Plant vs. rendering time

[Maciej]

Gentlemen,

I work on a residential scheme, and there are hundreds of trees to be placed.

I have created a few with Plant Editor, and, regreteably, rendering time was about 40min for 1 pass (res 1920x1080 which is not hires at all..)

Is there any relation between Ar Plant (ie complex, standard or wide tree, level of branches, number of leafs, etc., etc. - to find the right balance between rendering time and tree quality?

Any help appreciated.

Attached:

1. Aerial View 

2. trees I have created with leaf bitmaps

[Francois Plourde]

Roof shingles, made from asphalt. It's probably why it's usually dark colour.

[Maciej]

That's possible. But as I see your terrain is flat - mine was quiet complicated - just the model was bigger 3,6 MB.

Besides, the point is I must have done something wrong with my trees - nXt plants are not so complicated. Which makes me belive there must be a rule of thumb and relation between the "structure" of a tree and rendering time.

Moreover, I guess my machine is not so fast as yours is...  :)

[Garret Diduck]

You're thinking about the complexity of the plants vs. render times is correct. The more complex the plant, the more apparent faces there are to render. This increases the rendering time. 

Here is a quick test to prove the theory. I took your original plant you posted and made a light and heavy version of the plant. Notice the total number apparent faces in each and the number of passes. The total render time was about 5 minutes each.

[Maciej]

Garret, could I get the "lite" and "heavy" plants to spot the defferences?

[Garret Diduck]

Here are the two trees made from your original. I'm by no means an expert at making plants. The main goal was to cut out branches and leaves on the light weight version and the opposite for the heavy version.

EDIT: Again the ng won't let me upload files. Here's a link to the two in my BOX account.

[norton torres]

the better machine (pc) you have, fast rendering you got.... remenber your machine is like a car, the better upgrades you make to your car ( your pc) it will run better, more fast... remenber that..!!

[Maciej]

Norton, that's obvious.  The point is to get maximal efficiency using THIS machine as it is.   :)

Of course, there is no upper limit to upgrade the machine...

[norton torres]

hey..!! if you are going to compete, to  get a better race so if you said that is obvious so prepare yourself for that show... good luck..

[Maciej]

Wow, Norton... :)  Keep calm.. I am an amateur.  The better machine the more power for render - that is obvious. And this is what I was trying to say, no more and no less.  :)

Regards.