GPU for better rednering

[sanjoyp]

Hi all, been out of rendering for a few months due to work. treated myself to a Radeon HD 3890.

Fire up AMD system monitor and then kicked off a render, CPU maxed out, GPU 0%.

I was hoping that the GPU would make a difference and the SH3D was optimised to use all hardware. Am I missing something ?

TIA

SP

[Puybaret]

Sorry to break your hopes, but the GPU is only used to compute the 3D view and the images at the two lowest quality settings in the photo/video creation dialogs. Images rendered at the two best quality settings are computed only by the CPU. The more cores the CPU have, the faster the rendering will be computed.

[sanjoyp]

Damn that is a shame, got an ATI card too and was thinking of getting a 2nd to really push the boundaries.

Loving this product and would be genius if it did start to use the GPUs more.

SP

[Puybaret]

would be genius...

Miserably I'm not a genius. [;)]
Using the CPU and the GPU power are two completely different tasks, even more with from a program written in Java. So as said before, next time prefer to update the number of cores of your processor. Using an Intel i7 instead of an i5 really makes the rendering process go twice faster.

[daedalus972]

Hi, love the software! Really easy to use and very customisable. Thank you so much.

Regarding the only missing key feature: GPU Computing for rendering, would't it be possible to use the jocl.org Java lib for OpenCL?

Also, I remember reading somewhere that Java 8 will natively support OpenCL.

Do you think this feature could be included in a next realese of your software?

It's a shame I can't use my nVidia GTX 570 to do the job! It is build to deal with Global Illumination and Shadows unlike my Intel Core i7 CPU...

Thank you anyway for this incredible free software!

[Puybaret]

Thanks for keeping me aware about progress in graphics card, but don't hope any miracle in the coming versions, because I don't think Global Illumination can be supported easily from Java 3D.

Nevertheless, I recently learnt about shaders and shadow mapping technics and hope to try it sooner or later in Sweet Home 3D since Java 3D supports shaders. Meanwhile I might improve light effects in the 3D view as the following images show but I'm not sure this option really worth it.

In current version, lights placed in the home have no effect in the 3D view:


In this image computed with subpartSizeUnderLight property set to 20 cm, lights added to the home replace default lights in the room where they are placed:


Compared to the following Global Illumination rendering, there's still no shadow, no mirror effect, and lights are limited to their room and level:


When you see how poor the 2nd rendering is compared to Global Illumination, I wonder if offering an option to activate lights to end users is such a good idea.

[daedalus972]

Hi, thanks for the answer. I just realised who you are when I saw your signature. I bought your book "Les Cahiers du programmeur Swing" years ago when I started my studies. I knew I was familiar with the word "eTeks" but it didn't ring a bell. Anyway I'm impressed [:)]

Regarding GPGPU, I hope you'll find a way to speed up the rendering. Because a 2 megapixels image with light and shadows computes for 15 to 20 minutes on my Intel Core i7 2600k.

By the way, I noticed a slight problem in the rendering. When I run multiple rendering in a row, after a while the software starts using half the CPU cores, slowing down everything. I solve the problem by restarting the software.

Nevertheless, the "ligth" option in 3D view could help me mesuring light sources intensity. I usualy run a full rendering before noticing light was to bright or poorly placed. This option could save me a lot of time.

Do you have a release date for the coming version ?

[Puybaret]

Happy to meet a reader of the book that introduced Sweet Home 3D. [:)]

Nevertheless, the "ligth" option in 3D view could help me mesuring light sources intensity

Note sure I'll propose this option. A developer reported me some crashes when he tried it.

Do you have a release date for the coming version ?

Probably around the end of February, once the last features will be programmed and localization finished.

[9NAT]

excuse me, sir. How about to optimise rendering by the graphic workstation (nVIDIA Quadro or AMD Fire Pro )
by the way is the 3d sweet home for android version release yet?

[9NAT]

GPU SLi or Cross Fire x or Quadro Fire Pro for better Rendering too