the roof :)

Another thing you may consider is increasing the "max texture size" to 2048 or even 4096.

people render final images with a texture size below max? wow.

I dont even do quick renders with a lowered texture size LOL, and my computer isnt uber!

shading rate will decrease the quality of textures more than decreasing the texture quality size.

and decrease render times.  dropping texture res isnt as effective as most people think, the memory savings arent as big as they should be due to poser resizing on-the-fly. if you really like lower res versions of certain textures, you'll see a better memory saving by resizing these yourself.

**WOW! ThanX everyone! I really needed the poser info, it will help a lot! As far as the printer info, I did call....it seems that my settings are great. But I like the idea ofd a low res 2nd to keep for other purposes. 

templargfx....I try to render as high as possible in both size and textures. I wish that you would IM me and we could maybe go over details about settings??? I would be eternally grateful. I need to set high, not for quick renders but for detail and quality, plus size.

ThanX everyone! I am still taking info down so anyone please add as much as possible!!!

HuggerZ!
Ariana**

one thing people never do is setup per object shading rates, this will make or break complex renders.

basically, every object has a shading rate. I think the default is 0.10 or something like that. anyway...

if you have an object with a high res texture, 0.2-0.5 will show it without any loss. if you have an object with extremely detailed shaders 0.1-0.2 will do them, but I go 0.05 for V4 and my skin shader.

objects that are basic colors, or have relatively low resolution textures on them can be upped to 1 or higher without them rendering any different.

my render setting for a final render are as follows :

Min Shading Rate - 0.0
Raytracing ON
Shadows ON
Max Reflections - 8
Max Tex Size 4096
Pixel Samples 7
Sync post on 1
Smoothing ON
Depth Of Field ON (I always use DOF)

oh, dont ever set an object with a material with complex shaders to a min shading rate of 0.0. although poser isnt guarenteed to crash, it will seem like it, as it will take an eternity to render the image.

Sure thing Ariana

templargfx...where is smoother located? Is that smooth poly's your speaking of?
Ariana

the few times I've called kinko's, they've told me to set it at 300 dpi. hence it's likely a 300 dpi poster (18X24 inches) done at kinko's will be nearly as good to the untrained eye as a 3000 dpi poster, but it will be 100 times faster to transmit, load and print. they use hp printers AFAIK - available to the consumer.

The Smoothing option is available in two areas.

The one on the render settings turns it on or off globally at render time.

the other is available on each object.

select an prop or body part and do CTRL-I. on one of the tabs (far right one) there is a smoothing options settings, and a crease angle and shading rate listed there.

Arianna: You might also want to consider another option when rendering big complex images, especially if there are lots of complex shadows.
Do the render in 2 passes, one without shadows and one "shadows only" and save both as PNG's.
You can take both into Photoshop and put them together in there, also doing it this way makes adjusting the shadows easier if you made a mistake on them or you want them darker or lighter. For instance you can erase some unwanted bits of shadow without affecting the main image and without having to re-render the whole image if you spot a shadow error.
Yes it means 2 passes but sometimes [where poser is concerned] it can mean the difference between getting the image done or not!