[MetinSeven_com]

Hi guys,

Does Maxwell 1.1 already have an option to easily extend the rendertime? My render has been going on for 14 hours and the total amount is 24 hours, but I'd like to extend the render by one night. However I didn't use the option that enables to continue rendering after a render has been stopped. Is there any other way in the mean time?

[misterasset]

I'm sure somebody will find a better solution, but here's what I would do:

1.) Stop your render, look where it saved the MXI to, go get it and rename it something like "Project00.mxi" where "project" is the name of what you are doing and "00" is the seed number. Make sure you use the MXI that MXCL automatically saved. If you save the MXI yourself this won't work.

2.) Start a new rendering with the same MXS file but use the next seed number up. If last time it was 0, this time use 1. Set this one for the rest of the amount of time you want to add. To make life easier you might want to tell it to automatically save the MXI with the correct name to an easy to find folder.

3.) After the new rendering is done you can combine the two MXIs with the Cooperative MXI feature and you get the result of their combined efforts.

Chris

[bunkiojo]

I have a question about that, Misterasset.

Suppose I have a render that goes for 10 hours, and say it gets to SL 15. Now, suppose I render the same scene twice at 5 hours each (different seeds, of course), and they get to, say, SL 10 each.

Now, if I merge the two 5 hour renders, and if rendering the same scene for 10 hours STRAIGHT gets me to SL 15, can I count on these two 5 hour renders, when merged, to be the equivalent of SL 15? I'm throwing hypothetical numbers around here just as an example.

Elliot

[Maxer]

In my experience it doesn’t work that way, I had several machines rendering an image for 24+ hours, each image reaches SL 13 and when I combined all of them they were at SL 14.5. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like you double your SL for every PC you throw at it. It would really be helpful if someone from NL could explain how the cooperative merger relates to SL and how many additional MXI's it takes to increase the SL significantly.

[misterasset]

I don't think that's what he meant Maxer.

I have found that what you get is the end result of the combined TIME of all the renders. So yes, bunkiojo, in my experience that is how it has worked for me.

A great tool is Kabe's MXC calculator. I use it alot to figure out how much time I need to add in order to get to the sampling level I want. I don't think we need an "official" explanation. Just take the MXC, plug in the benchmark and plug in the combined time and that's what SL should come out. If you have machines with different benchmarks it becomes a little more tricky, but if you want I can explain how to calculate that one also. (I would do it now but I'm at work and it's alot of typing to explain).

[bunkiojo]

Maxer,
Thanks for the reply, though Misterasset is right about what I was trying to get at; sorry if I wasn't very clear

I'm glad to hear that this seems to work the way I described, Misterasset. I had fully expected to have that trick perform poorly compared to one long render. Thanks for the reply and thanks for the info in answering MetinSeven_com's question. Very useful!

Bunkiojo

[MetinSeven_com]

Many thanks from me as well for sharing your knowledge! Much appreciated.

I'd like to ask Next Limit to please include an option to extend the rendertime in the Maxwell Renderer, just like you can change the Shutterspeed etc., thanks in advance.

[Edit: I wrote "fStop", but meant "Shutterspeed"]

[SunlightRocker]

If you save the MXI yourself this won't work.

And why is that? That must be a bug! Have someone reported this?

[pBarrelas]

Future releases will have the "continue" render option available.
Maxwell will only save a real MXI file if you give it a name and save it in a certain location BEFORE you start your render!

[Mihai]

You can save an mxi after you finished the render too. From the mxcl File menu.

[pBarrelas]

But Mihai, i believe that isn't a real MXI file because if you try to merge it with another one, the coop render feature doesn't work!! At least this hapened with me before starting to save it before the rendering process. I can be mistaken though!!

[SunlightRocker]

But Mihai, i believe that isn't a real MXI file because if you try to merge it with another one, the coop render feature doesn't work!! At least this hapened with me before starting to save it before the rendering process. I can be mistaken though!!

I think you are right, and thats why I have never been able to merge MXI:s.

[Maxer]

The MXI's need to have different seeds in order to be merged as well as the same resolution.

[Mihai]

I just checked now and indeed I couldn't merge two mxi's saved from mxcl. This used to be possible in 1.0.

[rivoli]

But Mihai, i believe that isn't a real MXI file because if you try to merge it with another one, the coop render feature doesn't work!! At least this hapened with me before starting to save it before the rendering process. I can be mistaken though!!

yep, that's correct. as you say, you have to tell maxwell to save the mxi before starting rendering (if you save it after the rendering has finished via mxcl it won't merge). of course different seeds are needed when you plan to merge different MXIs.