Some artifacts on render...any ideas ???

[pclavett]

Hi all !
Just posted an image in the appropriate section..."Up on the Ridge" with items generated in Blender3D and some funny things happen on rendering but this not always and sometimes different although I am always using the same file ! I took the file exported it with all the associated plants and also a GI cache file developed at 4000x2000 with detail of 1 and AA of 14...huge file of more than 2GB. Rendered some sections on 1 computer and other sections on another of my computers with attention for "detail in the camera option" so as to avoid the "detail in crop artifacts" !
Various levels of square mosaics appear on my rock cliff in the foreground and this inconstant as the 4 images will show since the 4 images were done on 2 computers with the same identical file and therefore 2 images each...therefore even on the same computer the render results vary ! This only happens on my Blender created rocks even when they have been changed to tgo's !!!
Has someone seen this before and what would be the possible causes Note that I did not see this prior to applying some powerfractals to give some further texture to the rocks default shader containing the bitmap for colour and bump. I wonder whether the PF does not map out properly But then...why is it inconstant Appreciate any answers on this !
Take care !
Paul

[attach=1]

[Tangled-Universe]

As far as I know you won't need "ray detail region padding" when you use a GI cache.

I could even imagine that this is the reason of what you are seeing, although I'm a bit puzzled why it only happens to the object(s).

I don't know whether if you're rendering a crop of an image, using a GI cache, with "ray detail region padding" enabled if it will really pad the ray detail region from the GI cache. I hope you can follow me.
If so then I can imagine that artifacts may show, but I have absolutely no idea whether TG handles GI caches and the ray detail region padding parameter that way.

What happens if you render a low resolution image on just one single machine?
How did you specify the GI cache?
You didn't change anything in the render settings or scene after writing out the GI cache?

[pclavett]

Hi Martin
The GI padding was not activated in my render and the setting for the GI was 2/2/8 or the nominal values. The only thing that Iv am wondering is that the read gic is nominally at interpolate for animation....does that make a difference for solitary images As for cropping, if you send your image to a render farm they do crop renders with a gic done on the total image, so figured this should not be the problem...or is there
Have no idea why this occurs variably on the same machine with the same file unchanged in any way. The cliff is available for download if you want to see the setup that I did with the material and the PFs.... http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,15754.0.html ....with the download site indicated there. Wonder if it is the addition to the material that cause this
Thanks for the help and thoroughly enjoyed your presentations on Terralive !
Thanks !
Paul

[Tangled-Universe]

You're welcome Paul.

You're almost there with the GI caches.

Yes you need to render out 1 GI cache for the entire frame, correct.
However, do not use the interpolation method for animation but choose "one file (exact filename)" as method for reading the GI.

Then if you save the .tgd with that setting and send it to a renderfarm then the renderfarm will render dozens of crops of that image using that 1 GI cache file and thus there will be no seams. See why?

(I'm still wondering though why you would get those artifacts if you choose this interpolation method, but only have 1 GI cache file. If you choose interpolation it will blend 5 GI cache files (by default), but since you have only 1 file then where are the other 4? How would that result in these blocky artifacts?)

[j meyer]

Hi Paul,
one thing you could do is to look at the PFs you've used for coloring your rock model
and if you find distort normal or warping activated deactivate them and give it a go then.
I had a somewhat similar problem,that could be solved that way.
Good luck,J.

[pclavett]

Hi Guys !
Still toying with this file and trying to determine what is causing this and presently it is relatively constant when rendering with the PFs hooked up to the material layer for the tgo's and not there when unhooked.
I include a render where the material was not hooked up to any changing influence from PFs for the large chunk in the upper part and the two smaller rocks at the bottom were left with there PFs and low and behold is the result of no artifacts for the upper part and block on the lower stones. The setups are included for showing. I have presently disabled all PFs on all the stones and redoing the render for the bottom part and will show you the results latter.
This is not a major problem but mostly annoying as I wanted to add a "nuance" from PFs to my bitmaps.
Again any comments appreciated !
Paul
[attach=4]
[attach=5]
[attach=6]

[Oshyan]

What is the Smallest Scale of your PFs?

- Oshyan

[pclavett]

Hi Oshyan !
I include a screen capture of the settings !
Paul

[Oshyan]

Hmm, ok, that doesn't look like a problem. Sometimes very small scales can cause odd render artifacts, but 0.1 should be fine.

It would also help to see your Renderer settings. Here's a suggestion: Go to your network view, click on the Renderer node that you're using, then use the Copy shortcut (Ctrl-C on Windows, don't remember on Mac, hehe - or you can just do Copy from the Edit menu). Then start a reply here and *paste* into the reply window. It will past your node's settings as text and I can take a look at them.

- Oshyan

[pclavett]

<terragen_clip>
   <render
      name = "FinalRender"
      gui_use_node_pos = "1"
      gui_node_pos = "1700 1140 0"
      gui_group = "Renderers"
      master = "1"
      image_width = "4000"
      lock_aspect_ratio = "1"
      image_height = "2000"
      image_aspect_ratio = "2"
      pixel_aspect_ratio = "1"
      camera = "Camera 05"
      surfaces_visible = "1"
      atmosphere_visible = "1"
      do_shadows = "1"
      detail = "1"
      anti-aliasing = "8"
      ray_trace_objects = "1"
      ray_trace_atmosphere = "0"
      GI_relative_detail = "2"
      GI_sample_quality = "2"
      GI_blur_radius = "8"
      supersample_prepass = "0"
      GI_surface_details = "0"
      do_crop_region = "1"
      crop_left = "0"
      crop_right = "0.3"
      crop_bottom = "0"
      crop_top = "0.2"
      crop_to_object = "0"
      crop_object_name = ""
      pixel_filter = "2"
      anti-aliasing_bloom = "1"
      detail_blending = "0"
      displacement_filter = "1"
      microvertex_jittering = "1"
      detail_jittering = "1"
      lock_subdiv_to_frame = "0"
      lock_to_frame_number = "1"
      do_reverse_primary_rays = "0"
      reverse_primary_rays_multiplier = "1"
      fix_holes = "1"
      do_ray_traced_shadows = "1"
      ray_trace_everything = "0"
      soft_clip_effect = "1"
      soft_clip_softness = "1"
      compensate_soft_clip = "1"
      contrast = "1"
      contrast_adjust = "0.35"
      gamma_correction = "1.7"
      minimum_threads = "1"
      maximum_threads = "64"
      size_of_subdiv_cache_in_Mb = "3600"
      preallocate_subdiv_cache = "0"
      ray_detail_region = "2"
      ray_detail_region_padding = "0"
      GI_prepass_padding = "0"
      output_image_filename = "/Users/pclavett/Documents/temp.%04d.bmp"
      extra_output_images = "0"
      extra_output_image_filename = "/Users/pclavett/Documents/temp.IMAGETYPE.%04d.bmp"
      micro_exporter = "0"
      micro_exporter_name = ""
      sequence_first = "1"
      sequence_last = "100"
      sequence_step = "1"
      >
      <render_pixel_sampler
         name = "Render pixel sampler 02"
         gui_use_node_pos = "1"
         gui_node_pos = "1160 120 0"
         gui_group = ""
         anti-aliasing = "8"
         customise_sampling = "0"
         first_sampling_level = "2"
         pixel_noise_threshold = "0.0375"
         >
      </render_pixel_sampler>
      <render_bucket_controls
         name = "Render bucket controls 02"
         gui_use_node_pos = "1"
         gui_node_pos = "1160 60 0"
         gui_group = ""
         max_bucket_size = "256 256"
         allow_auto_reduction = "1"
         >
      </render_bucket_controls>
      <render_GI_settings
         name = "Render GI settings 02"
         gui_use_node_pos = "1"
         gui_node_pos = "1160 0 0"
         gui_group = ""
         GI_relative_detail = "2"
         GI_sample_quality = "2"
         GI_blur_radius = "8"
         supersample_prepass = "0"
         no_GI_cache_file = "1"
         write_to_GI_cache_file = "0"
         GI_cache_filename_to_write = ""
         read_from_GI_cache_file = "0"
         GI_cache_filename_to_read = ""
         GI_cache_blend_mode = "3"
         GI_cache_blend_range = "5"
         GI_prepass_padding = "0"
         GI_surface_details = "0"
         >
      </render_GI_settings>
      <render_subdiv_settings
         name = "Render subdiv settings 02"
         gui_use_node_pos = "1"
         gui_node_pos = "1160 -60 0"
         gui_group = ""
         fully_adaptive = "1"
         force_all_edges = "0"
         jitter_shading_points = "1"
         ray_detail_multiplier = "0.25"
         stabilise_ray_detail_in_motion = "0"
         ray_detail_stabilisation = "3"
         >
      </render_subdiv_settings>
   </render>
</terragen_clip>

[Oshyan]

OK. Detail of 1 should be unnecessary. 0.75 should be plenty. That will speed things up. Also unnecessary to have the Subdiv cache at 3600, unless you've got a ton of cores. I would leave it at the default. But neither of those will fix your problem.

It's possible that one of the settings on the Extra tab could help, like Detail Blending. I would suggest trying the Animation Check button on the Sequence/Output tab, confirm the changes, and then see if that helps with the problem. If not, I don't think I'll be able to diagnose any further without seeing the full TGD.

- Oshyan

[pclavett]

Will do that latter today Oshyan and one thing that may help diagnose this is that if I use the same settings without the populations of objects...everything turns out peachy ! Just cannot figure this out....but if you need the whole file I can arrange for the gathered project to get to you but would remove the GIC cache which is 2.1 GB. Also could send you everything including the bitmaps...as long as you do not distribute them of course as they have copyright issues.....but I have no fears of that of course !
Here is an example of a render with the trimmed down version without the other populations.
Thanks for your time and patience.
Paul

[Hetzen]

Does a Tex Coords From XYZ after the PF in your object make a difference?