Hardware:
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When programs need more memory than your computer has, Windows starts using your hard disk as “virtual” memory. Unfortunately, virtual memory is much slower than real memory and using it can Vistapro run very slowly. If you see or hear lots of hard disk activity when running Vistapro, your computer is probably using virtual memory. How much memory VistaPro requires depends on which features you use (see Vistapro Memory Requirements ). If Windows is resorting to virtual memory, adding more RAM is the best way to reduce rendering times.
VistaPro is designed to take full advantage of 32 bit system architectures. It runs about the same speed on Windows 95™ and Windows XP™ but it runs significantly faster (about 50 percent) on a Pentium Pro processor compared to a Pentium processor of the same clock speed. Within a processor family, the faster the clock speed of your Central Processing Unit (CPU), the faster Vistapro will render. Vistapro uses a Floating Point Unit (FPU). Adding an FPU, or changing to a CPU that includes one, will increase rendering speeds. (Note: All Pentium Pro, Pentium, and most 486 processors include an FPU.)
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Strategy:
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There are several strategic methods of reducing your over all rendering times. Most of these include limiting the amount of detail that is rendered while you are setting up a scene. When you’re ready for the final image, turn all the details back on.
Rendering images at smaller sizes (like 320 x 240) will take less time than larger images.
Using the Bounding Box to limit rendering to an area of interest is another way to gain speed. For example, if you are trying to get the Camera right next to a tree, you don’t need to render all the mountains and other trees in the background. Use the Bounding Box to mark off an area right around the Camera.
Using 2D trees instead of 3D trees can reduce rendering time quite a bit. If you want 3D trees you can set the 3D Detail Level to Low while setting up the image.
Turn off 3D Surface Detail in the Texture panel or set it to Low. Vistapro will create and render fewer 3D details on the ground resulting in faster rendering times.
You can use the selections in the Quality menu to quickly change some of these settings. The image quality scripts, found in the IQ directory, are plain text files so you can easily change them to suit your tastes. |
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