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Rendering an hard drives

geoff6geoff6 Posts: 250
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Hi all,

 

I have a question concerning the way animations and stills are rendered in Daz. As I understand it, during the rendering Daz uses a temp file which can be nominated in preferences. If this is the case, would a faster hard drive, or even an SSD make any discernable difference to render times?

 

Thanks in advance,

G

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,842

    I've not tried, or been in a position to try, but I very much doubt it - the time spend writing a frame to disc even on a slow drive is going to be tiny relative to the time taken to do the render.

  • geoff6geoff6 Posts: 250

    Yep, I thought as much... Just wanted to hear it from a grown up.

    Thanks,

    G

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715
    edited September 2015

    No, or very close to no. It is purely for writing data, and depending on how it's threaded, it will be either no difference, or just the time it takes to write each update.

    I noticed something somewhere in the NVidia settings; something about how often updates are done (iirc), if you're curious you could change these times and test the timings on a scene; just remember that with only a few tests you have no real way of knowing if small differences are within the statistical variences allowed (and possibly influenced by other actions the computer is perfoming), or are indicative of a difference. Ideally, you would need to run hundreds to be certain, although early results can be suggestive, they can also be simply misleading.

    EDIT

    Render has finished so I went to look at what I thought I remembered. Under Progressive Render: there is an option to change the 'Update Interval (secs)'; it is set by default to 5 secs; I wonder if it is there because it can make a difference; interesting question you asked. It may make a difference depending on the comlexity of the scene, and thus on the amount of data being written. An answer from someone in the know would/might be informative.

    Post edited by nicstt on
  • geoff6geoff6 Posts: 250

    Okay, but first a dumb question... What is the update time referring to? What is updating exactly?

    G

  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,077

    I'm pretty sure it's the interval for updating the screen and history log. Bu tI haven't, and don't see a need to, experimented with settings.

  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715
    edited September 2015
    geoff6 said:

    Okay, but first a dumb question... What is the update time referring to? What is updating exactly?

    G

    No idea; it could be as fastbike1 says, but its presence has a purpose, or serves a purpose. I've not so far found anything to indicate what it does (other than update something), and if changing it can affect performance under certain situations.

    And the only dumb question, is the one you don't ask. smiley (Doesn't have to be others, only ourselves to start.)

    Post edited by nicstt on
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