Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL

Subject: does the opengl render is better (or changes) with a better nvidia video card ?

Michael_REMY opened this issue on Mar 27, 2011 · 13 posts

seachnasaigh posted Sun, 27 March 2011 at 6:03 AM

I think the opening post is asking whether a preview is better, i.e., closer to a final Firefly render.  A video card with good OpenGL characteristics will give a better preview than an old mediocre video card.  Nowadays, even low-mid range gaming cards (GeForce series) will do well;  any late model Quadro will do well.  I would only spend the money on a Quadro if you also have other programs which will make good use of it;  Vue previews would benefit, for example.  The Quadro is a professional workstation video card.

I have a laptop (Pixie, 64bit Vista, with P8 andPP2010installed) with an nVidia Quadro 3600M which gives me properly tiled previews and which correctly displays scaled procedurals, so I would think any Quadro newer than that will be at least as good.  Galadriel and Cameron are 64bit workstations;  each has an nVidia Quadro FX5800.

You may need to go to the render settings, and under the preview tab, look for a tiny green message which says "hardware shading supported".  If it says that, then set the preview render settings to Use OpenGL and hardware shading.

  Below are the preview render settings for a 32bit WinXP machine (TinkerBell) equipped with two GeForce 8800GTs, and for a 64bit Vista machine (Galadriel) equipped with a Quadro FX5800.

Preview render settings, 32bit WinXP, dual GeForce 8800GTs

preview render settings, 64bit Vista, Quadro FX5800

Here is a comparison of previews.  On the left is the preview without hardware shading enabled.  The dual GeForce 8800GTs are capable of it, but I had not yet figured out that I needed to manually engage it.  On the right is the preview with hardware shading.  Once I set the preview on the 8800GTs, they gave the same appearance as the Quadro.  Notice that with hardware shading (right side), the tiled materials are tiled in preview, and that the mottled grey procedural stone is shown -with proper scaling- in preview.

SreeD versus OpenGL

Here are two more previews.  The first is SreeD without hardware shading, the second is OpenGL with hardware shading.

SreeD, without hardware shading

OpenGL, with hardware shading

Notice the tiling of the roof shingles, the exterior wall boards, interior floor, etc.

Poser 12, in feet.  

OSes:  Win7Prox64, Win7Ultx64

Silo Pro 2.5.6 64bit, Vue Infinite 2014.7, Genetica 4.0 Studio, UV Mapper Pro, UV Layout Pro, PhotoImpact X3, GIF Animator 5