The Iray search for the "Sweet Spot" render settings ...

Greetings to all - this thread is mainly for the "indie film makers" ....
As a result of the recent release of Iray for iClone, there's no doubt been a lot of "testing" going on...
I don't pretend to have the "perfect" answer here, but thought I'd share my findings anyway ....

I run a single Nvidia GTX-1070 card, (probably currently 'middle-ish' in the overall mix of graphics cards out-there).
OK. - so like everyone else, I wanted MAXIMUM quality for MINIMAL "hit" on my PC (laptop actually).

So here it is ... maybe give it a try ... it's designed for MAX speed ... (compromises of course!).

SETTINGS:

● De-Noise set to "39"

● Eliminate Shadow Artifact "ON"

● Anti-Alias Radius "1.5"

● Hardware Settings - Threads = "6" (depends on your particular PC)

● Render Mode "Interactive"

● GI Mode = "Diffuse" (problems can occur if using "Diffuse + Specular")

● Raytrace Quality = "High"

● Preview Auto Update = "ON"

● Preview Tessellations and Displacements = "OFF"

● Frame Size = "Custom" (I use 960 x 409).

Under "Export Settings"
● Select a folder location and your output Format (I used PNG).
● Export Mode = Standalone Render (Save MI Scene) - which is the 'default' setting.
● Output Size = 1920 x 1080, OR, if needing widescreen, try 1920 x 818 (for a 2.35:1 aspect ratio) (or 1920 x 800 for a 21:9 aspect)
● Enter your 'Range' to be rendered.
● Frame Rate = 24 (or as you require)..

● Stop Criteria - Sample Iterations = "40" (that's right start at just "40" iterations! - you can always increase if needed) :)
PLUS, under iClone's 'Edit' > 'Preferences' > 'Iray Render Globals', you could reduce the 'Max Texture Size' to 1024 x1024
● Set your Viewing Quality to iClone's new "Minimal" setting (if you're running a bit low on VRam).

After hitting "render" It takes several minutes for the full 'loading' to occur, and then the frames will render sequentially after that.

You might be surprised how *fast* your render will be,. These 'lean' settings yielded me 3 frames per minute on my sample scene.
Also, given that these settings are for "Interactive Mode" (rather than "Photoreal Mode"), you might need to add some "Temporal Filtering" to smooth any slight 'flicker' or 'fluctuations' within the finished render sequence. - You could run your exported png sequence through a 'non linear editor' like Vegas (or similar), adding a 'temporal filter'. I used the 'Boris Temporal Blur' with it's 'default' setting. (Somebody might suggest something better though?). Edit: Just discovered that Boris 'BBC Noise Reduction' does a better job - it has a preset called 'Suppress More Y Noise' which seems to work well. (But dial the 'sharpness' to 0). Also maybe use 'BBC Gaussian Blur' with the preset 'slight blur.bsp' and dial the (linked) horizontal/vertical value to 0.5
The only other thing done in Vegas were the 'Levels'. For that I simply used 'Vegas Levels' to boost the overall gain and set the black levels. The 'order' of the filter chain was ● Levels > ● BCC Noise Reduction > ● BCC Gaussian Blur.
Edit: OK - here's an even better result:
* Vegas 'Levels' to set Gain, Gamma & Black level.
* 'BCC Flicker Fixer' using the preset 'Default Temporal Smooth YCC' and set 'smoothing' to '3' and 'Y Range' to '3'.
* Finally, 'BCC Gaussian Blur' if you want more of a 'film look'. Use 'Default.bsp' with 'Blur' set to 0.1 (or 0.2 or 0.3 for a 'softer' result).

So the above settings are simply a beginning. Those with older graphics cards may find these settings an advantage, while those with more powerful cards could 'up the ante' and increase the quality settings for sure ... Anyway - I hope this is useful to some as a "starting point".

And of course, if you can offer suggestions/improvements - please chime-in !!!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time! :( - yikes! ...

● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1



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Author	Message
sonic7	sonic7 Posted 6 Years Ago
Distinguished Member Group: Forum Members Last Active: 2 Years Ago Posts: 1.7K, Visits: 19.4K	Greetings to all - this thread is mainly for the "indie film makers" .... As a result of the recent release of Iray for iClone, there's no doubt been a lot of "testing" going on... I don't pretend to have the "perfect" answer here, but thought I'd share my findings anyway .... I run a single Nvidia GTX-1070 card, (probably currently 'middle-ish' in the overall mix of graphics cards out-there). OK. - so like everyone else, I wanted MAXIMUM quality for MINIMAL "hit" on my PC (laptop actually). So here it is ... maybe give it a try ... it's designed for MAX speed ... (compromises of course!). SETTINGS: ● De-Noise set to "39" ● Eliminate Shadow Artifact "ON" ● Anti-Alias Radius "1.5" ● Hardware Settings - Threads = "6" (depends on your particular PC) ● Render Mode "Interactive" ● GI Mode = "Diffuse" (problems can occur if using "Diffuse + Specular") ● Raytrace Quality = "High" ● Preview Auto Update = "ON" ● Preview Tessellations and Displacements = "OFF" ● Frame Size = "Custom" (I use 960 x 409). Under "Export Settings" ● Select a folder location and your output Format (I used PNG). ● Export Mode = Standalone Render (Save MI Scene) - which is the 'default' setting. ● Output Size = 1920 x 1080, OR, if needing widescreen, try 1920 x 818 (for a 2.35:1 aspect ratio) (or 1920 x 800 for a 21:9 aspect) ● Enter your 'Range' to be rendered. ● Frame Rate = 24 (or as you require).. ● Stop Criteria - Sample Iterations = "40" (that's right start at just "40" iterations! - you can always increase if needed) :) PLUS, under iClone's 'Edit' > 'Preferences' > 'Iray Render Globals', you could reduce the 'Max Texture Size' to 1024 x1024 ● Set your Viewing Quality to iClone's new "Minimal" setting (if you're running a bit low on VRam). After hitting "render" It takes several minutes for the full 'loading' to occur, and then the frames will render sequentially after that. You might be surprised how fast your render will be,. These 'lean' settings yielded me 3 frames per minute on my sample scene. Also, given that these settings are for "Interactive Mode" (rather than "Photoreal Mode"), you might need to add some "Temporal Filtering" to smooth any slight 'flicker' or 'fluctuations' within the finished render sequence. - You could run your exported png sequence through a 'non linear editor' like Vegas (or similar), adding a 'temporal filter'. I used the 'Boris Temporal Blur' with it's 'default' setting. (Somebody might suggest something better though?). Edit: Just discovered that Boris 'BBC Noise Reduction' does a better job - it has a preset called 'Suppress More Y Noise' which seems to work well. (But dial the 'sharpness' to 0). Also maybe use 'BBC Gaussian Blur' with the preset 'slight blur.bsp' and dial the (linked) horizontal/vertical value to 0.5 The only other thing done in Vegas were the 'Levels'. For that I simply used 'Vegas Levels' to boost the overall gain and set the black levels. The 'order' of the filter chain was ● Levels > ● BCC Noise Reduction > ● BCC Gaussian Blur. Edit: OK - here's an even better result: * Vegas 'Levels' to set Gain, Gamma & Black level. * 'BCC Flicker Fixer' using the preset 'Default Temporal Smooth YCC' and set 'smoothing' to '3' and 'Y Range' to '3'. * Finally, 'BCC Gaussian Blur' if you want more of a 'film look'. Use 'Default.bsp' with 'Blur' set to 0.1 (or 0.2 or 0.3 for a 'softer' result). So the above settings are simply a beginning. Those with older graphics cards may find these settings an advantage, while those with more powerful cards could 'up the ante' and increase the quality settings for sure ... Anyway - I hope this is useful to some as a "starting point". And of course, if you can offer suggestions/improvements - please chime-in !!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please be patient with me ..... I don't always 'get it' the first time 'round - not even the 2nd time! :( - yikes! ... ● MSI GT72VR Laptop, i7 7700HQ 4-Core 3.8 GHz 16GB RAM; Nvidia 1070, 8GB Vram ● iClone-7.93 ● 3DXChange Pipeline 7.81 ● CC-3 Pipeline 3.44 ● Live Face ● HeadShot ● Brekel Pro-Body ● Popcorn FX ● iRAY ● Kinect V2 ● DaVinci Resolve17 ● Mixcraft 8.1

The Iray search for the "Sweet Spot" render settings ...

The Iray search for the "Sweet Spot" render settings ...

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