Topic: Time Crunch problem (Rendering Times)

[Andrew-DPR]

So I'm currently rendering a video with Lumion (all the prep-work is mostly finished), but I have a problem, well, sort of a problem, my graphics card is a quadro 4000.  It's fantastic for modeling my project in Sketchup, slow as molasses at rendering the scene in Lumion.  Composing the scene at 3 FPS is challenging to say the least.  Problem is, I'm currently looking at another 40+ hours or rendering, and I don't have the resources to run out and buy a better (for Lumion) graphics card.  Considering I need this project done by Wednesday, I'm in a pickle (outside of extending the deadline).

Any solutions?  I know network rendering doesn't exist.  I have a personal computer at home with a decent graphics card (ATI Radeon 5770), but I only have one license of Lumion.  Can I use the free version at home with a scene developed in my pro version at work?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(Side note: at the office my scene renders in 6 FPS, at home when I remote desktop into control my office computer, press "render", it renders at 20 FPS, any idea why?)

[peterm]

Can I use the free version at home with a scene developed in my pro version at work?

No. You can only render from Free to Pro, not other way around.

You can however just use your license at home, you are allowed to do so.  Install the software, make sure you copy the required scene and library files for the project (see forum info elsewhere as to folder locations).

If you have V3 its a floating license, if you have V2.5 you just need to de-activate first at the office then activate your license at home and get a great, much faster render.

[halshute]

Tell us your render star quality and resolution.

You can render at 1080 with 2 stars and get good results with faster render times. 

Considering your video card don't even try 3 stars.

[Andrew-DPR]

Benchmark wise, my home graphics card (HD Radeon 5770) is the same as the 4000 I have at work (looking it up online), so would rendering at home make any difference?

I'm rendering at 3 star quality at 720p.  1080p render times were massive, but thankfully I don't need the scene to be in 1080p.

The big thing I'm worried about, in regards to ways to decrease render times, is lowering the quality.  Considering this will be "the" project to showcase Lumion to various offices, I really don't want to give them anything but top quality.  I thought about getting rid of some of the depth of field, planar reflections, and lighting (lights already being cached), but then I wouldn't be showcasing what Lumion can do.  My goal is to get away from using 3DS Max and Vray.

I might try using my home computer to see if the results are any different.

[Andrew-DPR]

<Update>

Well I guess what they say is true, don't use a Quadro graphics card.  Just got home and my two year old, budget HD 5770 renders a scene 4 times fast than the expensive, workstation, graphics at my office.

Still under a time crunch but at least I might be able to get this done on time now.  Considering how much better my ATI Radeon graphics card is I can only imagine how nice those high end gaming cards will perform.

Too bad I'm not getting a computer for another six months, but I'll remember this moment when picking out a graphics card.

[halshute]

You'd be surprised at the quality of 1080 at 2 stars. That extra size can make a difference with certain scenes. I had a model with verticals that only were crisp at 1080.

[Andrew-DPR]

I'll definitely give it a try after this video, the only reason I wouldn't now is that the previous scenes are in 720p and I don't want to mess with scaling videos.  Crispness of the fine lines is good/okay in Lumion.  This doesn't surprise me considering how much you have to increase the quality in 3DS Max in order to get fine details.

I had to render another scene on my work computer (doing stuff on my home computer), and once again, getting around 50 FPS, which is terrible.  It's definitely the graphics card considering that same scene was rendering at 22 FPS on my home computer.

It took months to convince my boss to purchase Lumion, I'm pretty sure I'll fall on deaf ears asking for a different graphics card.

[Michael Betke]

You have a PM.