when rendering, keep the Properties Shelf CLOSED, and
Cycles will render in 1/2 the time!!!
I thought it was due to BLender creating the Waveform and/or Vectorscope
graphs in real time, but it still rendered ~7sec when they were closed and the Shelf was open, vs 3.5" when the Shelf was closed.
In BI, it’s like 7.7" with Shelf open, 5.7" closed (using a different scene as an example)…not as dramatic, but still significant.
Many may already know this “trick”, but I didn’t, and just wanted to pass it on.
When rendering stuff from the VSE or node editor that doesn’t actually use any objects in a scene it can give even better speedup For example, just saving an image sequence to a video format gave nearly 50x speedup
When rendering stuff from the VSE or node editor that doesn’t actually use any objects in a scene it can give even better speedup For example, just saving an image sequence to a video format gave nearly 50x speedup
Whoa! Will have to try it.
BTW, I’m using Blender 2.67a …will report it as a possible bug. I don’t usually have the Properties Shelf open when
rendering, and 7 sec/frame seemed reasonable…then noticed it took off when I closed the PS.
I wouldn’t report it, it’s not really a bug.
The reason it’s so slow it that every time the image gets redrawn (new frame or just some more samples) it has to calculate all those graphs all over again.
But I suppose some kind of “fix” to stop it redrawing during a render couldn’t hurt
And yeah, command line renders are generally a bit quicker too (with VSE stuff, I had about 1.5 - 2x speed up before I think, but with normal renders its not too impressive)
I wouldn’t report it, it’s not really a bug.
…I already reported it as a bug. Maybe there could/should be a pop-up
reminding users to close it before rendering (?)
Also, it didn’t matter if the graphs were visible either…it was at least 2x slower when the Shelf was open. I’m assuming it will be easy to reproduce with any blender file, and should be noted in the Wiki if it isn’t considered to be a bug…i.e. “Always close the Properties Shelf when rendering”.
Maybe I should just tell the Wiki group about it (?)
re: Video Sequence Editor (VSE)…I didn’t know you can render from the VSE or console…I’ve barely used the VSE…so many facets to Blender! :eek:
I never thought I’d ever have so much fun with it!
If you can find a page where it could fit, I’ll add it in. The problem is there are so many pages about rendering in the wiki, since you can render with BI, Cycles, from the VSE, compositing - and putting the same tiny tip in all those places is a bit ridiculous. Also any pages about the image editor itself are more about texturing and have nothing to do with rendering
It definitely is a bug! Bug means error, either design or coding error (or both) that has a negative impact -like doubling the render time for no reason. It is the developer’s omission to disable unnecessary CPU consuming functions during rendering -definitely not a feature request. A few hours (or minutes) of developer’s time to fix it, can save 10s of thousands of hours of users’ time.
Placing a warning is really poor design: Like the program is unable to close or disable its own panel and asks the user to do so! “Please User, close my panel, it slows me down!”
I would not call it a bug. That is like me calling it a bug when I claim that Blender is slow with 12,000 objects in the scene. Or my framerate drops when I have images in the viewport.
Personally I have never even opened up that properties panel. When I render in Cycles it is closed by default. So there is no speed benefit for me.
It is more of a speed penality if you insist upon observing the render in such a detailed fashion.
But go ahead and report it as a bug. Maybe there is some improvement the developers can make?
If you can find a page where it could fit, I’ll add it in. The problem is there are so many pages about rendering in the wiki, since you can render with BI, Cycles, from the VSE, compositing - and putting the same tiny tip in all those places is a bit ridiculous. Also any pages about the image editor itself are more about texturing and have nothing to do with rendering
GregZaal
I think there should be a “note” on the Wiki page to let users know it will slow down the render 2x if the Shelf is open.
I’ll look at the pages and make a request.
BTW, I just checked again…if the Shelf is open before you start the render showing the location rotation etc of the selected object, it stays open when you hit the render button (f12) and shows the graph…i.e. it doesn’t close by default…at least in my version.
It would be good to have a warning popup…“Hey, close the shelf unless you want your render to take twice as long!” or words to that effect.
I don’t know if it is a bug or a quirk. But it is a huge hit on render time, and just wanted to make everyone aware of it.
Time is precious! :eek:
might it be considered a 2x slowdown when they are open rather than a sx speedup when they are closed?
-ctdabomb
Probably more accurate!
I should have done this earlier…I tried re-producing it in 2.66:
If the Properties Shelf is open before you render, it closes automatically when you render.
If you open it ("T’) after rendering to show the graphs, and then render, it will stay open,
(if you don’t first go back to 3d view), and subsequent renders will take 2x longer.
So it appears that the problem is that 2.67a doesn’t automatically close the Shelf when rendering.
The bottom line is, always keep the Properties Shelf closed when rendering.
Ok, here’s what I just found out after installing 2.68!
The Properties Shelf closes automatically now as in 2.66
Blender Internal renders almost as fast with the Shelf open as closed (!)…e.g. 25sec vs 24sec in a quick test. A very good thing.
Cycles renders ~3X times SLOWER if the shelf is open when rendering (GPU, default settings)…e.g. 7.3" vs 2.6" in a quick test (using SSS & mirror).
It’s not as clear cut as I first thought, and the problem varies with the version. Just be aware
of it to get the best render times in whichever version/renderer combo is being used.
Test your version & favorite renderer so you know what to expect if the shelf is open or closed.
Sorry if I led anyone astray or confused the issue. :o
For example, just saving an image sequence to a video format gave nearly 50x speedup 
For example, just saving an image sequence to a video format gave nearly 50x speedup 
