So...general thoughts and experiences with SI2013.

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 12 Apr 2012, 15:18

So far, I'm liking the new HQ viewport. Finally, color management and algorithmic texture support, I'm happy with that.

Daniel Brassard · Post by **Daniel Brassard** » 12 Apr 2012, 15:44

Your quick, already downloaded and installed are you? Glad you like it so far.

I'll do mine tonight, i am interested on PTex. So far what I read on MR site was about the standalone, so I want to see if it is available on the 3DC apps as well (although not exposed but that does not scare me a bit ... did I said I like a challenge!).

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 12 Apr 2012, 16:11

Figured I better download early or it would be really slow

The HQ viewport just took way too long to convert a basic scene and then crashed after a just a bit of orbiting. Less impressed now...

It seems the performance is pretty dismal on anything but very basic stuff. I'm using a GTX470.

IslandDreamer · Post by **IslandDreamer** » 12 Apr 2012, 16:51

I was up at 3 a.m. to download my 2013 suite. I was finally done with the install on two machines around 6:30 a.m.

I haven't had a crash yet and the HQV on the garage scene seems pretty responsive on my GTX 460. The feature doesn't work at all on my other pc with an ATI Raeon HD 3600. I just get a black viewport on that system.

I'm going to start a new project shortly so I can really give it a thorough test drive.

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 12 Apr 2012, 17:21

You might have to try the "multi-vendor GLSL" mode for the ATI (in the prefs).

IslandDreamer · Post by **IslandDreamer** » 12 Apr 2012, 18:40

ActionArt wrote:You might have to try the "multi-vendor GLSL" mode for the ATI (in the prefs).

That did it. Thanks!

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 12 Apr 2012, 19:06

Seems like the default settings for the HQV should at least start with things (like AO) deactivated so you could just add them as needed rather than having to constantly turn them off. Maybe some prefs for this would be nice?

So far, it seems full of strange bugs that only took a few minutes to discover so I guess this is more like a open beta and not really usable until at least the first service pack.

I'm disappointed that they didn't include color management in the other modes. Seems you have to use HQV to get it.

Fer · Post by **Fer** » 12 Apr 2012, 20:56

Did someone checked the doc? there's no informations about MetaSL or how to use them.

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 12 Apr 2012, 21:23

I found a nice little addition under object visibility. If you have HQV active you can turn on "environment" and see your environment image. That's nice.

Shadow maps seem to be working better in MR and even work with infinite light sources (I don't think they did before but could be wrong).

The realtime shadows in the HQV are OK as a utility for placing lights I guess but they sure are ugly.

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 13 Apr 2012, 00:32

So far, I'm impressed with the new MR. I re-rendered this scene with 2012SAP and 2013 with exactly the same settings. Here's the results:

2012SAP -
FG Points 8:57
Rendering 18:45

2013
FG Points 4:26
Rendering 14:04

Not bad!

[rimg=300]http://www.actionart.ca/ForumPics/BioxRed2.jpg[/rimg]

delpiero10 · Post by **delpiero10** » 13 Apr 2012, 08:35

Some HQVP tests i was doing, capture coming soon

Capture

Kzin · Post by **Kzin** » 13 Apr 2012, 09:07

ActionArt wrote:So far, I'm impressed with the new MR. I re-rendered this scene with 2012SAP and 2013 with exactly the same settings. Here's the results:

2012SAP -
FG Points 8:57
Rendering 18:45

2013
FG Points 4:26
Rendering 14:04

Not bad!

[rimg=300]http://www.actionart.ca/ForumPics/BioxRed2.jpg[/rimg]

nice,
have you tested importons and fg together? should be faster then fg alone, could reduce the rendertime a bit more.

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 13 Apr 2012, 14:59

I haven't tried that yet. I'm not too familiar with the settings or even what it's supposed to accomplish so it might take a while to get good results.

Siddharth - that's a pretty fine looking HQV preview.

ActionArt · Post by **ActionArt** » 13 Apr 2012, 15:37

Kzin wrote:have you tested importons and fg together? should be faster then fg alone, could reduce the rendertime a bit more.

Well, I tried it with the default settings and it took 10 times longer to do the importon pass than to render the entire image before, and then the render took 3 times longer.

Obviously, there's a lot I don't know about importons and how to use them but doesn't look to promising. MR is not known for it's intelligent default settings and this is no exception.

Documentation on it is light to say the least. Basically, how to turn it on, that's it. It seems like their tech writer has quit altogether or something. I'll have to find more on it somewhere else. I guess the days of getting real manuals with your software are gone gone gone.

mattmos · Post by **mattmos** » 13 Apr 2012, 16:23

Just had a basic play with the crowd scenes, had 20,000 in a stadium crowd and rendering in the viewport at around 6Gb memory usage, and the viewport was still very responsive. Impressed with that side of it definitely. Would be nice if there was an easy way to drive the colour of the mesh using the crowd particle color attribute.

HQV will take some getting used to but seeing procedurals in the bump mixed is nice - not as fast as I would like, but useful none the less.

rray · Post by **rray** » 13 Apr 2012, 16:29

Mental ray 3.10 update broke hair shading with detail shadow maps for me

Some tests... Bottom left image is the settings I usually use.

Mental Ray 3.10 (right column) removes most hair detail (see top of head). Even when using black shadows (top right image).

mr_hair.png

Probably it's the transparency cut off at depth 250 they introduced with version 3.10

___
edit.. another test

both 3.10, using shadowmaps should result in the same render output than using detail shadowmaps with black shadows..

mr_shadowmap_vs_detailshadowmap.png