Cineversity

Hi All,

I’m rendering a mall in C4D R20, but ProRender is rendering with some unpleasant black streaks. Please see attached.

The streaks are shown inline, but across different and independent geometry (see the ground floor and right 1st/2nd floor).

As the camera moves, the streaks stay with the camera view and move over the geometry (like kind of a reflection, but still happens with no material applied).

This is especially noticeable in the angled streaks that you can see on the right side of the corridor/railing across all floors.

This doesn’t happen with Physical/Arnold, but I’m on a Mac, and this scene takes much longer to render with my CPU on them.

This is the first time I use ProRender, any suggestions?

Please find C4D scene and textured renders here: https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/0rqvDMOi2kXV6lCxQ0g3DKOgQ#C4D_Mall_Project

Thanks

Hi varval,

Thanks for using iCloud.

The Ray Epsilon value is too low.
https://help.maxon.net/us/index.html#VPGPURENDERER-VP_GPURENDERER_PAGE_GENERAL

Please have a look at your file, I have reduced it to the problem, replaced the HDRi and materials, there is only a camera, a sky and the plane object in the scene. I think it is OK to share that.
Project file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/kNpziA2eRjLlTpo2cY4J53KnGSQUPYMPHHeoYWFGOj5

Please note that I have two render setting there, the one initially provided and the “nostripes”. The Render Region is set to have a fast preview of the settings.

(I missed all textures, normal maps etc., so I couldn’t render the full scene.)

All the best
Stay safe, stay healthy.

That’s it! Thanks so much indeed!!

You’re very welcome, varval, thanks for the feedback.

(I wonder if baking the light into textures would allow for a super-fast rendering, as only the camera is moving..)

Have a great day.
Satay safe, stay healthy.

Dr. Sassi - 06 April 2020 09:02 PM

(I wonder if baking the light into textures would allow for a super-fast rendering, as only the camera is moving..)
.

Yes, that’s something I’ve always wanted to try, and this looks like a good chance if I don’t add people walking around!

Will have to learn how to do it tho! is it complicated?

Thanks!

Hi varval,

It is relatively simple, but I would encourage you to get familiar with it based on a simple scene.
One essential part must be understood: It needs to have an UV mesh that doesn’t overlap.
This UV should be even, in other words, the pixel-distribution should not vary on the surface.

https://help.maxon.net/us/index.html#TBAKETEXTURE
eventually:
https://help.maxon.net/us/index.html#5739

You can bake many things, and based on that, you also have many options.
As with multi-pass compositing, one can render each light or group of lights separately.
Typically this can be then layered and adjust with sliders. In this way, you have a lot of freedom, while everything speeds up later on.

I have created a very quick sketch, screen-capture, and scene file, with baking and layering. Those little clips are not meant as a tutorial, but to give a quick impression about it.

Please have a look here:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/c6IgNTUfSetraNKWxczmOPqYFGHU9TjQMlJM13KkJPj

Enjoy, stay safe, stay healthy.

Hi varval,

I wanted to share this since you have asked about baking. I modeled the shop-front from scratch, just from a 7*4 segment plane, moved some points, and extruded polygons where needed. It has nearly a quarter of the files I got.
Never the less I placed two figures into it…

I baked the light, and with this, no Global Illumination is needed, so ProRender can be set to Diffuse. The scene has 288 shops in it, while transparency and reflection are active.
Scene file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/iBEYTzoiicZS0OdXup2COu3KvbSERXM7i6VcLFEJAJ6

Please compare the render-times.

Screenshot:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/1a56dsZ0Fwu4CxffIM8VaIjk1AAKo8ZcubyAja9ZfEe

ENJOY

Yes, I’m now trying to bake it, but since I have already spent too much time on the scene, I was trying to bake it as quick as possible, otherwise, render it with GI in a render farm.

So I’ve used a Bake Object, placed at the null which is at the very top of the hierarchy; but it’s been remapping groups for a few hours now and seems like I’m going to cancel that.

I used the Bake Object as it seems a quick few-clicks baking option, but maybe it’s taking so long because the shops and humans geometry I bought isn’t optimised as you shown.

The Bake Material option seems more powerful, but I only need to bake the light and AO, and since I have to repeat it with each individual character and shop (all have diff. materials), I though it would take too much time.

Maybe I could combine all the characters and atrezzo, on a “per shop” basis, and bake its material as a single object? that would leave me with just x16 sets of shops and characters + the building.

Perhaps the Bake Object is taking so many hours just because the scene is made of so many different objects?

Hi varval,

A good bake of a large scene like that is not just a push of a button. It is a balance between render-time and effort. I doubt that anything useful will come out with just baking it to one object. (Do I understand that correctly) My doubts are also based on your use of Cloner and instances. All in all, if you have a render-farm, that sounds way more attractive.

I had in mind to bake each of the four stores and go from there.

Besides, once the light is baked in, it is super stable (no noise, no flickering), and any adjustment and re-render are fast, except for the eventual re-bake. But also here, once a light is baked, the texture can be just painted. It can often be done even with the Standard ray-tracer engine. Any baked light saves at least one or two iterations of light bounce. With the same GI settings, the results will be much better. If GI is used at all after that.

Yes, I understand, the invested time, but that has sadly no influence on anything.

I hope you find the sweet-spot for your project.

My best wishes for your project

P.S.:
I rendered my backed project with 288 stores in UHD:
Viewport 00:02
Standard 01:56
Physical 06:35
ProRender 18:03 (Diffuse)