50% Render speed decrease

Started by Mohawk20, April 10, 2009, 11:53:52 AM

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Mohawk20

Well, actually, I was thinking of only upgrading the insides, so I wouldn't have 4 pc's that are rendering non-stop, using more power than the rest of the household together. (Yes, I'm 24, yes I'm still living at home, yes my mom is complaining about the electricity bill, yes I will pay her more 'rent' as soon as I start working longer next month.)  ;D

But if you want you can buy the mobo's an cpu's from me...  :P but I don't know if they're worth anything by the time I get new stuff.
Howgh!

PG

Bit late but.

Beta render time 16:02
Final render time 54:41

I noticed that the beta version threw up a helluva lot of warnings about various features that it didn't know about that obviously came from the final version which happily chugged along. Obviously it chugged slower, and that's because it's doing more. One other thing I noticed was that in the beta version, you know how after the GI pass is done the buckets that are next to be rendered will go black? Well 8 buckets went black when I only my 2 cores are detected. In the final version 2 buckets go black.
Figured out how to do clicky signatures

Mohawk20

#17
I just rendered frame 2276 on my other pc and it ran for 2:10 hours, so it's not just system depended.
I'm glad you had a similar big difference in render time PG. Have you noticed that the final version drew 2000000 microtriangles more than the beta?

I hope the next release will come soon, in the mean time I'll just continue rendering slowly  ;)


Thanks everyone for helping and testing!
Now I know the extra render time is due to the upgrade, but the long render time in general is just my system.
Howgh!

Tangled-Universe

Quote from: Mohawk20 on April 11, 2009, 06:36:58 AM
I just rendered frame 2276 on my other pc and it ran for 2:10 hours, so it's not just system depended.
I'm glad you had a similar big difference in render time PG. Have you noticed that the final version drew 2000000 microtriangles more than the beta?

Extra micro-triangles, so this could be what I tried to explain.

As you come closer to the planet the rendertime increases beceause the surface-area of the planet increases in the image.
As getting closer to the real surface the renderer probably decides somewhere to subdivide into another LOD and then adds extra microtriangles.
So you probably just passed a threshold somewhere where the renderer adds more detail to the planet's surface.

This together probably is non-linear, so maybe in a couple of 100 frames later the renderer again decides to subdivide into another LOD.
Rendertime will increase again then and also extra micro-triangles will be added, resulting in increasing rendertime similiar to what we see now (perhaps).

jo

Hi PG,

Quote from: PG on April 11, 2009, 05:35:46 AM
I noticed that the beta version threw up a helluva lot of warnings about various features that it didn't know about that obviously came from the final version which happily chugged along. Obviously it chugged slower, and that's because it's doing more. One other thing I noticed was that in the beta version, you know how after the GI pass is done the buckets that are next to be rendered will go black? Well 8 buckets went black when I only my 2 cores are detected. In the final version 2 buckets go black.

Did you check the About Box to see how many cores are detected? The splash isn't showing the correct number at the moment. If 8 threads were being used for some reason and you only have 2 cores then that could account for at least some of the much slower rendering time.

Regards,

Jo

Mohawk20

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on April 11, 2009, 07:07:55 AM
Quote from: Mohawk20 on April 11, 2009, 06:36:58 AM
I just rendered frame 2276 on my other pc and it ran for 2:10 hours, so it's not just system depended.
I'm glad you had a similar big difference in render time PG. Have you noticed that the final version drew 2000000 microtriangles more than the beta?

Extra micro-triangles, so this could be what I tried to explain.

As you come closer to the planet the rendertime increases beceause the surface-area of the planet increases in the image.
As getting closer to the real surface the renderer probably decides somewhere to subdivide into another LOD and then adds extra microtriangles.
So you probably just passed a threshold somewhere where the renderer adds more detail to the planet's surface.

This together probably is non-linear, so maybe in a couple of 100 frames later the renderer again decides to subdivide into another LOD.
Rendertime will increase again then and also extra micro-triangles will be added, resulting in increasing rendertime similiar to what we see now (perhaps).

You could be right, except for the fact that it was a different number of triangles for the same frame. So the distance to the planet was exactly the same, the only difference was the build version...
Howgh!

Tangled-Universe

Then the builds could differ in the handling of subdivion detail.
At this point it's just a theory so perhaps someone of Planetside has to jump in.

PG

I'll have a look when I get back, see if I can note down the specific warnings. @jo. I looked in the preferences and it said 8 but wasn't overridden. I've done a lot of renders with enforced 2 cores and enforced 8 cores and the render time was almost exactly the same, I've tried it with the blank scene and with really complex ones too so my machine doesn't seem to get clogged up with overhead.
Figured out how to do clicky signatures

PG

I'm getting lots of undefined prototypes of functions in their respective classes. I only assume.
SetParamFromString in class render gets;
pixel_filter              //these 4 come up twice, I'm guessing they are called twice.
anti-aliasing_bloom
microvertex_jittering
detail_jittering

SetParamFromString in class surface_layer gets;
enable_test_colour   //10 times
test_colour             //10 times

SetParamFromString in class cloud_layer_v2 gets;
darker_unresolved_scattering //twice
Figured out how to do clicky signatures

Tangled-Universe

Hmmm...that's strange. Which version do you use at the moment?
Can't imagine you have a version without these features.
You're also regged aren't you?

Mohawk20

Actually, TU, check your older versions... I found that the latest beta build 1.99.99 is gone. The folder is still there, but the exe is gone. And if you try to install that version the installer says a newer version is already installed.

The newest version that still works is 1.8.64, which doesn't have a lot of functions, and still has 'color', in stead of 'colour' in all the nodes. So that will cause a lot of error messages for stuff the older version just can't read.
Howgh!

PG

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on April 11, 2009, 02:12:33 PM
Hmmm...that's strange. Which version do you use at the moment?
Can't imagine you have a version without these features.
You're also regged aren't you?

These errors are coming from the beta build, I'm guessing he saved the TGD in Final with some new features used like the changes to the pixel filters and jittering.
Figured out how to do clicky signatures

Tangled-Universe

Quote from: Mohawk20 on April 11, 2009, 02:56:23 PM
Actually, TU, check your older versions... I found that the latest beta build 1.99.99 is gone. The folder is still there, but the exe is gone. And if you try to install that version the installer says a newer version is already installed.

The newest version that still works is 1.8.64, which doesn't have a lot of functions, and still has 'color', in stead of 'colour' in all the nodes. So that will cause a lot of error messages for stuff the older version just can't read.

Uhmm...I don't understand what you want me to do? You want me to check if this works in 1.99.99??? I can't follow you.

Which version# do you use PG?

Mohawk20

Quote from: Tangled-Universe on April 11, 2009, 04:59:34 PM

Uhmm...I don't understand what you want me to do? You want me to check if this works in 1.99.99??? I can't follow you.


I was just answering your question to PG. You couldn't imagine using a version without these functions, but the 1.99.99 version is gone if you have installed the final, and those features were not yet used in older versions...

At least, I can't find the exe file for 1.99.99 anymore, it's gone from it's folder. Can you still use it? Does the splash screen of your beta version say build 1.99.99?
Howgh!

neuspadrin

yeh mine disappeared also uninstalling itself back when i installed beta, however final did leave the beta build installed fine.