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Which program/renderer?
Sorry. I'm working with Daz Studio and typically use that 3 Delight to render movies on my Imac. It's slow, but works.
3Delight is purely a CPU renderer I'm afraid.
The video card plays no part in a 3Delight render, it is CPU only at present.
3 Delight does not use your graphics card. It is a pure software render. Time depends on the speed of your processor.
Thanks. So does a graphics card play any roll in other types of rendering? I'm new at this so have been using the 3 Delight option. The only other option is "hardware". Is that when a card comes into play?
The only time your graphic cards is use is for your viewport. So while your setting up your scene your graphics card is doing the work. Once you hit render it turns over to the processor.
Thanks. That's something to consider then as I've noticed when viewing a shot I've rendered 1920x1080 that the movement can stutter and freeze up sometimes. I take it a card would help with that sort of playback.
The 'hardware assisted render' is basically a slightly better version of the low-end OpenGL render. It won't look much different than the preview window when utilized. Some render engines like Octane and Luxrender can use the graphics card.
The problem with using the graphics card is the memory limit, however. One of the things which makes graphics cards fast is their onboard memory, but it's also a limiting factor when working with 3D rendering when you consider the average size of a texture. Pure GPU render engines, such as Octane, will often reduce the size of your textures automatically to minimize issues at the cost of details. Users of Octane often get around this issue by using procedural materials rather than static images, something which Luxrender can also do well, but it's something to consider when working with scenes which will require those extra details.
Luxrender has a hybrid mode which utilizes both the graphics card and the CPU, and thus can use normal system memory for storing textures as well. The problem here is that shunting that data back and forth between the graphics card and the mainboard can actually work out slower for certain renders than simply using CPU or GPU alone. This is something which is still being worked on however, so that the GPU handles calculations more efficiently to minimize this cross-talk. In general though, Hybrid is much faster when working on less complex scenes and well worth trying out if you have Lux.
Is there a particular render you're finding slow, or are you just doing some research into your dream machine?
Unless you use the OpenGL renders...levels 1,2 or 3. The only problem with using those for 'final renders'...lack of shaders. They come with the basic OpenGL shaders that don't incorporate all of the 'fun stuff' (like SSS) that the 3Delight renderer does. The basic shaders that are included are pretty much what is available without extra fees. OpenGL should be able to give nearly as good of a result as 3Delight, especially for animation, but the lack of specific shaders is telling. Most games use custom made shaders and as such need to be licensed to be used outside that particular game.
The other options that can use the video card...the Luxrender (Reality and Luxus) and Octane exporters. Hybrid and SLG rendering in Lux use the GPU, but aren't fully implemented, in both the exporters and Lux itself (Lux 2.x WILL have a full GPU option). While animation is possible, it's not going to save any time...in fact, it may be slower.
Octane is a full GPU renderer, but it has some very heavy hardware requirements...like large memory workstation/pro level video cards.
Thanks for the reply. Great information. I'm a newbie and want to get better and I sense that will require a better machine (than my iMax with a i3 processor). So part of this is learning the best way to render and the other part is the best dream machine to buy (at my budget). The entire process is a bit vague to me. Are Luxrender and Octane plug-ins that simply come up as additional options when rendering from Daz Studio? I've heard another workflow is to export the sequence as certain file type and then send that to a separate render program. That would have the advantage of being able to continue working in Daz Studio.
Both Octane and the two Luxrender plugins are exporters...they are separate renders. They are also paid extras...only one of which is sold here, in the Daz store (Luxus).
Luxrender, itself, is free/Open Source, but there is no direct path.
There is also a work in progress set of scripts to go from Studio to Blender...which does animation rendering quite well. Casual, the creator of those scripts is a regular here...
AFAIK Octane requires a much higher spec video card, and tends to be tied to a particular maufacturer as well.
Interesting article here about Video cards
http://www.digisprawl.com/blog/hardware/best-graphics-card-daz-studio-poser-luxrender/
Thanks Chohole. That article is great.