The manual is vague about GPU anti-aliasing.  Anyone here know what it does and knows of a sample Vue scene where you can see a difference in the rendering?

Attached Link: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_11_infinite/?page=8

I could be wrong, but isn't this for OpenGL rendering? With Poser this option is there as well, but only does something if you render with OpenGL.

EDIT: never mind, I was wrong...... check the link it gives a little info. Pretty cool if it works. It basically uses your GPU to take over some of the anti-aliasing and making it go faster.

The GPU anti-aliasing in Vue is a bit confusing to many people. It is less about speed than about quality. It only applies to imported meshes, not anything Vue native. There was nice bit of info in 3Dworld about it:

"Mentioning the addition of GPU accelerated antialiasing makes many people think Vue finally uses more of the GPU to render.

While this is technically correct, it doesn’t apply to everything.

GPU accelerated antialiasing renders only meshes – which does not include EcoSystems, terrains or other native Vue objects – through OpenGL.

Previously, very thin or far away objects like a power line may render with some sub-pixels missing, but with this feature they are rendered accurately and quickly.

It’s not to be confused with a Death-Star-like powerful new renderer, but it’s still a helpful feature for both still renders and animations."

From http://www.3dworldmag.com/2011/08/30/review-vue-9-5-infinite/

Ciao

TD

I should also point out that in my experience using the GPU slightly increases Render time at the same antialiasing settings. However, you would ahve to significantly up the AA setting to achieve the same quality without the GPU. Here is a quick and dirty example that shows what it does:

Look at the last few poles in the row. In the noGPU rernder you can see the missing subpixels. The GPU render is clean. The no GPU took 40 sec, the GPu version took 42 sec.

Ciao

TD

 

No GPU version. Bummer file too big. Be right back with asmaller version.

and here is the GPU one:

...and Vue's certified driver list is quite strict, so basically (if I'm not mistaken), if you can't run the software using OpenGL 2.1 (shader 4), then you don't get GPU rendering - you can check it in the render settings, but I believe it doesn't do anything...although there is a good chance I'm wrong :P

man, this compression makes it hard to see. Let's try again with a crop of the full size render. Here it is. The GPU version is on the left, the no GPU on the right.

You can see that it improves the quality quite a bit. This is especially important in animation where you need to save on anti-aliasing while minimizing flickering.

TD

Quote - ...and Vue's certified driver list is quite strict, so basically (if I'm not mistaken), if you can't run the software using OpenGL 2.1 (shader 4), then you don't get GPU rendering - you can check it in the render settings, but I believe it doesn't do anything...although there is a good chance I'm wrong :P

 

I think you are right. It uses OpenGL routines and hence requires OpenGL 2.1 as minimum.

TD

But these are not OpenGL renders.  Just bitmap.  So I wasn't sure what the manual meant about it working only with OpenGL.  Unless Vue uses OpenGL code to render the mesh and then blends the result with the bitmap render.

ADDED:

Maybe I'm just having a brain fart.  Because I see OpenGL as a render option.  Never used it though, because it is OpenGL.

Quote - Unless Vue uses OpenGL code to render the mesh and then blends the result with the bitmap render.

Yes, indeed. That is exactly what is going on as far as I can tell. This also explains why it only works for polygon objects: only those can be handled by the openGL routines.

And no, those are not OpenGL renders. Standard Vue render with and without GPU checked.

TD

Thanks , for posting this information thd777

Ok.  I just thought I'd give GPU AA a try.  Finally had some iron railings in a scene.  If I chose object AA to be 40%, I could then turn on GPU AA and the rails would look like I did 100% object AA.  My computer is so fast though, it didn't matter if I did 100% AA or used GPU AA.  The GPU only works on meshes though.  And I have more than just rails in my scenes.  So I'll just leave object AA at 100%.