Vray Sketchup new CPU build

[patricknedley]

I currently run a HP Elite book [laptop] with an i7-3740QM at 2.70 GHz; 16 GB RAM, & an nvidia K1000M graphics card. This is my work computer - built for AutoCAD and Revit - not for renderings. This is my work issued computer and I can not modify it. It does a fine job handling the hi-poly Sketchup Models that I build but when it comes to processing the scene before Vray kicks in - it lags quite a bit... It can take upwards of 30min-1hr before the Vray frame buffer opens and calcs are started; this can and has taken longer than the actual render time. I get the typical white out screen and my whole computer is useless.

There were run using distributed rendering to my own machine to allow for 64 bit processing.

 

http://help.chaosgroup.com/vray/help/sketchup/150PB/distributed_rendering.htm

 

 

I read in an old post that the act of translating the model and materials from SU to Vray is single threaded - not sure exactly what this means.

I am looking to build a desktop unit that will help kick past the long lag times and will provide quicker render times, as often many many tests are shot before the final render is ready. Time = money.

Vray SU has RT with GPU options, not really interested in using RT - to me its more for testing looks than actual renderings. However I might look into Octane down the road, which would require a powerful GPU.

 

I admit upfront that my knowledge of how the hardware works is rather limited - from what I gather from reading these threads is that fast CPU with moderate GPU is the way to go. Looking at newegg and the like - all the model numbers start to jumble together.

 

I have attached 3 pics of the images that I was running into the long process times. I wasnt able to add any reflectivity to floor as it would completely crash Vray.

 

Any thoughts about a future build would be appreciated. I am looking at a budget of between $1400-1600 [us dollars].

 

thanks for taking the time!

[Eliot Blenkarne]

That is insane - I have an inferior notebook and it would deal with a scene like those no problems generally speaking.

 

What is your sketchup modelling like? How clean are your models, and what file size? What sort of texture map sizes are you using? The best thing I ever did was use Thomthom's clean up extension, be more selective about texture file sizes and definitely have a raft of separate files for each room etc, to keep file sizes down.

 

I export from archicad, and running the cleanup tool helps a lot with post-translation.

 

Do you keep an eye on ram usage whilst vray processes the scene? Ie: are you 100% sure the distributed rendering workaround is working? I had an issue where mine stopped, had to rerun the DRspawner and clear my settings to default to get it going.

[M V]

What version of VR4SU are you using? Parsing times shouldn't be anymore than a minute or 2 at most. Are you using displacement or high res textures? A scene like your example should take a minute for the VFB to come up and maybe an hour to render on high settings with the machine you have. An i7 should do just fine with VR4SU. The RAM doesn't matter really because you are trapped in 32 bit SU. Although there are workaround for 64 bit rendering in VR4SU 2.0.

 

RT is a pipe dream for now. It's not really ready for production renderings, even with a powerful GPU. Lots of bugs still in that department. If you have multiple machines to access DR is the way to go to crank out large renderings, in high quality, fast.

[gianguyen]

I think you should buy a desktop. Laptop can't process 3D better than a desktop. And one more thing a desktop cheaper than a laptop.