won't render when monitor sleeps?

won't render when monitor sleeps?

ok - i've been using the demo version of cheetah for exactly one day (just to see how well the UI is and how fast it renders - the fact that it is only $99 makes me think that i'll be purhcasing it soon).

i've never run any rendering software before - so please forgive me if i don't know the termanology.

anyway- i have it running on an iMac - 2G processor, RAM maxed out, OS 10.4...

I imported a sketchup model (since it's the only 3D modeling software I know) - a massing model of a building - adjusted some settings (i'm not sure what some of them do yet) and let it render... the first one took 30 minutes, but it looked cartoony - due to the fact that it is a massing model (but the client still loved it). i actually liked the image that came out, not exactly what i was looking for, but a happy accident.

the second one I had run over night- when I woke my computer up this morning, the rendering was exactly in the same place it was when I left my computer.... is there anything I can do so that cheetah keeps rendering when the monitor sleeps or the screen-saver comes on?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

-to
 
Hi toaster_oven.

This sounds strange to me. My monitor went to sleep and when I wake him up he actually need a second or two, to refresh the rendering he was working in the meantime. Have a look at the counter. Is it frozen? Maybe your harddisk should not go to sleep while rendering.
Please have a look at your energysavesettings. :wink:
with kindest regards

Frank
 
frank-

thanks for your response... actually, i discovered it stopped rendering when my HD went to sleep - I set my HD to sleep "never" and my image rendered no problem.

next time i do a rendering i'll just have to remember to change my energy saver settings.

the odd thing was that the counter kept counting after the HD went to sleep... yet didn't render during that whole period.

thanks again!

TO
 
Yea, the counter will keep going. If I close my laptop during a render and open it a couple days later it will read 4100 miniutes of something equally crazy. I believe Martin already knows about this.
 
Hi Jake.
I think there are more possibilities.
My Mac/Display went to sleep and stops counting - waking it up - it refreshes suddenly the renderingtime to its actual state. So I have a look at the time it went to sleep. :wink:

with kindest regards

Frank
 
I'm sure you're right Frank. It's just funny to open a file several days later and see it rendered where it left off, but with a high number count in t he time elapsed. Really doesn't harm anything.
 
Hi,
the rendering time is the difference between the systme time you started the rendering job and the system time the rendering job completed.
Since the clock keeps going while the mac is sleeping that happens. I think that behaviour shouldn't be to confusing.

By,
Martin
 
thanks for everyone's responses! (i'm still blown away that the guy who writes the software actually responds to people's comments)

I just placed my order, this is some fantastic software- very very easy to use. I had played around with others, and this is so much better - much more intiutive.

now i just need to figure out how long renderings take (i discovered one rendering i did took 8 hours to complete... I probably need to clean up the model so that there aren't as many surfaces, and the fact that the building is all glass probably didn't help... ) - is there any way in future releases to have an estimated time to render? [edit] whoops... i checked around the forums and it turns out it is difficult to check... [\edit]

anyway- thanks again!

-to
 
Hi,
thank you very much for your nice words. :D

Sorry but estimating the rendering time is almost impossible. It would be easy if every pixel would take the same time. But that isn't the case. Every single pixel can take a different time to compute.

By,
Martin

P.S. If the building is all glass you can reduce the rendering time dramatically if you add a render tag to the glass object and disable the "receive radiosity" property since radiosity doens't have any effect on purly reflective or transparent object.
 
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