Computer Lockup

[pfrancke]

I would argue that rendering graphics is a very complex business.  And that TG2 is doing complicated stuff.  We are in the driver's seat and we pump in the parameters and it does what we tell it to - which is exactly what I like to see in software - we can do what we want to do.  The problem that I have with Tg2, Ummm, I mean with the "rendering business", ummmm, I guess I really mean with myself, is that I don't know how it works.

The lazy part of me says that this is a TG2 problem.  But it would probably be better to say that rendering is a complicated process, one that is difficult to learn - which in turn comes right back to me.  I'm a slow learner and have been fooling with this for over a year.  I've just scratched the surface and am mostly clueless and witless as I stumble along in the dark.  But I'll tell ya what!  I've had more fun and satisfaction with this software than with any other piece of software that I've ever owned.  Give it a shot man!

[matrix2003]

Here Here!  My longest  T™ -V 0.9.43 render, was 28 days !
Old computer, too much water, and NO EXPERIENCE.

My sig file used to read: "Terragen: the never ending learning curve"

  ( its gotten a lot better )

[cyphyr]

My longest render (one that I didn't abort!) would be about 27 hours and that was a while ago and on an earlier version.

I'm not completely happy with this one but it took only 16hours to render link, would probably be quicker to render it now. This one took 14 hours to render.

Neither of these times are too painful relay, I do have to sleep, work and eat sometimes.

What can be painful is how long it takes to develop a project, each of the above took over a month! It dose get quicker, the software gets better (so dose the hardware, my comp is MUCH faster than when TG2 first came out) and I get a better idea what I'm doing. I think Terragen will be a useful tool in our creative arsenal but it has never been intended to be an "App for all Seasons". Used wisely and with understanding it can produce incredible results.

Don't give up

Richard

[dandelO]

I'm not arguing here either, just chipping in.

PG: I didn't say you were bragging, just that huge render times like that are the opposite of optimal and not something that qualifies a good render, nothing directed at you at all, man. Chill.
Ha-ha! I have seen some render-time braggers around though, as if it's a thing to be proud of.

Jay: Unfortunately, a license fee is a little beyond me at the minute, this is why 800x600 is my max', not through choice, no need to get arsey. You say you won't get into a pissing match, fine, but it's this pomposity that usually creates your pissing matches. Time and time again. Maybe it's 'beyond you', I don't really care, you constantly prove you cannot get along in a civil way with other people who have different ideas than you do, not cool, man.
Go on, delete your account again and go running away to elsewhere to run your mouth about all the nasty, narrow-minded people over on the other side. Then, after a time, when you imagine everyone will have forgotten about your childish whining, come back and make 'buzzzzz2'(example). Works everytime, regardless of website/people/circumstances etc.
Christ, I bet that delete-finger is really twitching now!

Back to the point of this thread, and just as pfrancke says, aren't we all just stumbling along in the dark? I'm reasonably new to graphics in general, couple of years all in, and I agree, no package has given me as much satisfaction as TG2 has, even in it's hobbled, non-commercial state. Keep at it, homebroo, TG is The Future! I've seen it in my dreams.

Sorry for the above, I can only stomach so much arrogance.

[cyphyr]

err a bit touchy there maybe, I didn't take buzzzzz1 comments as particularly arrogant or whining, what gives ? Nobody wants to do a 800 x 600 render, do you? The license is not expensive (compared to the competition) and there are many ways of making a render bigger than 800 x 600 if you want to go to the effort, do a search on stitching.
I'm suprised frankly at the level of, er, debate that this has generated, the reason that homebroo's render locked up is simple, only 512mb ram, buy yourself some more ram my friend or better still a faster comp and everyone else, just chill
happy rendering
richard

[PG]

Anyone wanna smoke the rest of this? Matt's mentioned in the Beta announcement that there are improvements to the render preview which mean that we won't necessarily have to render knock down images to see how our render will look. I think this is definately a good thing to update because as many of you will have experienced, the render preview doesn't actually look the same as your scene until about 60 percent. As far as actual render times, can't remember offhand but I'm sure there's improvements in render time too.

[cyphyr]

hmm, what, oh yeah right man, far out, thanks 

[buzzzzz1]

dandelO -- I think that was uncalled for and no I'm not going anywhere.  100 bucks might fix your soft spot. I have a few I can donate if anyone else wants to chip in , maybe we can come up with enough for dandelO  a key.

[dandelO]

No thanks.

[Oshyan]

The preview improvements are probably not going to blow you away, unfortunately. After the release, we'll hopefully be able to get a multithreaded preview working better, and that will definitely punch up its usability.

- Oshyan

[rcallicotte]

Agreed.

My fellow TG2 friends,

my private opinion: prancing on "who had the longest render" doesn't impress me much, or anyone, I daresay. There's no pride to be taken from pumping up a render to last forever. Instead, I'd be impressed if you had an example of a fantastic render with a rather little render time, achieved by clever scene design, network design and optimized render settings. Go ahead and name a few examples, which can eventually convince the instigator of this thread to give it another go, and not scare him away :-P

Frank

[rcallicotte]

Oh yeah, and by the way, I agree that the render times have improved but still are too long to please me.  But, since TG2 is sort of a new way of doing things, maybe it's possible Matt and Jo will figure out a way to optimize these render times.  I'm only guessing, since I don't know what's going on with the code. 

[mr-miley]

Errrrm..... just looked back into this thread to see the replies 

I certainly wasn't bragging about my render time, just stating that it was a long time, the scene was maxed out as far as quality went and that there were others here who have done a damn sight longer. I was just trying to point out to homebroo that 3 hours was not a long time for a render! Probably could have worded it better but.... I didn't mean to spark a whole argument. Some of the renders that I am most happy with have only been 4-8 hours! I agree with cyphyr, more ram is needed in homebroos case. Its very cheap at the moment (unless the prices have changed over the last few weeks) and a worthy investment for the rest of your software too.

Regards

Miles