What makes Rendering come to a halt? Not even half way through the render, the rendering stops. Thinking, ok lights. So, I change lighting. Nope...Raytrace, sizes 4, 10, 20,...nope. Bucket size.. 32, 10,...20...nope. Light settings for Map size...256, 1024, 2048...nope. Reflections, with Raytrace?..nope. So, I uncheck Raytrace on each light..use shadows..nope. I get a bucket halt, really starting to take a tole on me. Changing my Render settings, makes me think I do not know what I am doing anymore.

For a computer I have:
Amd Athlon XP3200+ (2.20Ghz)
2GB DDr (PC3200's) 400Mhz dual Channel
128MB ATi Radeon 9600xt Video card.
80GB HD (7200Rpm).

And I am getting halts. I would think for a system I have, I wouldn't have problems with Poser 5 at all. And thinking I knew the answer to this.

Message edited on: 11/01/2004 21:35

How many polys do you have in your scene ? For me, the only halts I get are because of transparencies (they take a whole lot of time to calculate apparently). I have always lifted this by diminishing the bucket size (32, 16, and even 8 once). I've also heard that some people had problems with too many Hi-Res maps, which they overcame by resizing them in Phostoshop before use.

You said you tried changing raytrace settings - with raytrace, the higher the number, the more memory it's using. Do you actually have any reflective surfaces in your scene? If not, turn raytrace off (if you changed your shadows back to depth map that is.) I would then try deleting one item at a time from the scene until you find the culprit. EG try deleting the hair, then if it still doesn't render, add the hair back and delete the outfit, etc. Depending on what object it is, you may be able to render two different scenes and then composite them. Also try reducing the max texture resolution size to 2048 or 1024 and see if that make any difference, and leave shading rate set at 0.5. I've found that the 4096 texture size only gives a noticeable difference when in extreme close-up situations.

Here's a little rundown of what's caused poser 5 to lock up for me in the past: Rendering at too high a resolution (800dpi or more). Rendering an image too large (3000 by 3000 dpi). Trying to use smooth polygons on something that has lots of them. Trying to use texture filtering on high resolution maps (not needed anyway :P). Using gaussian of sinc samplnig for shadows when I have lots of lights. Having an image with lots of shading nodes (they eat memory) I would suggest trying a render on the default 'Draft' setting at the size and resoltion you want and then slowly building up the render quality (adding shadows etc) to see when it freezes. If you can't even get a draft render then something in your scene is at fault and deleting stuf is your only real option.

Yes, I am using Reflections, and also glass in my render(s). That is why I (We) purchased P5. Isn't that was poser was designed for? To handle that kinda stuff. So we could do that without any problems. I am seeing other 3D applications that can handle high poly counts with no proplems at all. And poser is a 3D "Character" animation software. Of course their will be limits (not to the extreme like those high expensive 3D animation Programs). But P5 is not putting out from its design what it should be able to handle. Like a little confined area (Rooms) for a Render or Animation scene. And I am trying to make one render pic, and my system bogs down. My System specs are way beyond P5 requirements.

Message edited on: 11/02/2004 11:24

I've personally come to the conclusion that Poser halts rendering just because it can.