If you want to speed up the 3D rendering cycles, you’ll have to roll up your sleeves and make some adjustments. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of 7 adjustments:
1. USE GPU OR CPU FOR RENDERING
If you already know about this trick, please skip to the next step. Many people in the 3D industry are not familiar with the hardware they are using. You can speed up the 3D rendering cycles if you start using a better processor in a PC. There are two processors in your PC – CPU and GPU.
In most cases, the GPU has more significant power when rendering in 3D. In some cases, your rendering time will improve x10. You can fix these errors in the Settings menu in your 3D rendering software. Just choose your graphics card and enjoy faster rendering times!
Not all 3D rendering tools support GPU rendering or GPU rendering with all graphics cards. Check out your 3D software features before spending time looking for an option that’s not there.
2. USE All CPU THREADS
Modern CPUs come with several cores. The number of threads indicates the number of used cores. If you want to speed up 3D render cycles, you have to make sure that your 3D rendering software is using all the power that is available to it.
Locate theme settings in your software. If it installs auto-discover, make sure to check all of your CPU cores are used in the next dump. If not, please manually specify the number of cores to be used.
3. REDUCE THE NUMBER OF DETAILS
Too many details could be killing your rendering time. If you want to speed up the 3D rendering cycles, you have to eliminate redundant polygons. When you set the camera’s viewpoint, you know which objects are too far and which ones are out of focus because they are too close.
Reduce the number of details to improve the rendering cycle by lowering the categories and the number of polygons. This technique is commonly used in the gaming industry.
Also, pay attention to the details of the subject in the camera frame that actually faces the camera. Your 3D rendering software will display them even if they are not in the camera’s view. Just delete the additional details before rendering the image. It will make the whole process significantly faster.
If you are using 3D rendering software in architecture, you should be aware of the common pitfalls of slow 3D rendering cycles. Dump room or exterior with all objects. Again, pay attention to the camera frame. When it comes to internal and external 3D visualization, you can delete all objects outside the camera frame to ensure fast 3D display time.
4. LOWER NUMBER OF SAMPLES
A large number of samples have a negative effect on the time of 3D rendering. For those that are new to the industry, “samples” is the name used for the noise that appears while your scenes are rendered. If you open the rendering table in your 3D rendering software, you will be able to see the “number of samples” field.
To speed up the 3D rendering cycles, you need to keep the number of samples as low as possible. When the 3D rendering engine reaches the number of presets, it will stop. Reducing the number of samples can result in a less clear picture.
On the other hand, if you increase the number of samples, it does not guarantee you a nicer rendering. The goal is to find your sample number and stick with it.
5. STEP SIZE OR MAX STEPS
Most of the popular 3D rendering tools have the options that allow users to set the step size and number of max steps in the volume sampling settings. If you want to get precise renders that are rich in detail, you want to decrease the step size. As a result, this will increase the render time.
You can balance it by reducing the maximum steps because the maximum number of steps is proportional to the rendering speed. And of course, it all has to do with the number of bounces.
When you decrease “max steps”, you will reduce the number of bounces that the rendering engine must calculate before a light ray is turned off.
6. LIMIT THE NUMBER OF BOUNCES
The number of bounces is directly proportional to the rendering time. The more bounces you have, the longer your cycles will take. Light bounce stands for all the light in your scene that bounces off various surfaces. The more bounces you have, the more realistic your render will be. This comes with the cost of long rendering time.
Limit the number of bounces to four, and you will experience incredible render speed.
There are many ways to speed up 3D rendering cycles. If you incorporate all this into your workflow, you will save a lot of time. However, it will take some time to discover the best tweaks for your specific use case.
7. OPTIMIZE THE TILE SIZE
Have you ever looked at the screen while the computer was rendering your image? Those boxes that appear on the screen during rendering are called “Tiles”. This “Tile Size” is a huge render speed factor. By keeping the tile size small, you give your computer a break, as it can now focus on a smaller part of your scene.
Now you can change not only the number of tiles but also their size in pixels. Optimizing the tile size will significantly reduce your render time. To do it right, you need to know that GPU can only render one tile at a time, while CPU renders multiple tiles at a time.
This translates into the following:
● If you are using GPU for rendering, make sure to use large tile sizes (256x256px)
● If you are using CPU for rendering, make sure to use small tile sizes (16x16px)
