I need to render very large (480 by 9600) images. They need to be done by the top cam as they have to be orthogonal.

The problem is that when I do a render at that image size it ends up be coming a perspective render. The center is fine but the top and bottom are not.

Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you for your time.

The orthogonal cameras (top, front, side) are not good for normal render, they only do preview renders. If you want a normal render, you always have to use the main camera but Vue doesn't offer a method to do purely orthogonal with this camera.

One solution that has been proposed in this forum is to position your camera in a perfectly orthogonal orientation and use a very high focal length (as high as you need until you don't perceive the perspective deformation). This is not perfect and doesn't address all possible cases but I think it's the best that can be done, as far as I know.

I suggest that you do a search in this forum, I might not be remembering other options that were discussed then.

No the top view is suposed to be orthogonal.

Of course it is but you can't render a final render with the camera from that view.

And, of course, you can't define the render size either, with that camera. You're limited to render at the size of the view.

When you render with the top cam it is supposed to be orthogonal. Try it for yourself.

I know this very well.
Your point was that you wanted to render at 480 x 9600. That is not possible with the top camera unless your top view can be set to that size (you'd need to have a pretty big screen for that).
Furthermore, like I said, with the top cam you cannot render final quality render images, all you can do is render previews.

When you do a normal render, you're always rendering the main camera view, that's why you always get a perspective render, like you said.

If this isn't clear yet, I strongly suggest that you read the manual, section about cameras. I don't know how to explain this any better.

I am talking about using the top Cam. NORMAL RENDER, NOT PREVIEW.

It is supposed to be orthogonal. And it is almost always. But for some reason when I render a 480 -9600 image there are problems with it.

Ok, for the last time I'm telling you that you cannot do a normal render with the top camera!!

When you define the render size you are defining the render size for the main camera view only, not for the top camera.

I told you this already several times.

The "Top camera" is just like the "Main camera" but for the fact that it's prepositioned for an overhead view.
It does have a narrower FOV, but it's definitely not an orthogonal camera (as can be seen in the 4-way preview when it's selected).

Some one tell Rutra that I'm not crazy.**
**

Well I don't know what you are trying for and I have never used the top camera, but having read this thread I gave some things a try.
I know orthogonal is something to do with 90 degree angles but apart from that I don't know what you're doing!

For one thing though I am absolutely able to render in "superior" mode or any other setting with the top camera and at a size of my choosing.

Ok, no one here is crazy....

You are talking about two different things. 
Rutra - you are right, but you are referring to the top view WINDOW and whatever "camera" is attached to it. 
Tagavoga, you are right - there is a camera under the main camera called "top", and is accessed like you would any other camera, and renders whatever is in the preview screen.

Rutra, Taga's problem is the distortion that particular camera causes.

Taga - try the workaround that was suggested.  Here's another one, take the normal main camera (or create a new one), go to the aspects tab (measurements one), and rotate that sucker all around until you get the view you want.  I've found this is the only way around the distortion setting the render to "Photo- Vertical" causes - I set it to "photo" and turn the camera 90deg on its side.  Of course, then I'm stuck with my head sideways trying to see what I'm doing, but its worth it in the end.  Try something similar with rotating your camera around, and increase your focal length - as suggested.  Good luck to you =D

Rutra... calm.... you'll blow a gasket =D

Unless I'm misunderstanding, what's being asked about is how to do a large render in the Top view.

The problem is that you can't use the orthogonal cameras from the Top, Front and Side views for anything but rendering at the size of the relevant part of the 4-way split view.

If you maximise the Top view, when you render it switches back to to the 4-way split, so the best you can do is to drag the splitters to make the Top view bit almost as big as the whole preview area.

Perhaps some picture would help... Part of the confusion may be that 'top' and 'orthographic' do not mean the same thing. 'Top' just defines the direction you are looking at your scene. 'Orthographic' means there is no perspective involved. In addition, there is a difference between 'top view' and 'top camera view'.  'Top view' is an orthographic view, no perpective. This is what you see in the top left viewport. If you look at the cubes, you only see the front face and none of the side faces of any of the cubes. 'Top camera view' is what you see when you activated the top camera in the main viewport (lower right). the top camera here uses is a perspective view and cannot be made orthographic(in vue). the central cube stil looks OK -no side faces visible- but the left and right cubes  one of the side faces shows.  As was said above, this could be remedied to a degree by changing the focal length. In my top image the focal length is 35mm and in the bottom it is 200m. The bottom image is much more similar to an orthographic view, but still not perfect. So, the problem in vue is that you can get an orthographic view in the 'top view' viewport, you can set the quality higher,  but this cannot be made bigger for the render- the size of the viewport is it. You can use the top camera in the main viewport and set the render size as big as you want, but you cannot get a true orthographic view. Would be nice if e-on added the ability to render any size of any view...

 LOL
I had a good chuckle reading this one...reminded me of Abbot and Costello's Who's on First?
www.youtube.com/watch

What I do is point the main camera down and use a very narrow field of view for it.  Of course the camera has to placed very high so that you can see your subject.  Google maps uses the same trick with their orbiting cameras.

ohhh, good one, Shawn... was wondering how google maps did that... lol.

An orthogonal perspective is merely one in which the vanishing lines of the perspective remain parallel to each other and do not converge at the horizon. As pointed out by others on this post
Tagavoga need to use the main camera, set very high up and directly overhead of his scene, and set to a high focal length (200-300 should do).