The latest additions to cycles has made it nearly real time (Theory Build)

[bliblubli]

Hello!
Where can i get the last version with opencl working?

https://blenderartists.org/forum/sho...speedup-thread

[yandrychoy]

Wow, amazing times!.. Could you, please, share the settings did you play with?

[Tedri Mark]

This is insane! With the AO simplify set to 1 I get a kind of painterly effect in the shadows, which luckily enough for what [email protected] working on, suits it pretty well. It does make the render somewhat darker though.. but it is reeaaaally cool..

[lechu]

Wow, amazing times!.. Could you, please, share the settings did you play with?

These settings aren't really anything special, have a look (no AO in my scenes):

[D3Pixel]

After reading in this thread, youtube and blender nation people requesting scenes with the correct configuration, one question has arisen to me about if it is possible to somehow export only the configurations (render, scene tabs) for another to import those configurations into the scene without being necessary having to share the whole scene again.

A python script could do that. Or modify the "Render: Copy Settings" add-on to include everything by default and dump the values to a .py file that a user could then open and execute.

[Tedri Mark]

Does this build have the denoising stuff in it, or is that in a different build? I couldn't find the button under 'Sampling'...

[Binke]

tedri mark: its in the render layers tab. make sure you have cycles selected as renderer.

[Binke]

leechu: you are not even using the simplify settings on your scene? (looking at your screenshot of your settings)

[DERBENDER]

These settings aren't really anything special, have a look (no AO in my scenes):

Looks like you "only" used the Denoiser.
Try using Simplify and AO Bounces: 3, the rendertime should drop even more.
If you use less AO Bounces the transparent materials getting weird, if you don´t have any, try using AO Bounces: 2.


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and here some more =) this build soooo awesome! btw Im using Linux build on Fedora 25. 2m 5s and 1m 25sec
Attachment 479660
Attachment 479661

Are you using your own build?
Can you share your post pro, cause the scene looks amazing?

[Binke]

Is everyone here rendering with GPU? Im stuck to render with CPU, and im seeing improvements but not shooting through the roof like other peoples test. But in my tests ive had a lot of transparent glass and stuff so ive been forced to use at least 5 AO bounces, so that could be why?

[lsscpp]

The AO trick (credits to Marco) is cool but now we need the AO color to be decoupled from the world settings. Otherwise we have to "Lightpath" our environment nodetrees

[animelix]

Attachment 480138
really great improvements! 10minutes render, 200 samples, dof, only 1sun

[weee]

how to use denoise in this build, I turned it on and do a few settings doesn't seem to have any effects

never mind solved

[MZGarmi]

Looks like you "only" used the Denoiser.
Try using Simplify and AO Bounces: 3, the rendertime should drop even more.
If you use less AO Bounces the transparent materials getting weird, if you don´t have any, try using AO Bounces: 2.

He don't use AO in this scene. Or does it help even when you have AO turned off?
And what is a good scrambling distance value what does it actually do?

[DERBENDER]

He don't use AO in this scene. Or does it help even when you have AO turned off?
And what is a good scrambling distance value what does it actually do?

Post #13

The interface is a little deceptive. The checkbox is for the "world AO", which is an ambient lamp with built-in occlusion. The distance still affects the AO pass and the AO-after-diffuse bounces thing, even with the checkbox disabled

About the scrambling distance and Pattern, I don´t know exactly what it does( maybe some other can explain), I only tested the AO Bounces under Simplify and leave the scrambling distance at 1 with sobol pattern. If you change it to 0 the render gets even faster, but with more artefacts.

So here are my tests, I haven´t post it, cause I have seen the classroom render of Floki and I thought I have done something wrong, because my scene looks somehow different, but they are all experimental builds, so we are testing, right.

Anyhow here are my tests:

Resolution 1920x1080(full hd)
tested on Linux Mint18.1
GTX 1070

300 Samples 7min13sec

50 Samples,denoised 1min24sec (left) , 50 Samples 1min13sec(right)
classroom_Denoiseonly_50spl_time01min24combined.jpg



AO Bounces: 1
Rendertime 18sec
50 Samples, denoised

AO Bounces: 2
Rendertime 35sec
50 Samples, denoised

AO Bounces: 3
Rendertime 54sec
50 Samples, denoised

AO Bounces: 4
Rendertime 1min10sec
50 Samples, denoised

AO Bounces: 5
Rendertime 1min 19sec
50 Samples, denoised

classroom_AO_Bounces.jpg

[lsscpp]

The AO trick (credits to Marco) is cool but now we need the AO color to be decoupled from the world settings. Otherwise we have to "Lightpath" our environment nodetrees

Again on this: the timesavings are incredible. The caveat is: transparent and glossy surfaces sucks, i.e. the trick becomes useless as shown by the clock in the classroom. The question for devs is: would it be possible to bound the AO trick only to diffuse paths?

[Tobi95]

About the scrambling distance and Pattern, I don´t know exactly what it does( maybe some other can explain), I only tested the AO Bounces under Simplify and leave the scrambling distance at 1 with sobol pattern. If you change it to 0 the render gets even faster, but with more artefacts.

As far as I unterstood, the scrambling distance couples the random numbers to the pixel. Scrambling distance 0 means: all pixels use the same sequence of random numbers. Scrambling distance 1 means: each pixel use it's own sequence of random numbers. No scrambling means noise free rendering results, but you have banding artifacts. The error of the image is evenly distributed and it could happen that a lamp like the sun didn't have an effect on the pixels (exspecially for the first few samples). So it's mainly useful if you want an instantly clear preview in the viewport. But it doesn't improve speed or image quality and denoising it probably wouldn't help.
With scrambling distance 1 the error is (almost) evenly distributed over the pixel and should be easier to denoise. You probably want it when rendering the final render, because the human eye is constructed to recognize edges more than noise.

[Floki]

This is default postpro in demo file of classroom. U need just download demo file and open compose editor and u see all nodes.
Screenshot from 2017-04-13 17-58-50.jpg
untitled.jpg

[CarlG]

Is the AO trick the same as doing "if bounces > n then calculate AO instead"? I've used this previously but I had to implement it to every material, I'm guessing now it's a global switch?

If so, how about other global tricks like that? I'm especially using two additional "insert node groups" frequently:
1) If backside, then render as transparent. Using fully white this is same as backface culling during rendering. I wouldn't always want to use this as a global, i.e. when I actually utilize backside such as in plants and windows.
2) If diffuse ray, then calculate as diffuse only with a brightness multiplier. If applied to a rough shiny floor (near black diffuse), light would still scatter diffusely as if it was a purely diffuse surface to nearby surfaces rather than simply being dropped out. Useful if rendering without reflective caustics - for me that means always. But currently I have to define it for every material, although floors and walls in a room would be the major contributors. Probably even better to use a calculated albedo as base. It basically means that specularly reflected light would still contribute to light transport, even if it happens in a diffuse way. It won't be "correct", but it will brighten the scene.

[brecht]

Is the AO trick the same as doing "if bounces > n then calculate AO instead"? I've used this previously but I had to implement it to every material, I'm guessing now it's a global switch?

Yes, it's like that.

1) If backside, then render as transparent. Using fully white this is same as backface culling during rendering. I wouldn't always want to use this as a global, i.e. when I actually utilize backside such as in plants and windows.

Backface culling is a good optimization for rasterization, but adding transparency to a shader in Cycles normally makes it slower. In which cases does this help?

2) If diffuse ray, then calculate as diffuse only with a brightness multiplier. If applied to a rough shiny floor (near black diffuse), light would still scatter diffusely as if it was a purely diffuse surface to nearby surfaces rather than simply being dropped out. Useful if rendering without reflective caustics - for me that means always. But currently I have to define it for every material, although floors and walls in a room would be the major contributors. Probably even better to use a calculated albedo as base. It basically means that specularly reflected light would still contribute to light transport, even if it happens in a diffuse way. It won't be "correct", but it will brighten the scene.

This is more or less what Filter Glossy does, it doesn't make the reflection diffuse but increases the roughness which is similar. It only increases roughness up to 0.5 though, that could be changed. Part of the reason it's limited to that is because the BSDFs had significant darkening with higher roughness, but with the new multi scatter GGX that is solved.