Twilight Render User Forum

By now, for me Easy / 04. Medium render preset works the best for a quick render (interiors). I have notice that the metal material increase a lot the rendering time. It will be helpful to have some suggestions about how to use the materials and the settings for a quick render and what to avoid. Thank you!

If Easy 04 Medium is looking good except for the metals, try the Advanced>AlternativeAA>medium render settings. Try 02b low+AA render setting - it's a little lower quality light saving rendering time, but higher quality AA may increase the AA phase render times.

Things that increase render times for Easy 1-7 render settings (these utilize Photon Mapping/Final Gathering):
Light emitting surfaces: set all light emitting surfaces to FAKE emit mode, they will render instantaneously. Then add small spot lights where needed to make up for the lost light from the fake (simulated) light emitting surfaces.

Blurry Reflections/Metallic Reflections : blurry specular reflections are the most time consuming for the engine to calculate due to their complex nature. If in a hurry, try using a flat (no template) metallic-appearing texture where you can get away with it - most importantly if rendering an animation/walk-thru because it will save much time over multiple frames. Use the Perfect Reflection Template to get fast, decent looking reflections for animations, or renderings in a hurry. Use high shine/reflective metals instead of blurry metals.

A lot of lights - any scene with over 10 lights is considered to have a lot of lights. So any scene containing more than this obviously has a lot of lights. Many architectural situations could require hundreds of lights - use lower render settings, such as Easy Low or Low+ in situations where there are a lot of lights - if the AA is not good enough use the Advanced>Alternative AA render settings. These allow to get much better anti-aliasing results but keep the photon and final gather to a minimum. The more lights you have, the more direct light there will be. If there is a lot of direct light, lower render settings will give surprisingly good results.

Translucent and sub surface scattering (SSS) materials - such as translucent lamp shades or sub surface scattering of frosted plexiglass or the peeling of an orange - these take a long time to calculate... so if not needed, and you are in a hurry - do not use translucents or SSS materials. There are some good, quick-rendering, "fake" translucent materials for making a quick-rendering lampshade or light bulb material. Try Template>Translucent>Thin Curtain and set Translucence to 10, set SketchUp Material Alpha Opacity to 10%, and TURN OFF shadows for that material. Now setting a spotlight behind that material will result in it lighting up like a lampshade or frosted light bulb.

Intersecting light objects with geometry in your scene greatly increases render times - don't do it! The engine will spend a lot of time trying to compensate for all the errors that result. The end result may or may not look good, but the engine will work hard and waste time trying to compensate for the light intersecting geometry.

Large light objects - make very soft shadows - soft shadows take a lot of time to calculate. Keep your light object's radius small as possible. - 1/2 inch radius or smaller typically looks great. .01m radius or smaller looks good.

Many reflective surfaces increase render times. Each template used usually means that the material will have a reflective component. If you want a rendering done quickly, only use templates on the most important/largest surfaces. Avoid using templates on small objects like small items on shelves, things in the distance, etc. Choose wisely - apply templates first to floors and ceilings and major objects in the scene first.

Anti-Aliasing (AA) can greatly effect render times. Be cafeful to jump to the highest quality AA render settings the AA can take up to 10x longer than the rendering itself in some cases. Start low, and work your way up to the higher settings.

"There are some good, quick-rendering, "fake" translucent materials for making a quick-rendering lampshade or light bulb material. Try Template>Translucent>Thin Curtain and set Translucence to 10, set SketchUp Material Alpha Opacity to 10%, and TURN OFF shadows for that material. Now setting a spotlight behind that material will result in it lighting up like a lampshade or frosted light bulb."

Oau! Many thanks! I have to study your answer step by step.

Thanks Fletch, very helpful for us newbies!!
Glenn

Here are some tests with the Advanced AA 02 (Low) settings (the Strip Lights in the soffit are FAKE emit with spot lights shining down every 15cm):

setting 02a : 10m27s render time setting 02b : 14m42s render time setting 02c : 33m12s render time setting 02d : 47m07s render time setting 02d : 47m07s render time + Linear Tone Mapping in Render Dialog.

Here is how the recessed cove strip light was made to render very quickly.
Right-click the image and open in new tab.

Thank you, Fletch.
What metal material do you use in this renderings?

in the last two images, it was blurry metal - shininess 600!