Scene Translation--What is it?

[padre.ayuso]

Does anyone know what does Max really do while "Scene Translating" just before it starts Final Gathering or actually rendering? I have some data but I want to see if anyone has the full data on this.

Thanks!

[nelpiper]

I don't really understand what you mean by "MAX doing while scene translating". If you want to know what is "scene translating": it's the step where MR picks up all the scene data (geometry, textures, lights, etc.) and turns them into mental images data, so that MR can work with it. Hope that's what you meant. Good luck.

[padre.ayuso]

Thanks Nelson, that would answer the question I asked, yes. The reason I asked is because I'd imagine that the longer a scene takes to translate, the more possible problems I'll encounter with memory later? I have found that to be the case, not always, but sometimes. I'm aware that ungrouping reduces this translation time, because Max has to "ungroup" groups before it translates all of the scene data... But now that I know what this does, I guess for large scenes, instancing materials would reduce this translation time and thus prevent possible memory issues with the future rendering. Perhaps, any other tips out there on conserving memory while rendering? Just in general, it might be good to have a few of these written.

[datacrasher]

A memory issue means you don’t have enough you need to buy some more memory. Max uses up a lot of memory when rendering if you have a small scene max will use less memory when your scene gets bigger max will use a lot more. Why do you keep using the word “translation” why don’t you just call it rendering? that is the proper name for when a scene renders in any animation software. Ungroup or group does not affect the render time. It always depends on what you have in your scene from models, objects, lighting, special effects etc. Large scenes take longer to render as I have said also depends on the amount of memory you have in your computer.

 

My tip is do all tutorials in the help file and stop calling render “translation time” people won t know what you mean.

 

DC

Edited July 6, 2010 by datacrasher

[padre.ayuso]

A memory issue means you don’t have enough you need to buy some more memory. Max uses up a lot of memory when rendering if you have a small scene max will use less memory when your scene gets bigger max will use a lot more. Why do you keep using the word “translation” why don’t you just call it rendering? that is the proper name for when a scene renders in any animation software. Ungroup or group does not affect the render time. It always depends on what you have in your scene from models, objects, lighting, special effects etc. Large scenes take longer to render as I have said also depends on the amount of memory you have in your computer.

 

My tip is do all tutorials in the help file and stop calling render “translation time” people won t know what you mean.

 

DC

 

Thanks DC. Got it. That's why I was asking, I did not really know what "Translation" meant. Now that I do know, I appreciate the help. And yes, got it, Rendering and not Scene Translation.

[Dave Buckley]

A memory issue means you don’t have enough you need to buy some more memory. Max uses up a lot of memory when rendering if you have a small scene max will use less memory when your scene gets bigger max will use a lot more. Why do you keep using the word “translation” why don’t you just call it rendering? that is the proper name for when a scene renders in any animation software. Ungroup or group does not affect the render time. It always depends on what you have in your scene from models, objects, lighting, special effects etc. Large scenes take longer to render as I have said also depends on the amount of memory you have in your computer.

 

My tip is do all tutorials in the help file and stop calling render “translation time” people won t know what you mean.

 

DC

 

i disagree

 

forgive me if i'm wrong but if you watch the default max render window progress bar, i'm pretty sure it 'translates' the scene before it 'calculates' fg/gi, and therefore before it commences 'rendering'.

 

it doesn't just start 'rendering' it needs to do a bit of number crunching first which is what Alex means by translation. And i'm pretty sure he's just asking what factors affect how long Max takes to 'think about' or 'translate' the geometry/materials in the scene before determing what it will display for each pixel in the final window - aka 'rendering'.

 

like i say forgive me if i'm wrong - that's just how i understand it

 

and in answer to your question Alex, my honest answer is - i don't know but would be interested to know should you find out

[kareemkarawia]

i disagree

 

forgive me if i'm wrong but if you watch the default max render window progress bar, i'm pretty sure it 'translates' the scene before it 'calculates' fg/gi, and therefore before it commences 'rendering'.

 

it doesn't just start 'rendering' it needs to do a bit of number crunching first which is what Alex means by translation. And i'm pretty sure he's just asking what factors affect how long Max takes to 'think about' or 'translate' the geometry/materials in the scene before determing what it will display for each pixel in the final window - aka 'rendering'.

 

like i say forgive me if i'm wrong - that's just how i understand it

 

and in answer to your question Alex, my honest answer is - i don't know but would be interested to know should you find out

 

My honest reply :

you both are right:)

Translation process is not the rendering itself. it's simply analyzing the scene and crunch it to binary data in the memory that mental ray can deal with "you can simply see this in the log window for mental ray"

SO it's not the rendering process itself .. i can tell

But it depends on how much RAM you have in your machine ... every single button and every single process you make need RAM

Rendering, loading textures, modeling, Lighting, Special effects .... all of this need RAM "More Data More RAM"

that's my honest reply ... i hope it works for yoy

[datacrasher]

Right some of the time and wrong some of the time cannot be right a 100% of the time i am using max 8 so i would not know about the newer verison of max

[padre.ayuso]

Thanks Dave, I'll let you guys know once I find out. Also, forgive me if at times I don't make myself 100% clear, English is after all, my third language...

Best

Alex

[padre.ayuso]

 

and in answer to your question Alex, my honest answer is - i don't know but would be interested to know should you find out

 

Using the data given before by Nelson and then by Kareem, I figured it has a lot to do with memory. Since I have a dual quad core, 4GB of RAM and 64 bit machine, I discarded the possibility of my memory not being enough for a 2million poly scene crashing due to insufficient memory. I had noticed that my translation time was taking way too long on some of these scenes. I found a site just now, a few minutes ago, which made me understand better what MR does when translating a scene and how to make it not crash in these big scenes (apart from cleaning up files and instancing materials as much as possible). Please take a look, and I hope it helps you clear this up as it has helped me.

 

http://www.kxcad.net/autodesk/3ds_max/Autodesk_3ds_Max_9_Reference/translator_options_rollout_mental_ray_renderer.html