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Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:49 pm
by marcatore
Hi,
I've noted that, using a glossy material, the roughness values have impact on rendering speed (samples/sec).
With extreme low roughness values you get slower rendering speed than medium one.
For example.
Roughness 0.001
Roughness 0.1
I always expected the reverse...more roughness..more time to sample the result.
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:59 pm
by Dade
marcatore wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:49 pm
I always expected the reverse...more roughness..more time to sample the result.
Have you tried on CPU ?
This may be consequence of GPU being faster at tracing "near" (aka coherent) rays (at low roughness, most rays are fired in about the same direction).
P.S. this effect is also a consequence of the very simple scene, I doubt you can notice this effect on a normal scene.
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:51 am
by marcatore
Dade wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:59 pm
Have you tried on CPU ?
Tried and it render at the same speed.
Dade wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2020 12:59 pm
P.S. this effect is also a consequence of the very simple scene, I doubt you can notice this effect on a normal scene.
Actually it seems that it envolves also a "normal scene".
Look at this (GPU viewport render)
Roughness of the external light fixture shell: 0.05
Roughness: 0.001 (the lower value possible)
Consider also that, in this scene, it crashed blender after some seconds of viewport rendering when I use that low roughness value
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:36 am
by Dade
marcatore wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 9:51 am
Consider also that, in this scene, it crashed blender after some seconds of viewport rendering when I use that low roughness value
10x times slower, no, that is not normal. Sometime, GPU handles errors like NaNs or memory fault very slowly. If you post a test scene I can check.
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 12:33 pm
by marcatore
I've sent you a PM.
the wetransfer link it's working for a week..let me know if you go over that time...I'll send you again.
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2020 8:02 pm
by marcatore
it seems that the glossy coating material is not affected by this issue.
with 0.001 as roughness, it renders fast as higher values.
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:58 pm
by Dade
marcatore wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 8:02 pm
it seems that the glossy coating material is not affected by this issue.
with 0.001 as roughness, it renders fast as higher values.
I'm testing the scene and the problem seems to affect only the combination of GTX980 with Optix on my hardware. Every other combination (i.e. GTX980 without Optix and RTX2070 with/without Optix) works fine. This looks like an Optix bug.
Do you have a GTX 9xx GPU ?
It starts to be pretty clear that, while Optix is supposed to work on old GTX GPUs, it is both slower than my BVH code and has problems. We will change the default behavior as soon as B.Y.O.B. is back in town and Optix will be used only on RTX GPUs.
In the mean time, you can just disable Optix in BlendLuxCore preferences and it should fix the problem.
P.S. this is standard corporate programmate obsolescence at work

Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 1:00 pm
by Dade
BTW, another workaround is probably to use Diseny material instead of Glossy2.
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:39 pm
by marcatore
Dade wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 12:58 pm
Do you have a GTX 9xx GPU ?
In the mean time, you can just disable Optix in BlendLuxCore preferences and it should fix the problem.
I have a GTX1070.
Tried disabling Optix and no more problem with roughness.
With Optix on, Disney or Glossy Coating (with a matte as base) material renders fine.
Re: Roughness value and rendering speed
Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2020 9:21 pm
by Dade
marcatore wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 7:39 pm
I have a GTX1070.
Yes, right, GTX10xx has no RTX hardware too.