I know it's classical subject, but not so easy to threat. Now my computer is fine, I tried to render a very simple image with two different rendering mode to see if it is possible to save time without loosing quality. This one is in ultra mode 800x600 , 2h50 rendering time. Then saved in .jpg with 5% compression.

The same in final 3200x2400 rendered to disc (1h rendering time), then reduced (bilinear) to 800x600, then saved .jpg with 5% compression. It seems nearly the same, but you can see that the shadows are somewhat grainy below the metal sphere. Should mention that it was done in Vue2.1. Conclusion : you can save time, using this tip, but you can loose quality if some options are used (soft lights for example). What's your opinion ?

MMMMHHH ! difficult to see the differences on shadows ! There are more differences in blured reflections, and in the sky !!! Yves

Very interesting test and thank you for doing them.

I have to say I like the ultra one better. The blurring of the reflections is very noticable.

The big time bonus seem to stem from the lack superior anti-aliasing. The large size shrunk down helps a great deal in the anti-aliasing, but not nearly enough it seems.

I would think a user defined setting of an aliasing better than final mode, but less than ultra, combined with the large res will result in a quicker render with best quality. But I would imagine that is a huge chore finding just the right level. Plus it depends on your subject matter on what you are doing.

So we can tweak tweak tweak, or just pick one or the other. Very interesting test though. Thanks again! :)

I'll maybe go for this test with Vue4, cause, as it was said, the rendering engine of this version was re-writen... Stay tuned for more infos... :-)

NightVoice : I agree it's a very difficult task to adapt the settings to save time in a general way. So, maybe we should test different types of pictures (for instance pictures with no reflections (blured or not), no transmitted light, ...). An hard work, maybe again to obtain not general results :=) > Bop : interesting. I have not mentioned that reflection was blured in the material of the ground. Seems to have an important effect :=). I keep tuned. Yves

More simple cause no reflection for the ground.

Then reduced to 800x600 . Even shadows are more grainy in final rendering.

My conclusion is that you can save some time, but in any case, you will have a lesser quality in shadows and reflections (if the light are soften, reflections are blured, what is better). An other thing to know is that if the picture has no reflection, you will not save a lot of time (even if the image has transmitted light materials) as shown by the table. An other strange thing is that the sky is always better in ultra mode. So for me, ultra (or user settings) is better in all cases.