Basic Rendering Advice

[Draft Patrick]

Pat, thanks for the reply, much appreciated. I don't appear to have direct X installed. What is direct X? and the significance in this matter. Can it be downloaded from the net.
Regards Bob

Hi Bob,

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

Pat

[Doug.S]

Direct X helps graphic display in windows

go to "run" (windows key, run...) and type in:   dxdiag
the hit OK and it will check it in your system

(dxdiag = direct x diagnostics)

[Allan Chesney]

Hi Bob,

Ihave largely kept out of this duscussion as I am no expert with computers and their ideosyncracies!

As far as your computer is concerned and if you cannot really justify getting a new one, then I would not worry about Basic rendering. The inage you posted earier is fine. Basic rendering would not do it any better, probably worse in fact. Interestingly Envisioneer 8 was released with Basic render removed, although a patch has since restored it my public demand. I have however continued to use Advanced for exterior views but doing as was suggested - use only Quality 1.

You could do the same thing, which would reduce render time a little. On exterior views the higher quality render setting are no advantage really, as they are intended for the light shadow graduations of interior lighting. As you know, our Australian sun produces very harsh shadows(!) which is what Basic render (raytrace component of Advanced render) does, so this overrides the delicate shading anyway.

The other thing I would do if I was you, is render with a much smaller image. I never use bigger than 640x480 until I have the lighting etc right. Only for the final image do I set it to a high resolution. Saves a lot of time! Using Quality 1 Advanced is only marginally longer than Basic and is fine for exterior views. Of course, if a new PC is viable (and you can justify it to your wife  ) then go for it!

Jack,

I have a Samsung Core i7, 32 bit, with 4 gb RAM (not solid state) and it flies too, especislly compared with my previous Asus which was not very old (was stollen)!

Allan

[Draft Patrick]

Hi Jack,

Typo corrected ! 

you don't inform the type / brand  of the old processor, but IMO the difference must be the (probably) in the processor --> the i5 works nice and in my experience, even if TFP is not a 64 bit program, the speed is better
Anyway, for the old computer, make a good maintenace, including malware (avoid Lavasoft) . I fixed the speed of several computers just cleaning the system.

Hope this helps

Pat

[Burgo]

This has certainly been an interesting topic and I have learn t  a lot from the experts.
I will add more ramp to see if this fixes the basic render problem, if not I will stick to Allan's advice and use only advance render on a lower quality.
Thankyou to every one who contributed to this discussion.
Doug, it now appears that Active X is installed on my machine.
Regards Bob

[Doug.S]

Doug, it now appears that Active X is installed on my machine.
Regards Bob

Active X is far different than Direct X; I hope you meant Direct X, tho you probably have both.

[Burgo]

Sorry, director X

[Burgo]

Downloaded and installed the latest version of Director X, Installed a further 3 gig of ram. Results, will now basic render small files but still crashes with larger files. Solution, stick to advance render.

[Doug.S]

just on an off chance, I'd suggest you re-install TFP...just in case there is some small file broken; but possible that is not the issue at all. Grasping for answers now and can only try to fix one thing at a time.

Still very odd basic broke but adv works OK.  I had a file once that would hang or take forever for basic but adv was OK....so it is likely a file problem?  or do all .bld files work that way and it seems to be a system problem for you?

Suggest you post a tested problem .bld file and a few here can run and post tested results to see if it is only your PC or if problem goes with a file?

[Burgo]

Thanks Doug, will consider reinstalling TFP. Attached is the file that crashes in basic render.

[Draft Patrick]

Hi Bob,

the file works fine in my computer
Image 1 is basic rendering --> rendering time 4 seconds
Image 2 is advanced --> rendering time 96 seconds
I didn't modify lighting or other settings

I am under the  impression that something is not working OK with your computer's motherboard. (chip + memory)

Pat

[Burgo]

Thanks Pat, it very much looks like it is my computer or software. What processor, chip and how much ram does your computer have.
Bob

[Doug.S]

I ran both basic and adv and renders were fine.
Did on my laptop, win7, i7 CPU 1.6GHz turbo to 2.4, 6GB ram, radeon 5730 1GB vid card

view was different than Pat but similar (just opened file and rendered to .bmp at whatever settings you had in the .bld file)

Basic took a few seconds; probably less than 5
Adv render took 120 seconds total (112+8)

[Draft Patrick]

Hi Bob,

Yes, it looks like a hardware problem.

My computer --> Win 7 64 bit / i5 processor 3.2 GHz / Ram 8GB / videocard AMD Radeon HD 6900 2GB

Pat

[Burgo]

Yes, it does look like a hardware problem and thankyou all for your help, very much appreciated.
Bob