Does setting the render dimension improve anything such as the quality in pixels and how well or good an image will turn out? For instance if I choose Render to Exact Resolution, what does this do? Does it make the image quality better to have resolutions set really high? Or does it not really matter? I'd like to know because I only recently started using the Render to Exact Resolution feature. Otherwise I just leave it at default and never bother with it.

Render to exact resolution allows you to render big size pictures but beware of the render times.

You can render bigger than you need to and shrink fit down to increase resolution if you need. The most important thing is your lighting & render settings, imho. But yeah exact resolution is the size you want. I gives you more freedom and various sizes to have larger scenes like landscapes. As you set up your scene in an exact size render, the areas not seen in the output will be dulled out. I prefer exact resolution renders because I can control the image size.

The idea is to allow you make a large render when your UI has only a modestly sized document (preview) window. For example, you're working on a laptop, and only have UI space for a 1024x640 document window, but you want to render at 1920x1200 pixels.

On a related note, how big is too big for a finished image nowadays? I ask because I have a 4k monitor and many renders which seemed acceptable sizes a few years back, such as 1024 x 768, or even 1600 x 1200 now look tiny on here. When rendering for myself, I rarely go below 2400 x 1350 for a final pic. If I'm comping or doing other postwork, 4096 x 4096 and upwards is how I go.

3DFineries posted at 11:37PM Tue, 19 July 2016 - #4276372

You can render bigger than you need to and shrink fit down to increase resolution if you need. The most important thing is your lighting & render settings, imho. But yeah exact resolution is the size you want. I gives you more freedom and various sizes to have larger scenes like landscapes. As you set up your scene in an exact size render, the areas not seen in the output will be dulled out. I prefer exact resolution renders because I can control the image size.

You said dulled out? So that's why some of my scenes might look a little..Reduced in quality. Thanks for telling me this.

Jules53757 posted at 11:39PM Tue, 19 July 2016 - #4276363

Render to exact resolution allows you to render big size pictures but beware of the render times.

Yes I did notice a major slow down when I messed with this.

to make a long story short just set the pixels as large as you can 8000x8000 or 4000x4000.

you can make smaller in photoshop.

don't forget in 1996 a big render was 1000x1000,there small in 2016.

Thanks for the reminder, I forgot how to do that.

|:)

RorrKonn posted at 4:16PM Sat, 20 August 2016 - #4276459

to make a long story short just set the pixels as large as you can 8000x8000 or 4000x4000.

you can make smaller in photoshop.

don't forget in 1996 a big render was 1000x1000,there small in 2016.

It would take far too long to render in those sizes, and I do a lot of comics now. Which means I don't want one scene taking 1 or 2 days to finish when I have various pages to render afterwards. May be one of those things I can try on a better machine with more memory.

there is a reason to go bigger with renders even though you may need to scale it back afterward in Photoshop. You get clearer, sharper renders compared to rendering with higher render settings but smaller render size. OTOH many people view this stuff on their smart phone so does it really matter?

Render to Exact Resolution is how I get my Poser-made desktop backgrounds.

ghostship2 posted at 1:49AM Mon, 22 August 2016 - #4280583

there is a reason to go bigger with renders even though you may need to scale it back afterward in Photoshop. You get clearer, sharper renders compared to rendering with higher render settings but smaller render size. OTOH many people view this stuff on their smart phone so does it really matter?

This. 100%