seachnasaigh posted at 10:31PM Fri, 17 January 2020 - #4377002

If you use branched path tracing, the render will clear at a lower -often much lower- overall pixel sample number as compared to a rigid (non-BPT) number of pixel samples. BPT adds more rays/samples only where it is needed. E.g., the crystal goblet would get extra attention, while the paneled wall and tiled floor just get the set number of pixel samples.

Ok, that makes sense. So to use BPT I'd have to lower my general pixel samples, then use the BPT settings to multiply those samples per specific thing?

You mentioned your promo size was 1500x1500 and bucket size is 126. For Firefly, buckets are most time/memory efficient if you use an integer power of 2 (i.e., 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256...). I don't know if Superfly has any such preference.

I'm a dumb and got my 128 and my 256 mixed. Sounds have been using 128 LMAO!

For either render engine, you waste render time if you use a bucket size which is not a factor of both the horizontal and the vertical pixel dimension of the render. So for example, for a 1500x1500 pixel Superfly (CPU) render, I would use a bucket of 15, 25, 30, or 50.

1200x1200 is the bare minimum for store promo pictures and I don't like living so dangerously ? that's why I use 1500x1500.

For Firefly, I'd set the render dimensions to 1600x1600 pixels with a 32-pixel bucket, or maybe 1200x1200 (the forum seems to reduce anything larger anyway) with a 16-pixel bucket.

Small buckets take very much longer to render for me. I was going 16 for a while and starting a simple render in the morning and having to leave it all the way overnight before I cranked that up.

I'd reset the number of render threads (in general preferences) to 8 for a H/T quad-core processor; you can still do other work while rendering. If the occasional response delay bothers you, you could lower Poser's (FFRender64) priority.

As I said above, everything freezes when I go over 5 threads, sadly.

What are the chances of a postal packet with a few processors inside getting past Brazil's customs without huge taxes? Could you afford to scrounge up an (obsolete) motherboard with two 1366 sockets? I have HyperThreaded hex-core Xeons on my parts shelf.

Customs here are very highly priced (60% over the value+shipping to get into the country, then an extra 18% of the value+shipping+national custom tax to get into my state), but they don't tax every box because they lack manpower. It's usually a matter of luck and if the box seems valuable for resale (I'm not even joking, they'll tax things that are easy to sell in hopes that you'll give up on your package, and then the high-ranking customs workers will take your stuff for their imports stores. It's a huge under-the-hood thing they haven't been able to dismantle for years). I'd love to try, but right now I can't afford even second hand ?

Those are Westmere series Xeons, no longer in production. Any model number beginning with E (E5639, e.g.) is tuned for economy. Westmere Xeon processors beginning with L (L5520, e.g.) are a compromise between economy and performance. Westmere Xeons labeled X (X5650, e.g.) are tuned for performance.

Sounds like going for the X series here would be at a good time, now that we're getting solar power installed so my power bills will decrease greatly.

X5650, X5660, X5670, and X5675 will run on motherboards with 1366 sockets rated for 95 Watts; the X5680 and X5690 require 1366 sockets rated for 130 Watts. The bare motherboard pictured in my earlier post is a SuperMicro X8D... model; ATX size, the dual 1366 CPU sockets are rated for the 130W Xeons. Letters/numbers after "X8D" indicate various combinations of RAM slots and expansion card (PCIe, etc.) slots.

Perhaps one day... ? Thank you for all the info, in any case!

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Feel free to call me Ohki!

Poser Pro 11, Poser 12 and Poser 13, Windows 10, Superfly junkie. My units are milimeters.

Persephone (the computer): AMD Ryzen 9 5900x, RTX 3070 GPU, 96gb ram.