Bitmap receding into the distance becomes blurry in 3ds Max / Vray

What to do when texture rendered in a steep angle becomes blurry in 3ds max? Do you have a problem with blurred bitmaps in vray? Especially when the bitmap is receding into the distance?

The problem is the filtering of that blurred bitmap. There is couple options you can play around with:

1. Change the "Blur" value

• Open Material editor
• Select the Bitmap that is causing the problem
• Under Filtering you can see Blur value 1,0 by default
• Lower the value and find best setting for you. (Usually around 0,1-0,8)
• Lowering Blur value too much might cause Moire patterns and slower rendering! So test your settings

2. Change filtering method to "Summed Area" or "None"

• The default method is "Pyramidal"
• Using Summed Area increases memory usage by 400%! This might not be the best options if you have a large bitmap
  
• Using None method might cause Moire patterns and texture crawl
  

3. Use Super sampling in scanline 3ds max

• Increase from default 1/4 to around 1/16

Try these methods and see which works best for you. Remember to test render and keep an eye on possible Moire patterns and lowered rendering times. Also remember to use uncompressed texture maps like Tiff, Targa, PSD. Using JPG will cause increased memory usage and lower quality.

When to use "Use interpolation" in V-ray material? What does it do?

Use "Use interpolation" option in Vray material to speed up rendering of glossy reflections or refractions/translucency. Interpolation option should be used ONLY in stills! Do not use it in animations, because it causes flickering.

It allows you to set Hsph subdivs and Interp samples separately from Global subdivs. This is usually done to smooth out a material that otherwise looks too grainy and to speed up rendering of material that is otherwise too slow.

Always test it before rendering the final, because with wrong settings it might look awful.

How to use it:

1. Material editor-->VrayMtl-->Reflection or Refraction-->Tick "Use interpolation"
2. Material editor-->VrayMtl-->Reflection or Refraction interpolation tab-->Tweak the settings and test (Compare with Global settings - Irradiance settings)

Vray memory error - Problem rendering big image- Rendering large images for print

Do you have problems rendering big Vray images? Are you running out of memory with high resolution renderings? Do you get a message: “Error creating bitmap” ,when rendering large image in 3ds max? Do you need help with fixing a memory error? Then try these quick fixes: (These instructions are for 3ds max 2011 and V-ray 1.5, but they can be applied to other 3d programs too.)

Quick fixes:

1. Purge scene memory

• Save the scene. Reset it and open it again and then render
  
• This should be done always before trying to render a big image

2. Disable unnecessary applications and processes

• Anti-virus,automatic updates..

3. Save as Tiff, VRimg or Exr

4. Use Bitmap pager

• F10 Render Setup ->
• Common Tab->
• Bitmap Performance and Memory Options->
• Setup

5. Disable frame buffer

• 3DS MAX - F10 Render Setup->
• Common Tab->
• Untick “Rendered Frame Window”
• VRAY - F10 Render Setup->
• V-ray Tab->
• Frame Buffer->
• Untick “Enable built-in Frame Buffer”

6. Use proxies (V-ray)

• For objects that have lots of polygons.
• Right-click on the object and select “V-ray mesh export”->
• Select “Export each selected object in a separate file”->
• Select “ Automatically create proxies”->Ok

7. Clear out unused cached bitmaps

• F11 MaxScript Listener->
• type: FreeSceneBitmaps()

8. Keep it clean

• Delete unused materials, UVW maps and objects from the scene

9. Use 3d displacement method for large displacement maps (Vray)

• 2d displacement method uses lots of memory with large maps
• Also use same displacement modifier for all objects that have same displacement map

10. Use the "Blowup" or "Crop" rendering method in 3ds max

• Link to instructions: Click here

11. Use dynamic memory (V-ray)

• F10 Render Setup->
• Settings Tab->
• System->
• Default Geometry->
• Dynamic
• Change “Dynamic memory limit” to a value that suits you best. If you have 4GB of RAM and a 32 bit OS you should enter 2000-3000MB. If you have 12GB RAM,64bit OS enter around 8000-10000MB.
  

12. Change Bucket Size (V-ray)

• F10 Render Setup->
• Settings Tab->
• System->
• Render Region Division->
• change to 32. ( This slows down the rendering though)

13. Use Backburner to render

• Do a netrendering on one single computer
• Activate your backburner server, monitor, and manager
• Submit a networkrenderingjob (You can do this on one single computer)
• In the dialog box choose Split scan lines
• This will cut the final image into chunks max can handle
• You can define the size of every individual chunk and even choose is max will stich them automatically.

14. If 3ds max still crashes after applying these tips, then render with smaller resolution and increase the image size in Photoshop. Remember to increase the size in small steps. Maximum of 5-10% increase at once.

Long-term Fixes:

1. Buy 64 bit operating system with lots of memory
2. Resize bitmap textures to actual maximum size they will be rendered in.

• If you render images at resolution 3000 x 2250 then your texture maps never need to be larger than 3000 x 2250. Small objects and objects that are far away from the camera can have much smaller texture maps than 3000 x 2250.
  

3. Use uncompressed texture maps

• Use Tiff, Targa, PSD rather than JPG

4. Increase virtual memory

Other possible reasons for memory errors:

1. Use Pyramidal or None filtering in vraymaterials. Summed area filtering uses much more memory.

Hopefully these tips will help you render large images for print.

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Visual3D has new website! - Visual3D:n uudet nettisivut on avattu!

P.S. Free 3D models, textures and tutorials are coming soon on Visual3D´s subpage called "3D for Free" - Ilmaisia 3D malleja, tekstuureja ja tutoriaaleja tulossa Visual3D:n sivuille.

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Tips for speeding up rendering of V-ray scene with opacity maps. - Vray opacity map slow render

Tips for speeding up rendering of V-ray scene with opacity maps. (For example when making leaves for a tree)

Here few things I tried that have worked for me in the past.

1. Create a VrayMaterial with a bitmap in the diffuse slot and opacity map in opacity slot. Then change Opacity maps blur value to 0,01 and under "Filtering" choose None.

2. Use textured leafs with opacity map only when they are close to the camera. Otherwise use modelled leafs without opacity maps or complex bitmap textures.

3. Reduce reflection glossiness of the leafs. No reflection = faster rendering. If you need glossiness then tick the "Use interpolation" option in vraymaterial and fix the values in "Reflect interpolation" tab.

4. Use uncompressed texture maps like TIFF, TGA and PSD instead of JPG. Don´t use texture maps with unnecessary large resolution!

5. Turn the shadows off if you don´t need them for that specific object. Right click on the object. Choose Object properties and unclick "Cast shadows".

6. In some situations you might want to try unclicking the Double-sided option under Options tab, but use it only when it looks okey for your render.

I heard about these methods also, but I haven´t tried them yet:
7. Use VRay2sidedMaterial instead of VrayMaterial with opacity map

8. Use a Blend material. Put opacity map to the mask slot and the color of the leaves in one slot. Then put vraymaterialwrapper into the other slot using it as a shadow matte option.

P.S. "How to deal with memory problems while rendering large images" can be found in my new article and "How to speed up your overall V-ray rendering" can be found in my earlier article.

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