Rendering Aerial Maps

[dande]

I have a number of very high Res aerial maps I need to render for an animation. They are taking an age to render. Anybody know of a way to lower the resolution and keep the quality so they will render quicker?

 

Thanks

[Brodie Geers]

What kind of a resolution are we talking about for the maps and what's the res for the video?

[David Arbogast]

Get a better computer and software program.

 

OK, that's not a serious answer, but the question doesn't merit a serious answer unless more information about the problem is provided.

 

1. What PC?

2. How much memory?

3. 64 bit or 32 bit OS?

4. What rendering software?

5. What image size (pixel resolution) are the maps?

6. How much 3d geometry is in the scene, or is it only 2d maps.

 

I would expect very fast performance at rendering maps unless I had insufficient memory or a PC that was below the minimum recommended PC for the rendering package.

[dande]

The resolution of the aerial maps is 8000 x 6000.

 

I have 2 64bit quad core 8gb ram pcs and a 32 bit 4gb twin core which can't handle the maps at all. The ideal would be to upgrade this to 64 bit but I need to keep this at 32 because of other software it need to run.

 

Over 2000 frames that takes a long time to render. Some time ago I think I remember a post about a compression software for aerial maps. I can't find it in my search's of the forums and I can't find the software on the web. So if anybody knows what the software was or where that post is I'd appreciate it.

 

I can render them very quickly if I lower my rendering settings but I also lose quality and

I know more machines will solve the problem

Edited November 4, 2011 by dande

[David Arbogast]

My guess is that 8 gb is pretty low for maps that large. Memory is relatively cheap, so perhaps doubling or even tripling the ram will enable a significant performance boost.

[dande]

Thanks for your replies.

 

I don't think extra ram will help as the scene only uses 4gb of Ram. I could get a machine with more cores and higher ghz but as this is a 1 off job I'm not really prepared to spend on new machines.

 

I have downloaded ER Map image compresser software and I'm currently testing it.

 

I'll probably just end up having to render it as is and let it take the time. But I thought I had read something about a software that will compress hi-res aerial maps. For some reason the name ewave comes to mind. But I can't find them on the net.

[Matt Sugden]

sorry for stating the obvious, but do you really need the high resolution of the aerial map? why not drop resolution down in photoshop. Your animation is only going to render out at a reasonably small res anyway I'm guessing. If being close to the aerial map is the problem I used to get around this by having higher level of detail on aerial images only where the camera was close in. and further out I drop to a lower res aerial image.

[dande]

Thanks Matt for your response.

 

When you drop it down in Photoshop do you just resample the image or what is the best way?