I don't make content, except a few things on 3D Studio or Hexagon for my own use. But I understand from what you say that if I ever decide to do so, it will be difficult with a Mac. I've never wanted to change for a Mac before but, having recently lost my hard drive with all my downloaded files and work, and considering that I have to start all over again, I was dreaming of a reliable machine, not using Windows. And from what I hear from Mac Users, the Mac IS that machine.

Thank you everybody for your help. I've had all the answers I expected, and even more.

Quote - Also take into consideration other aspects of your scene such as cameras and lights.  By default, they are checked as visible and are very much included in the render process although you don't physically see them according to the manual.  Systematically shut those down before render.  Again, any object/element switched to invisible will not be under render consideration.  

For distant models/props try using Normal Maps for details; this process is used successfully for lores backgrounds in games without significantly increasing the memory overhead.

I've just tried what you said. I don't know what version of Poser you are running, but on PoserPro 2012 it doesn't seem to be possible to make lights invisible. When you uncheck the box "visible", it automatically commes back to visible. As for the cameras, they are invisible by default.

Quote - > Quote - I'm pretty sure you don't need a 4096x4096 pixel head texture for a 1200 pixel render, for example, even if it is a close-up. The texture resolution doesn't need to exceed the size as it will appear in the render.

Just remember  the texture is covering a 3D object. Let's say you carefully calculate that the character's head you are going to render, which is the focus of the scene, will only be 1500 pixels wide in the render. The image is a sort of 3/4 profile standard "looking off into the distance" portrait shot. How wide does your texture have to be, at minimum, before it starts looking bad?

More than 1500 pixels wide. If you're just resizing the texture, note that the 1500 pixels you're seeing on the screen isn't the entire texture, it's part of the texture, the part covering that section of the 3D object that's visible to the camera. Consider Victoria 3, or other characters where a single map covers the entire head: the texture wraps completely around the head, including the parts that aren't visible in the camera. If you reduced the texture size to 1500 pixels wide, you aren't getting a 1:1 correspondance between texture size and what's in the render, and you'll start seeing artefacts.

That's what I had suspected too but I wasn't sure. Thank you for the confirmation. Of course, there's no need for a high resolution texture for characters in the background. I usually use reduced resolution.

Quote - "I thought of doing that many times but isn't it a problem for shadows ? How will shadow of the latest characters behave on the background ? I suppose it's OK for distant scenes but may be not for close characters?"

Import the image as a background, not a texture applied to a panel.

Poser doesn't rerender the backgroud so there's very little overhead.

the shadows don't show on the background, just don't keep moving the lights around or you will get different lighting on different figures.

You will have to try and not have the fact that shadows don't show on the background be a problem.  It could look strange if one character has a cast shadow on it and the one next to it doesn't.

Mike

Thanks for the hint. You're right. I need to try and see by myself.

Quote - Someone please correct me if I'm wrong because I'd hate to give out incorrect information....

I believe that textures are a huge drain. I usually render at around 3 to 4k pixels on each side, so I need full resolution skin textures for closeups. And with big displacement, bump, and diffuse maps, even a single character can take the RAM over 4 gigs if I don't try to optimize. 

As I understand it, background people need tiny skin textures, if at all (you might get away with just using procedural skins).  Main characters a bit bigger. It depends on the resolution of your render. I'm pretty sure you don't need a 4096x4096 pixel head texture for a 1200 pixel render, for example, even if it is a close-up. The texture resolution doesn't need to exceed the size as it will appear in the render.

Same thing goes for clothing and prop textures. Make sure none of your background peeps is wearing a pair of pumps with 4096 x4096 pixel textures. :D

Other things to try...

Make the body parts covered by clothes invisible. I don't know if that actually works (or is it just a myth?), but if not, the other option is to strip the textures for those body parts. Why load what won't affect the scene?

Pose and clothe your figures and convert them all to props.

Render the hair in a separate pass. If you don't have the script to do it, you can must make the hair invisible in the main render, then turn the hair back on one by one, and area render just the head. Splice together in gimp/photoshop.

Finally....

Yeah, I'll echo the calls to get more RAM. I went from a 32 bit OS with 3 gigs of RAM to a 64 bit with 12, and I regularly use as much as is available. But I'm lazy and don't try to optimize. The time I save not worrying so much is worth the cost. I just got a new machine and will be boosting up to 32 gigs. Can't ever have too much. :)

A couple of nice ideas ! I've never thought of turning characters into props. I'll try.

As for stripping textures under the clothes, I've tried many times without seing any improvement.

You wrote about a script to render in separate processes. Where can I find such a script ? Does it mean I could render different objects in the scene separately ?

But, I understand from what I read above that the really first step for me is to get a 64 bit and more RAM.

Quote - Going to 64 bit would be your first step.

A 32 bit OS can only handle 2GB RAM

Thanks for this confirmation. I had forgotten that point.

Quote - thats odd. I  use Poser 7 and have done scenes with 2 V4 and 4 m3/m4 characters. Renders are not fast but it does do it.

as others have said, use RR figures for background , render in layers and composite in photosshop, render and create your own billboards.  

Be careful with high res textures if they are not required. 

I confirm what you say. I could also have more characters with Poser 7, depending on the morphs, clothes and textures I used. But since I have PoserPro 2012 I can no longer even open some of the scenes I created in Poser 7 with 3 M4/V4 characters. And those I can open won't render with shadows.

Quote - I've rendered eight fully-clothed characters (six of them DAZ adults) in Poser Pro 2010 on a machine with similar specs to yours, but only 8 GB of RAM. I've done this with no layering and while it's slow, it works, so I'm not sure what your issue really is. Here's an example.

This is very interesting ! I couldn't even imagine this was possible. So, it means my biggest problem would be the RAM. But I guess getting a 64 bits would still be better ?

Quote - It's not worth the crashing , I export in png files and add the characters to each scean, using final cut editing. It seem's to work.

I thought of doing that many times but isn't it a problem for shadows ? How will shadow of the latest characters behave on the background ? I suppose it's OK for distant scenes but may be not for close characters ?

Quote - 1. Use low-poly characters for backgrounds fill.

1. Low-res textures (or even no texture at all, just a shader) if detail isn't important.

2. Some people make sure that the figure is stripped down to make it small...but then put the character in several different items of clothing loaded down with morphs and with polycounts exceeding that of the character itself. It doesn't do anything if you're proud your V4/M4 character is only 5 MB but then you stick them in 95MB worth of conforming clothing. If something is going to be on a background character, ruthlessly strip out all the morphs that aren't needed, human figure and clothing.

3. If it doesn't need to be clothing, don't use a conforming figure. There's no reason that figure way in the background wearing jeans and a tight t-shirt can't be wearing a skinsuit instead of seperate jeans and T-shirt conforming clothing.

4. Combine seperate renders layering on top of each other.

5. Upgrade your OS and get more RAM. Really. Running PoserPro 2012 on a 32bit machine with 4GB RAM is like using a lawnmower engine in your high-performance sportscar. Sure, you can get where you want to go...eventually...but it's not what you'd call an optimum experience.

I had noticed actually that not only high poly characters and high resolution textures required resources but also morphs. I can load and render 4 basic V4 without any problem. But if I add all the morphs I usually use, 2 is a maximum.

But yout point 6 definitely strikes my attention. It confirms what I suspected. My OS and RAM are really not sufficient.

Thank you for your help.

Quote - XP is definatly going to hold you back. Win7 is solid and usable. I always use Ultimate, but Pro should be fine.

You'll also want to try for at least 16GB of RAM.

My answer was to make an M3/V3 clone at 2600 Polys. :-)

Thanks for the answer. I didn't think I was so much under the required RAM. Good to know.

Quote - How realistic are you going?  Would World of Warcraft style of mines be too clean/cartoony for you?

Well, I would love to find a photorealistic set, which is not the case of World of Warcraft. I think some artists here are able to make great quality products. I just don't know if there is a demand for it.

Thank you for the info. I will be waiting for these tools. I know that there are many templates available, but if you want to do a serious job on a comic, you need a lot of flexibility to be able to express your creativity. I would even suggest to allow circular images or small images overlaping bigger ones (this is often used as a zoom to catch the reader's attention on a detail). Sometimes, you may also have to suppress one or more border from a box. These effects are very common in European comics. I guess this software has a great potential, combined with Poser or Bryce. I hope you'll make a professional version some day.

Well, if I had had a doubt about subscribing to PoserWorld, it would have vanished now! The fact is that my only problem was to know if I could download all those nice products from the place where I live, knowing that there are restrictions from PoserWorld. I didn't know where to obtain this information since they didn't answer. Now, Steve has asked me my IP to check this and I think I'll have his answer soon. I have absolutely no doubt about the honesty of people working at PoserWorld. But I still think that having to write them through Renderosity's forum to have an answer isn't a satisfactory solution.