Hmmm. So it precisely renders only the part you can see? I would bring this up with SM - maybe one of the support people has encountered this before. It sure sounds wrong.

Regarding the required pixels per inch, the notion of 300 PPI as a goal is only for something you hold in your hand and are looking at closely, within 20 inches from your eyes, such as a magazine. Really, though 300 is overkill even in that situation. 200 is plenty.

A poster on the wall is typically observed from no closer than 4 feet, and 100 PPI is plenty for that situation. I have several 36 inch photos I printed using 8 MP images (vacation photos from a pocket camera) and they look great. For most of them, where they hang, it isn't possible to get closer unless I move furniture out of the way. So something around 3600 by 2400 is a good number for a 36 inch print. Of course if you go nose-to-paper, you'll be able to tell that 5000 is better. I'm not saying "Do Not Render 5000+ or you are frowned upon", and certainly if you have a paying customer, the customer is always right. But killing yourself for days trying to crank out a 20 or 30 MP render with software that doesn't seem to like to do that is counter productive, for me at least.

I do have one very large print of the Eiffel tower in my upstairs hallway, and I wish I had used my high-res DSLR for that one, but people still marvel over it anyway.

 

 

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)