Which camera is the render camera.

I think this is a very basic question, but my situation is a little weird. In the past, I usually only ever began a render with the "viewport" displayed. Whatever was selected there is what was used to render, perspective, top, camera, etc. Last night I was using the latest beta and began a render with both the viewport and aux displayed. When I came back later I discovered that it had rendered with the aux camera not the viewport camera.

So I have two questions really.

1. How do I know which camera will be used if both viewport and aux is displayed?

2. Is this a beta issue or has this always worked this way?

Comments

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,212

    It renders the last window you clicked on. If you were doing something in the AUX Viewport before rendering then that is the one it will use and vice versa.

  • Thanks that's what I figured. Maybe its just me, but it seems like auxiliary would mean secondary and that renders would be made by the primary view. I have enough trouble remembering to switch back to my render camera after changing poses and I'm staring right at it. Not complaining though.

  • fastbike1fastbike1 Posts: 4,078
    edited July 2018

    @heinzerbrew_f94794efff

    You don't have to use the Aux Viewport. You can always do a smaller or partial render in the Viewport if you need a sense of the actual render.

    Post edited by fastbike1 on
  • fastbike1 said:

    @heinzerbrew_f94794efff

    You don't have to use the Aux Viewport. You can always do a smaller or partial render in the Viewport if you need a sense of the actual render.

    To render? I was using aux to pose. One view for up close and one in the position I wanted the scene rendered as. Just because something looks good up close doesn't mean it looks right at a distance, and sometimes you only have to get it good enough if your main camera will never see it. Also, you can have one view in wireframe and another in texture shaded.

    I'm sure you mean well, maybe you misread my question, or I might not have been very clear. I'm not sure how telling me to just not use Aux helps. Maybe, I don't understand what you are trying to say. No worries Fishtales already gave me the answer I needed. Thank you.

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,616

    You should also see a thin borderline appear around the active view.

    Have you looked at the main menu/windows/viewports settings? That would give you the multiple views you may be more familiar with from other 3D software. Where each viewport can have it's own camera and draw style.

    (The Aux view was introduced as a render preview for 3Delight and had to be kept as small as possible to keep 3Delight up to speed. I think that's still what most people use the Aux viewport for.)

  • You should also see a thin borderline appear around the active view.

    Wonderful, that's kind of what I was hoping for.

    Have you looked at the main menu/windows/viewports settings? That would give you the multiple views you may be more familiar with from other 3D software. Where each viewport can have it's own camera and draw style.

    I will look into this.

    (The Aux view was introduced as a render preview for 3Delight and had to be kept as small as possible to keep 3Delight up to speed. I think that's still what most people use the Aux viewport for.)

    Now what Fastbike1 said makes sense. I guess I've been using the AUX viewport wrong for 3 or 4 years. I didn't realize there was a difference between Aux and the main viewport.

     

    Do you know if the AUX uses up memory when used as a tab but not displayed on the screen?

  • prixatprixat Posts: 1,616

    I don't know if it uses memory when the tab is covered but if the Iray Aux view and your Final Render use the same camera it actually reduces pre-render GPU loading times.

    The ability to divide the Main Viewport into multiple views is the only difference I know off. There's no wrong or right way to use the Aux view, do whatever works for you.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,212

    I use the AUX Viewport set to Iray and the Main Viewport set to Texture Shaded. I chop and change the view from cameras, sometimes up to four, and Perspective in both depending on what I want to see or what I am doing. When moving or posing figures I hide the AUX Viewport as it slows down the movement or locks up Studio for a few seconds, sometimes longer :) Then I open it again to see the scene through the camera I will be rendering through or a close-up view if I am posing a hand face etc to match the perspective view open in the main viewport. Yes I have started a render and then noticed I am rendering the wrong view, as I always have the render window open until I see the render starting it doesn't take much to stop, close and restart it using the correct view :)

  • Yes I have started a render and then noticed I am rendering the wrong view, as I always have the render window open until I see the render starting it doesn't take much to stop, close and restart it using the correct view :)

    There is nothing like setting up batch renders and coming back the next day and realizing some scenes were saved with the wrong camera active. 

  • I don't know if it uses memory when the tab is covered but if the Iray Aux view and your Final Render use the same camera it actually reduces pre-render GPU loading times.

    I just tried this, and it does indeed cut down on the preloading before rendering, but even with the tab hidden it is maxing out my GPU and making my interactions laggy. I only have a little 1050 ti; it has 4GB of VRAM but the CUDA is not strong with this one. crying

  • PaintboxPaintbox Posts: 1,633

    Would it be a nice feature request if you could specify the camera you want in the render settings? If you specify nothing, it renders default like it is now, and if you select any camera in a drop down, it will always render that one.

    Not a big life changer, but it's small productivity bonus if you constantly tweaking things with different views and camera's.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,212

    I don't know if it uses memory when the tab is covered but if the Iray Aux view and your Final Render use the same camera it actually reduces pre-render GPU loading times.

    I just tried this, and it does indeed cut down on the preloading before rendering, but even with the tab hidden it is maxing out my GPU and making my interactions laggy. I only have a little 1050 ti; it has 4GB of VRAM but the CUDA is not strong with this one. crying

    I only have CPU and always have the AUX open or hidden depending on what I am doing. Moving stuff around or posing and I hide it then open it again to see the result in Iray, the OpenGL Texture view isn't always what you get in Iray view :)

  • I only have CPU and always have the AUX open or hidden depending on what I am doing. Moving stuff around or posing and I hide it then open it again to see the result in Iray, the OpenGL Texture view isn't always what you get in Iray view :)

    Do you experience any performance loss when the tab is hidden?

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,212

    Do you mean the laptop? I have Studio set to Priority/Below Normal which usually keeps things rolling along. When I do get problems is when I run out of ram, I have 16 GB, and it starts using the Pageing File on the discs but I have a ram cleaner that I run when that happens and it releases some ram so I can keep working :)

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,212

    Do you mean the laptop? I have Studio set to Priority/Below Normal which usually keeps things rolling along. When I do get problems is when I run out of ram, I have 16 GB, and it starts using the Pageing File on the discs but I have a ram cleaner that I run when that happens and it releases some ram so I can keep working :)

  • No, I meant when posing with the tab hidden. DS studio is sluggish when I have iray chosen in the AUX view even if it his hidden.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,212

    I'll say no, but yes when posing or moving things about Studio can get sluggish but that has more to do with the scene than having the AUX Viewport on and hidden.

  • JonnyRayJonnyRay Posts: 1,744

    You can get some increased performance and responsiveness by changing DrawStyle from Photoreal to Interactive. You will sacrifice some effects doing that (like subsurface settings, and transparency may look odd) but it can still be helpful. Also, if you have an Nvidia card, you can change Interactive mode to only use the card, not the CPU which will help the rest of Studio perform better. Daz's Getting Started in Iray tutorial video has some tips on using these settings.

    While it is possible to change all of these settings yourself by hand, Omnifreaker created the Render Throttle for Iray as a way to do some one-click changes between modes to help automate the process.

    As an aside for anyone else reading this thread, I normally recommend to everyone that they create a camera to render their scenes with rather than relying on the Persepective viewport (which technically creates a default camera on the fly for rendering). Rendering from an actual Camera view will give you a lot more control over the final output than just using a viewport view and rendering from there.

    I also use the Aux viewport and make sure the view is using my final rendering camera. This helps when I'm adjusting a pose or moving scenery in the main viewport and I want to be sure I'm getting the desired result in my final image. But yes, I've also been guilty of forgetting to re-select my final Camera from my main viewport before I click on Render.

  • FishtalesFishtales Posts: 6,212

    You can also set the AUX Viewport to be more responsive.

    Go to the menu Windows/Panes(Tabs)/Draw Settings. Make sure the Draw Style is Nvidia Iray in the Editor Tab.

    Got to Drawing and set....

    Draw Mode.............Photoreal

    Inactive Viewport Delay..........On

    Response Threshold (msec).......10

    Manipulation Resolution......1/4

    Draw Node Avatars...........Off

    These are my settings but they can be changed for settings that work for you.

  • As an aside for anyone else reading this thread, I normally recommend to everyone that they create a camera to render their scenes with rather than relying on the Persepective viewport (which technically creates a default camera on the fly for rendering). Rendering from an actual Camera view will give you a lot more control over the final output than just using a viewport view and rendering from there.

    Also, the perspective view isn't saved with the scene. So if you have to reload from a crash or to continue your work, that perfect angle you found may be lost.

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