loaded DUF scene being used to render format question

nonesuch00

What format are the dson DUF scenes in when an iRay material model is loaded in the scene? I'm guessing the iRay materials are nVidia MDL/3DL  format and the geometry is in Lightwave OBJ format?

Is that right or is it something completely different?

Actually, maybe, it's simpler (I think), not the format of the scene as it's in memory as the 'viewport' but the format as it's prepped and sent to another place of reserved memory in DAZ Studio (I think) that will be used to create a render.

Thanks.

SixDs

I'm not certain I'm following you entirely, nonesuch, but are you referring to files created temporarily during scene construction? Those are simply saved as files of various sorts in the DAZ Studio temp folder, I believe.

nonesuch00

SixDs said:

I'm not certain I'm following you entirely, nonesuch, but are you referring to files created temporarily during scene construction? Those are simply saved as files of various sorts in the DAZ Studio temp folder, I believe.

Thanks.

No, I mean in memory the models (textures, geometry, lights, and so on) are they the same format as on disk or have they been converted to some more efficent in memory only representation? I ask because it does take 15 seconds to sometimes 30 minutes and more for DAZ Studio to prepare a loaded scene before it starts rendering even the 1st iteration so I was thinking DS was converting what we know is on disk to come internal program only representative kept only in RAM.

 

SixDs

I suspect that you are correct. The data recorded for the scene must be converted to something readable by the render engine when the rendering process begins, and, depending upon the content of the scene and the render settings, this can take some time. I don't know this for a fact, but the assumption that this converted data is being kept in RAM is probably correct - it would explain why one needs to have a certain amount of VRAM on an Nvidia card in order to render a scene in Iray. Otherwise the render will default to the CPU where system RAM and Virtual Memory (reserved hard drive space) can store the data. As for the format of that data, who knows? It may not be in the format of a file or files perse as we know them, it might be binary. Beyond my expertise.

Edit: further to the above, with 3Delight it is possible to create a RIB file that can be used to render a scene at any time, usually in the 3Delight standalone renderer. In fact, one user claimed that they could create a RIB file with Iray render settings that they used to batch render Iray scenes, in this thread:

https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/95386/rib-3delight-equivalent-for-iray-rendering

In that same thread, Chris Palomino also suggested using the Mental Images Scene Format (*.mi) for Iray images.

Is that the kind of thing you were looking for?