Rendering with 3D trees

MikMal31 · 26 Jan 2011, 19:56

Hi!

I'm working on a project where I have to put many 3D trees and shrubs around some buildings. These are making my pc lagged each time I have to orbit or move ,etc...(it is only 30 MB)
I have used layers so as to 'lighten' my file and to move 'a little quicker' but I will need all those components visible to be rendered.

What can I make to 'lighten' more my file( apart purged and using layers )?

My other problem is that vray crashes when I render a scene where there are too much trees. I know it's because there are a lot of polygons but 2D trees do not look well when rendering and my boss does not like the effect it has when using 2D trees.

I'm using a pc with system microsoft window XP Pro with Inter(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo CPU E7500 @ 2.93 GHZ and 2.00 GB of RAM.

your help is welcome.

thanks.

Mik

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2011, 20:08

Hi Mik (and welcome)!

I guess this is also you:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?tid=48c3a0e287ef51fb&hl=en

So beside navigation, you also have issues with rendering. In case it is V-ray, I cannot help as I do not use it so hopefully there will be someone who can chime in.

brodie · 26 Jan 2011, 22:21

I don't use vray for su but I'm familiar enough with rendering from SU that I may have some suggestions.

First of all, 2 gigs of ram is very low for a rendering machine. That will cause a lot of crashes when you want to export/render anything with a high poly count. The larger your resolution and/or the more polygons, the more RAM Vray will need to use. You should probably have at least 4gb and if you have a 64 bit OS, 8gb wouldn't hurt.

Beyond that, you'll be very limited with 3d trees when it comes to a vray and SU combo. Unlike some renderers (Maxwell and Twighlight) Vray doesn't have a stand alone Studio program so all of your geometry has to be within SketchUp. And SketchUp will only hold so many polygons before getting very temperamental.

If you find some mid-poly trees though, you MIGHT be able to make it work though. Ideally Vray would have some sort of proxy system - if it does that opens up options, but I don't believe it does (with a proxy system you can import 1 tree and scatter a bunch of low poly components around as proxies and at export time the renderer would substitute the high poly tree for the proxies - that's how Maxwell works). Otherwise you can make a component with 2 components inside that overall component 1) a low poly object, say, a cylinder the diameter of your trunk and the height of your tree - this should be on layer "LowPoly" 2) your mid-poly tree - this should be on layer "HighPoly"

Once that's setup, what you'll want to do is make sure your low poly cylinder is located in the center of your tree, then turn off the HighPoly layer and exit the component. Now you should be able to scatter that component all over the place without viewport issues. Then right before you click render, turn off LowPoly and turn on HighPoly.

-Brodie

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2011, 22:25

That's also what I suggested in that Help Forum topic linked above. If a renderer is working inside SU, it is always limited.

fuzzion · 27 Jan 2011, 05:30

The holy poly trees available on the SU warehouse are designed to be used in very
conservative numbers - maybe like 2 max. They are placed near the house to create a nice
visual field. For almost everything else, meaning the background, i would either use 2d
follow me trees or use a high resolution HDRI environment map, maybe a forest one
from here http://www.hyperfocaldesign.com/hdri/hdr-environment-maps.html
and wrap it around your house.

You definitely need more than 2gb. Some of my Vray for SU models hit 3gb (hacked system - check
Vfsu forums on how to do it) during the rendering process.

Example of the HDRI being used in my vfSU render.
!["Tri sci tor" house](/uploads/imported_attachments/dnrU_qk_render_1.jpg ""Tri sci tor" house")

errror404 · 27 Jan 2011, 20:43

This might not help you... but my recomendations are:

-1- Upgrade your computer (or at the very least your ram and run a x64 OS)
-2- Get a different rendering engine like Maxwell, where you can load your 3d trees in Maxwell Studio and render from there.

It has been a long time, since I rendered anything... but here is an example of Sketchup/Maxwell:

Vicspa · 27 Jan 2011, 20:57

Even my computer bogs down when using too many 3D trees, and I have 24Gigs of ram.
So I use as many 2d trees as possible.
I render with Podium that comes with a lot of it's own 2d trees and shrubs.
Otherwise I use kerkythea.

thomthom · 27 Jan 2011, 21:41

@unknownuser said:

Even my computer bogs down when using too many 3D trees, and I have 24Gigs of ram.

If the render engine is 32bit then you only make use of max 4 of those GBs.

Vicspa · 27 Jan 2011, 22:00

it's 64 bit, well my computer is, not sure about the render engine. I'm trying to get the company I work for to spring for Thea or Vray.

thomthom · 27 Jan 2011, 22:13

@unknownuser said:

it's 64 bit, well my computer is, not sure about the render engine. I'm trying to get the company I work for to spring for Thea or Vray.

V-Ray for SketchUp currently runs inside the SketchUp process, which is 32bit, which means you're limited to 2-4GB depending if you're running SU8M1 ($GB) or older (2GB).

Vicspa · 27 Jan 2011, 22:37

Thanks for the info ThomThom

fuzzion · 28 Jan 2011, 04:43

@unknownuser said:

Even my computer bogs down when using too many 3D trees, and I have 24Gigs of ram.
So I use as many 2d trees as possible.
I render with Podium that comes with a lot of it's own 2d trees and shrubs.
Otherwise I use kerkythea.

24gigs of ram. Wow. I remember the days not so long ago when my ram was 24mb and
that was pimp !

MikMal31 · 28 Jan 2011, 12:19

@ Gaieus :
thanks!
and also thank for your help in the google forum,the ghost one does helps me to move quicker.

@ Brodie :
I will try to suggest my boss to upgrade the pc where I'm working =P
the problem is that my boss wants many big trees with lot of leaves around the buildings. and yeah it had crashed lot of time while rendering.

I will try to see the other renderers that you have suggested.

Thanks.

@ fuzzion :

the project on which I'm working is a monastery with parkings and some buildings. I also have to add some other pine trees that surround the place.
I think i will have to use another renderer as suggested Brodie.

@ error 404:

woah very nice one error404
I will ask my boss to upgrade my pc or else I will try to use maxwell.
Is it ok to use btw?

brodie · 28 Jan 2011, 13:58

Regarding Maxwell, I just wrote a lengthy bit about it, and some other render options, here http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=34469&view=unread&sid=1dda3b06dbac7065fb8a42043dc492fa#unread

-brodie

thomthom · 28 Jan 2011, 14:03

You may find it quicker to photoshop vegetation into the render afterwards in post, rather than spending large amounts of render time rendering environment vegetation that'll have much more polys than the actual building.

fuzzion · 29 Jan 2011, 09:08

@thomthom said:

You may find it quicker to photoshop vegetation into the render afterwards in post, rather than spending large amounts of render time rendering environment vegetation that'll have much more polys than the actual building.

Can someone tell me how long it takes to photoshop-in vegetation and how long it takes one to learn photoshop to the extent that you could do stuff like that? Im itching to try photoshop but dont have a lot of time.

Pixero · 29 Jan 2011, 09:21

Well, it's hard to say how fast anyone will learn Photoshop but I use it a lot to incorporate both people, trees and more. There is lots of ready to use cutout trees availble and after a while you'll want to photograph your own and make your custom library of images. Be sure to learn how to color adjust the images so they match the lighting of the render.
Here is a good place to start: http://vyonyx.com/category/tuts/
Great tutorials and also some trees and people for download.
Another thing. If you're serious about Photoshop you should get yourself a wacom pen. Makes life soo much easier in Photoshop.

fuzzion · 30 Jan 2011, 04:52

@pixero said:

Well, it's hard to say how fast anyone will learn Photoshop but I use it a lot to incorporate both people, trees and more. There is lots of ready to use cutout trees availble and after a while you'll want to photograph your own and make your custom library of images. Be sure to learn how to color adjust the images so they match the lighting of the render.
Here is a good place to start: http://vyonyx.com/category/tuts/
Great tutorials and also some trees and people for download.
Another thing. If you're serious about Photoshop you should get yourself a wacom pen. Makes life soo much easier in Photoshop.

Cheers for that.

Long time ago, about 2 years, I bought a Wacom tablet for Sketchup after watching Ironman, but
I realised the mouse was so much better ,plus i needed the money at university for Booze and smokes so i sold it. Should
have kept it lol