[brodie_geers]

Very confused. I've been setting up some trees in maxwell studio because of export options. I was previously using clones of my trees and positioning them about my scene because working w/ instances within Maxwell studio seemed convoluted. However, now my file size is about 1.8 Gb so I decided to try and go back and use instances after all. I was just running a test and came up with odd results.

Test 1: Render 1 tree
File size 6,777KB
SL 10 = 2m02s

Test 2: Render 1 tree with the Leaves object Cloned
File size 7,246
SL 10 = 2m22s

Test 3: Render 1 tree with the Leaves object Instanced
File size 6,778
SL 10 = 29m55s

The file sizes make sense to me but the render times don't make sense at all. I was running the test because I wasn't sure if instances made things faster or had zero effect. I never expected 1 instance to increase render time by 15x!

Am I missing something?

-Brodie

[DrMerman]

Hey Brodie,

Are you rendering Mat/Obj ID layers? I've found that turning those on when using instances can increase render time by up to 2hrs. If you are, try a test with just the col/alpha channels activated.

Cheers,

Dr Merman

[polynurb]

Hello Brodie,

please read through this thread :

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... hp?t=30869

it could be due to intersection of leaves / material settings (clipmapping/ghostlayer weighting)

[brodie_geers]

DrMerman,

No, I was just rendering color, nothing else.

polynurb,

Interesting, I ran through some more tests after reading that. I think my situation is either similar or the same. My understanding from the thread was that nothing can intersect with your instance. Maybe I read it wrong but the problem actually seems less troublesome than that - at least for my purposes.

What I've found is that render times went way up in 2 scenarios. 1) if any object intersected with an instance. 2) if any object intersected with the original object from which instances are made (thought that seemed odd).

However, it looks like instances can intersect with themselves just fine which is good for what I'm doing. I'm making a dense wooded area so I'll just move my original objects off to the side and the I can place my instances all over my scene, just making sure they don't intersect objects.

-Brodie

[Leonardo]

I have the same problem... My benchmarks are as low as 3.01 when using instances. I use a lot of intersecting clipped planes

[Leonardo]

DrMerman,

No, I was just rendering color, nothing else.

polynurb,

Interesting, I ran through some more tests after reading that. I think my situation is either similar or the same. My understanding from the thread was that nothing can intersect with your instance. Maybe I read it wrong but the problem actually seems less troublesome than that - at least for my purposes.

What I've found is that render times went way up in 2 scenarios. 1) if any object intersected with an instance. 2) if any object intersected with the original object from which instances are made (thought that seemed odd).

However, it looks like instances can intersect with themselves just fine which is good for what I'm doing. I'm making a dense wooded area so I'll just move my original objects off to the side and the I can place my instances all over my scene, just making sure they don't intersect objects.

-Brodie

I'm arriving to the same conclusion (I'll be posting my test soon)