Average render time
ramon73
Posts: 96
What is the average iRay render time for a modest scene? I am still pretty new with DazStudio, but so far I am kinda shocked about how long it takes just to render one image at 1440p resolution. I am currently trying to render a small appartment scene with 3 models and after 1 hour the render progress is still 0%. This would mean that I have to keep my computer running for days at 100% load just to create one render image. If I would create a 10 second animation for this scene then I would probably have to leave my computer on for a week!
The specs of my computer are not bad at all, it's not like I am trying to render on a potato computer.
11th gen i9-11900K @3.50GHz with peak to 5.0GHz, 32GB RAM, RTX3070 and Daz is installed on the SSD.
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Hi. Welcome to the wonderful world of Daz 3d. Tips on speeding up your scene:-
1. Put the denoiser on. You probaly don't need 2000 samples, a lot less will give an acceptable image. To do this just set "post denoiser available" and "spectral rendering enable" both to on, and the Post denoiser start iteration to 1 in the render settings. You'll get an acceptable result within 30 seconds. If it's a small scene (1 character and an HDRI background), my record is 6 seconds for an acceptable result. If the denoiser doesnt work, that's becuase your scene is bigger than your graphics cards memory, which leads me to point 2.
2. Reduce the amount of information in the scene. You probably don't need props that are not in shot, unless they are casting shadows. Your shaders may well have high resolution images that certainly are not needed unless the figure is right in the foreground. Even then they can be reduced. You can do this manually by editing the image and saving it as a smaller one elsewhere, then pointing the shader to pick up the smaller image instead. Or you can buy scene optimisers from the Daz store.
3. Light. Let a lot of light in. Light is speed. Even night scenes can have a lot of light in them. Experiment with ways of adding light.
4. HDRI maps. Look up how to use those if the concept is new to you. Essentially it's a 360 degree background with built in lighting. Very fast.
It's a big topic, but the above should make a rapid increase in your render times. Good luck.
Hi, thank you so much for this info! I haven't even seen the denoiser option before you wrote it here. I just found a youtube tutorial of it and I will work with it to see if that helps :) And I will also work with the other tips you gave me!
The image I was rendering at 0% progress after an hour suddenly jumped up to 50% and in the end the render was finished after 2 and a half hours. So maybe I panicked a bit after I saw the 0%, still 2 and a half hours is a long time for one image. If I can bring that down to a few minutes like you said then that will make Daz so much more enjoyable!
I will post an update after I messed around with it :)
So update:
I have activated the denoiser, but it's not working at my end and makes zero difference. I watched this tutorial ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4opzWycb0i8 ) and in the comments I saw a guy reporting the same problem. He said that he fixed it by disabling 'CPU Fallback', I did that but the denoiser still doesn't work for some reason. I will google around some more to see what the issue might be.
Edit: I found this topic with people having the same issue ( https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/220721/my-gpu-isn-t-used-while-rendering ), but no real solution other than updating graphic drivers. The denoiser also does not work in an empty scene so it's not a VRAM issue.
Hi,
Ok you definitely want the latest graphics drivers. That will fix 90% of your problems.
After that how about trying a very simple scene? One Genesis 8 Female or male, clothed with hair. I'd be suprised if that takes more than 3GB of GPU ram. You have a big card so it will render it no problem. Set it to 100 samples. That should be ample. Set the denoiser on again (all 3 settings as above). What happends now?
I have just found out that the denoiser does work when I have set the viewport to iRay. It rendered an empty scene with one model almost instantly, but the render progress still showed 0%. I have to cancel the render manually and then I can save the fully rendered image. I don't think this is how it's suppose to work, but it works now!
Ah great. Yes the denoiser is Iray only. As to 0% progress you are talking about the viewport right? It's still rendering and will still stop when it reaches your chosen number of samples. You can prove this by listening to the GPU fan. I bet it's ok if you render for real. I.e. press the blue render button at the top of the render tab, and let it do it's thing.
There is no average rendering time, it all depends on the characters, hair, clothing, props, architecture and environment and how you have set them up
Having a render take hour(s) on a 3070, suggests that your scenes do not fit the 8GB VRAM (out of which about 2.5-3GB's is reserved for other things than rendering) and it is doing the rendering with CPU and while doing that running out of RAM as well.
Attached is a test I made some time ago to see how much RAM and VRAM was used while rendering in IRAY
Case a) just one lightweight G8 figure with lightweight clothing and hair
Case b) four similar G8 characters with architecture
Case c and d) started increasing SubD on the characters to see at which point the rendering would drop to CPU
"RAM/GB" and "VRAM/MB" taken from GPU-Z, "DS Log/GiB" taken from DS Log, no other programs were running but DS and GPU-Z
Using RTX 2070 Super (8GB), i7-5820K and 64GB's of RAM on W7 Ultimate
Note; Case c) was already using 38GB's of RAM, even though the rendering was done on the GPU, Case d) when rendering on CPU the RAM usage went almost over my 64GB's
I get impatient if my render time approaches 5 minutes. I probably spend too much time swapping out textures for shaders which render quickly, eliminating too many reflective surfaces and having too much skin taking up the scene. Plus I now have a 3090 which helps!
But then my requirements are not so serious. I make stories made up of a series of around 100 panels - a bit like a comic except that the panels are all the same size (5:4 1600x1280) and they are more photo-real than comic graphics.
Now if I could only speed up dForce simulations I would be a happy camper.
With your specs and all tricks combined it should not take too long. I have a potato pc and it takes 5 hours, but then again- weaker pc and not much dforce applied. For faster results you may look into the product - scene optimiser. It is worth it's price imho.
Well, having a 'new' PC and NVIDIA GPU helps. About a year ago I had a Quad-Core i7 with GPU with 280 CUDA cores. Basic DS renders took 30+ minutes. So I bit the bullet and purchased a new COMPUTER with i7-oct-core and GPU with 3000+ CUDA cores - it does the same image in less than a minute. Cost me 2-grand $$, but for a relaxing hobby, renders in 30 seconds is better than renders in 30 minutes! I understand not everyone can spend that kind of money on a hobby.
Does not help in this case as the computer is new with a new Nvidia GPU - Having a new computer and Nvidia GPU still doesn't mean that you don't have to check how much resources the scene is using.
Hmm, reducing render time from 30 minutes to 30 seconds is defined in my book 'as helping' :-). But what would I know - I'm just a hobbyist.
If you check the OP's computer specs, you will understand.
Hi all just upgrade this post : i'm searching the reason why i've approximately the same problem...
On a indor scene, with 2 characters with clothes and props, post denoiser is on and spectral rendering is on. My config is a Dell I7 12000k 3600 Mhz + Nvidia Geforce RTX 3070
When i start a render it stays on 0% after 2 hours. An image is created (a little bit noisy), but it seems that render will never end....
What could be wrong ?
Running out of VRAM comes to mind. The RTX 3070 only has 8GB's and depending on the hair and clothing the characters have, the two characters can already be too much.
2-3 characters in an indoor scene typically takes 15 minutes to render on my RTX 3060 but it has 12GB's of VRAM, which leaves twice as much VRAM available for Iray rendering as one gets with an 8GB GPU.
So i have to change my graphic card...
Check your DS Log first, running out of VRAM is reported there.
Help->Toubleshooting->View Log File
I only have a 6GB GPU and rendering this at 720p takes me about 45 seconds per frame rendering just the character to Alpha with Iray adding ground shadows and reflections.
The background scene (Urban Future 7) I let bake longer because it's still - so I can afford the extra wait.
The steam is iReal animated clouds, by ThePhilosopher, and rendered very fast all by itself, then I sandwich it all together in Fusion.
Render time is how you treat your workflow.
these examples are GIFs of the actual 720p video, so are much lower quality
At this distance, the character renders at closer to 1.5 minutes per frame. Again at 720p
For a better understanding of everything, Jay Versluis' Daz Studio Masterclass is really good. Follow it through - even stuff you think you already know. He'll provide many tips and tricks and reason why things are the way they are. It's a great resource!