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Point Cloud settings

SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
edited July 2014 in Daz Studio Discussion

Can some kind soul help me out by educating me on what all the Point Cloud settings mean, just the point cloud. I know the rest of the settings in the Scripted render settings.

Cloud Shading Rate...why leave it at 4.00 is this different to the other main Shading Rate
Hit Sides
Max Solid Angle
Clamp
Max Distance

and while we are here why is Point Cloud rendering faster than when choosing the standard 3Delight?

Cheers

PS What are the pro and cones for using either apart from speed. If that is the only difference then why not make Point Cloud the main render settings. There must be a reason why it is not.

Post edited by Szark on

Comments

  • Takeo.KenseiTakeo.Kensei Posts: 1,303
    edited July 2014

    Lost my soul somewhere and don't know if it is kind, but I can try to give you an answer

    The parameters you have given are for occlusion
    * Taken from 3delight Manual :

    maxdist This parameter is an important look control knob in point-based occlusion. As explained
    below, point-based occlusion is not good when rendering very dense environments
    since and this parameter artificially lowers the complexity of the scene for the algorithm.     => It is the same as for UE light occlusion. It is the max distance to search for geometry that would generate occlusion
    maxsolidangle :This is a quality vs speed control knob. A good range of values is 0.01 to 0.5.
    clamp :Setting this parameter to 1 will force 3Delight to account for occlusion in dense environments.
    The results obtained with this parameter on should look similar to what a
    ray-traced rendering would give. Enabling this parameter will slow down the pointbased
    algorithm by a factor of 2.     => always put ON

    Hitside : Which rays are considered for occlusion ; if they don't match your choice, the rays are discarded. If you have some glass shader or transparent or subsurface it may be better to have it set to both. To make thing easier, you could always set it to 'both' and not think about it anymore

    [Edit] Forgot Cloud Shading Rate
    This controls the shading rate of the point cloud generation. The higher the lesser point are generated
    You can put higher values if you want less point in order to get a quicker render
    Or you can set it lower to get more precise render result


    The why it is faster : You approximate all the scene geometry with sparse points. The higher your cloud shading rate, the lesser point you have
    For each of these points, you calculate the occlusion(or other calculation) and for all the rest of the scene you make an interpolation
    As occlusion can be time consuming especially with transmapped objects, doing it on fewer points and interpolate the rest is quicker
    The whole speed up is because you do less calculations

    Drawbacks :
    The whole thing is an approximation and is not as accurate as raytracing on every pixel
    The Occlusion with point cloud is darker and doesn't give the same look as standard raytrace
    All the scene shaders must be tweaked to support point cloud (or that is what I believe)
    You lose a bit of time generating the point cloud. That may be less efficient on simple scenes

    Advantage :
    * Taken from 3delight manual :

    • Due to the nature of the point-based approach, the resulting ambient occlusion effect is smooth.
    • Displacements, a costly operation in the ray-tracing case, come at no additional cost in the
    point-based method.
    • No need to declare objects visible to the ray-tracer, this can save a lot of memory.


    I don't think all shaders from shader mixer support point cloud and same with some others (AoA ??)

    Post edited by Takeo.Kensei on
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Soul...where's it gone?

    Thanks Takeo.Kensei that is a great help. Where is this 3Delight manual as all I found is gobbledy gook (jargon) filled documents? That is explain a lot so great for simple scenes,,,cool. Again thanks for taking the time to help me. It is much appreciated as always.

  • Takeo.KenseiTakeo.Kensei Posts: 1,303
    edited December 1969

    You can download the free version. The documentation is included in a doc folder http://www.3delight.com/en/index.php?page=3DSP_download

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Thanks again I will go and get it now. That is probably why I couldn't find it and I have been looking for a while now.

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,590
    edited December 1969

    The online manual is here:
    http://www.3delight.com/en/uploads/docs/3delight/3delight_43.html

    There was also a very interesting old Pixar lecture about their use of Point clouds. I'll have to see if I can find it.

  • none01ohonenone01ohone Posts: 862
    edited December 1969

    Takeo.Kensei said:
    You can download the free version. The documentation is included in a doc folder http://www.3delight.com/en/index.php?page=3DSP_download

    Can you install this along side Daz Studio, without it effecting DS.
    Thanks.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Thanks prixat yeah that is what I was referring to full of stuff that just messes with my head, Not really plain English...Oh well if that is all that there is then I better start panicking. :)

    none01ohone yes

  • none01ohonenone01ohone Posts: 862
    edited August 2014

    Thanks Szark. /Edit.

    Post edited by none01ohone on
  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    Pardon?

  • none01ohonenone01ohone Posts: 862
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    Pardon?

    Sorry I got you confused with someone else. He.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    what there is someone else out there like me...my condolences to them. LOL

  • Takeo.KenseiTakeo.Kensei Posts: 1,303
    edited December 1969

    @none01ohone yes you can install it without problem for DS

    In fact it is used by a lot of people to render scenes without blocking DS. See http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17016/

    If you install the free standalone, there is also a little sample example with point based occlusion that you can study

    If anybody has questions, don't hesitate

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited December 1969

    Just a little question to save me some time.

    Is the standalone version still restricted in the number of cores it can use? It used to be only two cores I think, at one time.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    "This free version has all the features and is only limited in performance by using a maximum of 4 cores during rendering. Which means on computers with more than 4 cores (or CPUs), the software will not use all the computing power available".

    Taken from the link in the Quote below

    Takeo.Kensei said:
    You can download the free version. The documentation is included in a doc folder http://www.3delight.com/en/index.php?page=3DSP_download
  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Pete.

    I might look into it just for the interest.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    no probs Jimmy..how are you these days?

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited December 1969

    Hello Pete, I am not too bad at all now, thanks for asking.

    We had a couple of recent deaths in the family, which set us all back a bit, and we were over in England for a few days. All very sad.

    I only found out about Jeff the other day,, that was a real shock too. I didn't see that one coming. I suppose it's a good thing that none of us knows what lies in the future.

    I hope to be on the forums a lot more in the coming weeks, it was kind of quiet for a while there, nice to hear from you again Pete. Best wishes.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    No worries Jimmy. I saw your post in Jeff's thread and you didn't sound to good hence me asking. I am sorry to here that Jimmy. No it is never easy losing someone. My dad's death when I was 16 hit me hard and I still fell it today and I am 50 now.

    Yes it was quiet for a while, seems to have picked up. Jeff's passing has an am impact on many of us, some more so. All I can do is to up my game in helping others in his memory.

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited December 1969

    Those are my sentiments too Pete.

    It's all we can do really. See you on the forums :)

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    indeed Jimmy yes you should see me here more...in between making new tutorials. I have been slacking of late but everything is now full steam ahead.

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