Rayscaper, My trip down the road to adjumacation.

Settings are lost betwwen sessions with Rayscaper which is a nuisance. Also, inconsistant render times. Sometimes 20 minutes and others, like here, over two hours for the same settings and GPU render.

En avant, avanti.

Mike Amos · 16 Sept 2024, 00:19

@Mike-Amos
Changed view without changing anything else, altered render time is apparent from the title of the next image.

pixelcruncher · 16 Sept 2024, 17:46

Hey @Mike-Amos ,

Nice Renders!

Settings are lost betwwen sessions with Rayscaper which is a nuisance

Do you mean between opening and closing the Rayscaper window, or between opening and closing SketchUp? If it's the first, I can reproduce it and will provide a fix for the next release (which I plan to land this week).

Sometimes 20 minutes and others, like here, over two hours for the same settings and GPU render.

Those render times are too high, even for CPU rendering. From your images, I gather that for an 1891 x 1091 resolution, you are seeing:

Picture 1: 2h10m10s
Picture 2: 1h41m37s

Can you provide a screenshot of your render settings?

Mike Amos · 16 Sept 2024, 22:52

@pixelcruncher

No can do, I cannot open Rayscaper with that model now. Instant crash no bugsplat.

Mike Amos · 16 Sept 2024, 23:03

I cut out one of the component groups, a bed with some pictures.

That alone almost halved the file size.

possibly some bad geometry or a texture way too big to be realistic, or both.

Fun, this testing. Learn something new about something old every day.

Back to it and I will report again when I have something.

Stay well mate.

pixelcruncher · 17 Sept 2024, 09:01

Hey @Mike-Amos

Thanks for sharing the scene! The crash was caused by a bug in Rayscaper, which will be fixed in the next release.

I tried to render one of your camera viewpoints, but I don't see those high render times. Granted, I might have different hardware, and I didn't exactly replicate your original shot, but the render time for me was only 3m18s.

Could you accidentally use CPU rendering because of the settings lost between sessions bug? It would help if you provide a screenshot of the whole Rayscpaer application (including your render tab) when it's taking so long.

The scene you shared is heavy on the geometry, but that shouldn't have a massive impact on render times. It will impact the responsiveness of the SketchUp viewport and how quickly you can load the scene in Rayscaper.

I found this nifty extension called SB_Statistics_Probe that can help you find high-poly geometry:

Mike Amos · 17 Sept 2024, 11:18

@pixelcruncher

pixelcruncher · 17 Sept 2024, 14:00

@Mike-Amos Thanks for sharing that screenshot.

That is indeed ridiculously slow...

What kind of GPU do you have?

Rayscaper Menu > File > Settings:

Is CPU rendering faster for this case?
What happens if you disable the denoiser?

Mike Amos · 17 Sept 2024, 22:34

@pixelcruncher

I have had a response from the NVIDIA tech support. Very helpful bunch and they exonerate the graphics card/drivers. Seems to be a BIOS issue. Looking for a fix.

Mike Amos · 19 Sept 2024, 16:20

@pixelcruncher

SSD failing it seems.

Mike Amos · 22 Sept 2024, 17:16

I feel like I am re-learning this dark art. new perspectives on things I suppose.

Health wise stuff is loud. Certain sensations etc which are dementia alike bring a feeling of not really being in charge of the mental process, forgetting stuff for example.

I believe this older pc is just outclassed by Rayscaper so while I try to lay out this flat, post window replacement I will be limiting myself to Twilight and Maxwell for rendering.

For those of you who also have little niggling doubts about 'stuff', you CAN get through whatever the issue is. Noli Illegitemi Carbonundrum.

I apologise for asking questions which probably should be simple to 'know', I'm going to do what I can. This place remains important to me for the joy we share on building and rendering whatever the hell it is we make.

Keep on keeping on, never let crap get in the way of trying to be the best you can be 'today'.

Tomorrow is merely smoke and mirrors.

Rich O Brien · 22 Sept 2024, 18:40

@Mike-Amos said in Rayscaper, My trip down the road to adjumacation.:

I apologise for asking questions which probably should be simple to 'know'

There's no need to apologize for what you consider simple questions. Path tracing render engines are complex beasts.

I encourage to stay on your journey. Learning new apps and techniques is good for the mind.

You can still achieve a lot with the hardware you have.

Mike Amos · 23 Sept 2024, 14:48

@Rich-O-Brien

Another little 'lesson' todays crash provided some ino at least.

Crash #298860

It looks like there might be an issue with Microsoft Visual Studio. The Microsoft Visual Studio C++ Redistributables are required for SketchUp to run and may need to be reloaded. Please try the following:

Check to make sure your graphics drivers are up to date: https://help.sketchup.com/en/sketchup/how-can-i-update-my-computers-graphics-driver

Quit SketchUp (and LayOut)

Go to Add/Remove Programs and uninstall the Microsoft Visual Studio C++ 2015 and above Redistributables (there may be a 32-bit and 64-bit version)

Uninstall SketchUp from Add/Remove Programs

Re-run the SketchUp installer. You can download it here if you need it: https://www.sketchup.com/offline-download

Restart your computer

If you continue to experience issues please reach out to our support staff at: https://help.sketchup.com/en/contact-support/technical-question/form

pixelcruncher · 23 Sept 2024, 17:24

Hey Mike,

I hope you are doing alright!

I believe this older pc is just outclassed by Rayscaper so while I try to lay out this flat, post window replacement I will be limiting myself to Twilight and Maxwell for rendering.

Your specs should be good for rendering with Rayscaper. CPU rendering, in particular, should require nothing beefier than what's needed for Twilight Render.

I apologise for asking questions which probably should be simple to 'know', I'm going to do what I can. This place remains important to me for the joy we share on building and rendering whatever the hell it is we make.

Echoing Rich's statement, there is no need to apologize! It's indeed a complex matter, and you have already produced great results. Having you as a user definitely makes Rayscaper better. You have the patience to tolerate beta software and have helped me squash a lot of bugs so far.

Cheers,
Thomas