Resume Render after restarting octane

[stiwi]

For different reasons I don´t like to have my Computer running all through the night. So would it be possible to introduce a function to resume the render at the point where I left it?

[FrankPooleFloating]

Edit: ignore my original post.. was doing a lot of guessing. I shouldn't post
crap when that tired....

Since LuxRender does this, it is apparently possible...

[stiwi]

Seems like there´s more people with the same demand:
http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=33184
and a workaraound too:
http://render.otoy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33176

But still - octane team - would it be possible to introduce a function for that?

cheers

[AndreaMannori]

I'm not a developer nor an expert but I found my little tricky solution for this problem (also good for light mixing and animating with 32 bit exr):

- you can run and calculate your image and than save it in 32 bit exr.
- do it as many times as you need.
- merge all the pics previously calculated with a linear blending mode (in PS linear dodge).

-> you'll reach a very clean image since the low noise will be defeated by the random seed used to start the rendering process.

-> if you want to animate lights (on-off or liear add) you can mix them into AE or Nuke (always 32 bit exr).

I hope that someone will go much more deep or suggest a better way.
Cheers.

[AndreaMannori]

Another way to reduce noise by using multiple frames:
ps -> open frames as layers -> convert them into a smart object -> layer menu -> smart object -> stack mode -> median. Voilà noise drammatically reduced.
Cheers.

[stiwi]

Thanks renderfarmsrl,

seems to be an interesting approach. But it´s not all about noise reduction. So many things that only become visible when you let a scene render for a long time.

But I will try your way too, thanks again.

cheers

[Dave_Yu]

Correct when you say that some details will only show when the samples are high.
Merging 10 images set at 100 samples will not give the same result as rendering one at 1000 samples.

[manalokos]

Correct when you say that some details will only show when the samples are high.
Merging 10 images set at 100 samples will not give the same result as rendering one at 1000 samples.

Yes it will, except for PMC, because it starts to do exploration some 32 samples after the beggining of the render.

[treddie]

A true Resume Render function is indispensable IMHO. Although I will never go back to MaxwellRender (it is way too slow for the way I like to work), it does have many nice features and Resume Render is one of them. The nice thing about MR's mxi format is that it stores all of the information about all of the light sources. So not only does that mean you can instantly change the lighting POST-render (and the instant recalculation of all the shadows and lighting), it also means you can join two images via Cooperative Rendering to reduce noise, regardless of how long each image had been allowed to render. So, for example, if the first image had rendered for 20 hrs (pretty clean), and the second one, only 15 secs (VERY noisy), MR could join the two with that in mind and the result would be a very clean image, although not really any cleaner than the first image...Because the second one had little to contribute due to its very short render time. Try that in Octane, and you will end up with just the opposite...A very noisy image due to the second image's noise overpowering the cleanness of the first image when composited in Photoshop. To be fair, I have not tried doing that in Octane with exr format, so I do not know if exr stores that vital information so that you can get away with it.

Another related feature I think is currently missing in Octane, is the ability to select the seed value for the noise pattern coupled with a Render Region function. Let's say I have an image that rendered for 20 hrs, and I find I want to change something in a small area. Without being able to re-render just that region AT THE SAME SEED VALUE, compositing will not be seamless when I go to join the old image with the new region. The only option now is to just re-render the whole thing.

I'm not trying to be hard on Otoy...Octane is a new beast that will be so far along in the coming years it will be like comparing Adobe Ilustrator 88 with Illustrator CS6.

[manalokos]

you have to overlay the images regarding the percentage of samples of each one. If they have 50% of the total samples, apply 50%.

If you have 2 images, one with 1000 samples, and the other with 100 samples, the second should be mixed only 5%.

I agree that multi light image file could be a great option, although the fastest renders will be done if you do a separate render for each light.