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General => Terragen Discussion => Topic started by: moodflow on June 05, 2007, 04:38:39 PM

Title: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: moodflow on June 05, 2007, 04:38:39 PM
Hi All,

I was noticing during a render the other day, that TGTP was also rendering areas that were normally occluded, like the backs of mountains, hills, and rocks, which added to the render times.  If it did not try to render these areas, the render would likely have taken half the time**. 

Is there a way to turn this feature off?

**If rendering of occluded areas was removed, and then support for multicore processors is implimented, renders would be closer to bareable!  I remember reading a while back that there were some optimizations planned for the renderer itself, which could bring the rendertimes down even more (or hold it the same, but increase the quality).  Is this true?



Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: Oshyan on June 05, 2007, 04:58:04 PM
There is significant optimization still to be done. Some "back face culling" is done presently but it is conservative. Optimization of culling routines, multithreading, and other changes should bring render times down a good amount. Just how much remains to be seen, but you can expect a good performance boost in the final product to be sure.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: moodflow on June 05, 2007, 05:47:49 PM
Thanks Oshyan!

I remember seeing that function in the TG 0.9.

Is there a current way to turn it off in TGTP?
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: Oshyan on June 05, 2007, 06:13:23 PM
As far as I know you can't control back face culling in TG2 at this point. You certainly can't make it better - that will require changes to the render engine itself. Did you want to turn it off for some reason?

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: Kevin F on June 06, 2007, 02:57:06 AM
Quote from: Oshyan on June 05, 2007, 06:13:23 PM
As far as I know you can't control back face culling in TG2 at this point. You certainly can't make it better - that will require changes to the render engine itself. Did you want to turn it off for some reason?

- Oshyan

err..... speed springs to mind!
Kevin

Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: Oshyan on June 06, 2007, 03:22:08 AM
No, you'd want to turn it on/up to gain speed, not off. ;D As I said before though this is something that will have to be dealt with in future adjustments to the rendering engine.

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: Kevin F on June 06, 2007, 03:44:36 AM
Quote from: Oshyan on June 06, 2007, 03:22:08 AM
No, you'd want to turn it on/up to gain speed, not off. ;D As I said before though this is something that will have to be dealt with in future adjustments to the rendering engine.

- Oshyan

Sorry we have minor confusion here! I was thinking in terms of moodflows original question :
" I was noticing during a render the other day, that TGTP was also rendering areas that were normally occluded, like the backs of mountains, hills, and rocks, which added to the render times.  If it did not try to render these areas, the render would likely have taken half the time**.

Is there a way to turn this feature off?"

We have a double negative here!  i.e Turning off the rendering of these parts is culling. But I think the question meant turning the rendering of unwanted parts off! i.e. turning culling on! Does this make sense?!! ;D
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: Oshyan on June 06, 2007, 04:18:51 AM
Yeah, that makes sense. Once we'd established what the feature was called I thought we were then talking about turning it off/on. ;D

- Oshyan
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: moodflow on June 06, 2007, 11:17:44 AM
Heheh - off or on, whichever way we can speed up rendertimes ;-)
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: buchvecny on June 13, 2007, 05:48:16 PM
lol u would both had to get your medicine if this dialogue was said in some madhouse
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: rcallicotte on June 13, 2007, 10:19:16 PM
LOL   ;D

Quote from: buchvecny on June 13, 2007, 05:48:16 PM
lol u would both had to get your medicine if this dialogue was said in some madhouse
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: JimB on January 09, 2009, 04:53:49 AM
SPAM!!!

See what happens when you mention medicines in a thread  ;)
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: jmclusky on January 09, 2009, 04:54:12 AM
Quote from: JimB on January 09, 2009, 04:53:49 AM
SPAM!!!

See what happens when you mention medicines in a thread  ;)

Thanks for the report :-)
Title: Re: Long render times due to back face rendering?
Post by: moodflow on January 10, 2009, 12:07:29 AM
Wow, how did this dusty old thread resurface?   ;)