I just COMBINED the CPU and GPU in Hybrid Rendering mode!!! Rendered in 10 minutes! I’m ECSTATIC!!!
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True there is no import button in SketchUp, but one can import the .skp into blender and add textures etc then render the image.
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A lot of us have been waiting days (or at least overnight) for renders. My clients are now used to real-time delivery, and you just can’t keep up anymore with off-line render speed. Most of my renders are of medium quality and any subtle differences in lighting aren’t noticed anyway. I find that understanding what the clients really need is more important than any “techy stuff”. If you are going to teach 3D courses this might be something to consider investigating and include in your course.
Absolutely!
Total perfection whilst a laudable goal is ideal but realistically in a working environment ‘that one’ image/scene is actually one of many for a particular project which is one of many projects you are either working on or are queued up to be worked on as soon as there is a gap in your schedule.
‘Getting away with just enough’ is all that’s needed for the vast majority of work with the odd project that requires more depending on the client’s wants and needs.
No matter how much effort I put into a project or how much pressure I’m under to complete it; its importance is vastly outweighed by the next project and the fact that I’m currently not working on it.
If a project was completed yesterday and the client likes it then it’s literally dead to us, no matter how good/how exciting it was … it’s now in the past and the only important thing is “what’s next?”
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You may find this useful if you are trying to spec a new computer , the results from the v-Ray benchmark
V-Ray 5 Benchmark | Chaos (chaosgroup.com)
You can search by CPU and GPU and see how each component scores.
The results aren’t based on time, as that is entirely dependent on the complexity of the scene, but it can certainly give you an indication of how to get the best bang for your buck when choosing a CPU and GPU
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Hi I’ve been using xps’s for Sketchup for the past 6 yrs.
I am also looking at the 17" model but I was going for the i9 thinking it may futureproof me .
Why is the i7 a better choice?
I do little rendering as my job turnaround has to be so quick, for visuals I photoshop native sketchup renders to save time.
I’d choose the I9, these typically have better single threaded performance, which is what SketchUp craves.
They typically benchmark around 15-20% higher for that particular performance metric which suggests SketchUp would run better on the i9.
As the cliche goes, “perfect is the worst enemy of good enough”.
Thanks for that!
Hi Karin,
I totally understand that, being a 3D Visualiser for approx. 9 years. However, I know my target market very well (Interior Designers) who were once (and at times still are) my main clients when delivering my 3D Visualisation service. They constantly squeezed me for tighter turnaround times when producing photo-real 3D visuals. I also surveyed the members in my Facebook Group, all of which are mostly Interior Designers and they have placed turnaround time as one of their top priorities.
I know that there are many things you can do to save on render time from within SketchUp and sharpening up your own workflows and processes. However, making sure you combine efficient workflow with sufficient hardware is crucial, in my opinion to ensure that you’re producing photo-real 3D visuals within an acceptable timeframe. Even though I was able to produce photo-real renders in 10 mins using my GPU, I still consider 1-3 hrs an ok timeframe in which to generate a raw render.
It’s really important to consider the time and impact on profit margin for Interior Designers who are creating their own photo-real renders. My course will be focusing on teaching Interior Designers how to produce 3D visuals in a decent amount of time, without compromising on quality. As I said, there are a number of different ways to do this and ensuring you have the necessary hardware to meet the demands of rendering, is one of them.
Hey! After my research, I’ve deduced that the i7 is better because the i9 overheats too much, thereby increasing thermal throttle. I know of one guy who actually downgraded from an i9 to an i7 because of thermal issues.
If you’re not using rendering software, I would consider the XPS 15. I’m opting for the XPS 17 because of the vapor chamber which has improved cooling functionality. It’s basically a desktop replacement.
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Have you considered using the Chaos Cloud?
I recently completed an entire catalog of buildings for a client. ~30 some buildings. 3-4 exteriors each, 1-2 interiors (very simple, ambient light with a little light added as needed), some cut away sections, etc. - all of them done at 5k x 5x pixels so they could later produce print materials and crop - resize as needed for web / etc.
Some with fog and many trees, some with water, etc., props, cars, etc. - they are admittedly not as detailed as yours, as we kept things fairly simple as is their portfolio, but the goal was to have fairly realistic images with diverse settings for the entire portfolio. For many I modeled the terrain and backgrounds - vray light gen was awesome for this. For others I modeled a bit of terrain and bought some stock photos and tried to match / blend lighting.
I’m on a 2020 iMac 5k - so I would still be rendering locally…
For me the cloud was great - I set up test renders locally and then and would send final renders to the cloud. Worked incredibly well. The system allows you to download a CSV of render time per file, and you can group things into projects as needed. Super easy for client billing. I think we spent almost $4k on the renders. Yes, I looked at costs and I spec’d out a PC to use as a render machine, + the additional monitor and the render node / license of Vray - in the end I felt the spend on the cloud made more sense - it frees my time up to start on the next image once I send it off, don’t have to manage a second device that will be outdated eventually, and it’s a pass through service that is easily quantifiable - locally I would have to track render time and somehow bill accordingly - with my approach I billed for setup, test render and post work (Photoshop) - and then each month sent a tally I downloaded from Chaos Cloud. Super easy.
Hey, Chaos Cloud is always an option if you need to render large images and you’re under pressure with a tight deadline. I’ve used render farms myself in the past, with mixed success (freezing renders, queues at peak times etc. causing a huge impact).
I’ll be teaching Interior Designers how to create their own photo-real renders, and they really don’t need to be anywhere near 5k x 5k pixels. The profit margins for Interior Designers (especially those self employed as small businesses) are actually pretty tight when you add photo-real rendering into the mix, in order to keep design services competitive, especially edesign services. I don’t feel the added cost of cloud rendering can be justified for each and every render. Plus, there’s an element of control removed if you’re always having to depend on a render farm, and vulnerability if there are queues, price increases or technical problems.
I much prefer minimising risk by having my own hardware setup. But you could absolutely have cloud rendering sitting in the background as a contingency.
Im looking at the 17" as I need a bigger screen, I don’t want to carry a monitor with me to film studio set builds and my eyes need all the help they can get. Also I am really interested in your course since your comment about Freelancers not needing hi res renders!
Thats Me!
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17" screens are the bomb, right?! And the XPS 17 has such a small footprint with the clean Bezel. It’s definitely a great option.
Ha! I think high res renders are overrated! Most of my clients showed the renders to their clients via a laptop or monitor. You can definitely get away with 2500/2800 pixels for sure. Even if they printed, it was usually on an A4 page. There are so many variables to print quality that you have no control over, after you send a render to a client. Print setup, paper quality etc. I really don’t get too hung up on it.
I’m very curious what your per render costs will be on the machine you are specifying.
After going through my experience I could not imagine doing it any other way. Perhaps you’ll show me I’m wrong on this… but if margins are tight, renders small, and profitability is driving some of this decision - outsource the computation time to a farm… for some of the smaller stuff I have done since the big project I am paying 2-3€ an image.
But the machine won’t be only used for just rendering. An Interior Designer will be using it for all aspects of their design service and business. Although, admittedly the price per render you have quoted is much less than I would have thought.
Ah yes, of course. I already have a perfectly good machine for SketchUp, Layout and Photoshop, so if you are buying new because you need a general machine and you upgrade for rendering capabilities then it changes the cost / benefit matrix.
Yes, I was pleasantly surprised by the costs.
Good luck with the purchase and the new tutorials.
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Went back and looked at my billing - just for reference so you can see how some of these costs shake out, not trying to convince you not to buy - but I too was worried I would break the bank with outsourcing to the cloud.
I made 632 renders (including 5k x 5k, smaller web only exploded views, etc).
Averaged 5.43 credits on the Chaos Cloud for each render.
I’m in Switzerland so buying credits @ 1 credit for .9 Euro at the smallest bundle (cheaper if you buy bulk) then converting to USD for my client billing.
If I filter for 5k x 5k and 5k x 3k final renders (completed - not stopped, paused, or smaller scale tests) I have 2793 credits for 394 final images delivered to client - these averaged 7 credits each. Render time was from 5-12 minutes to 2+ hours. If my spreadsheet is right I have roughly 465 hours render time for those 394 images. For me, that is 465 hours my machine isn’t spinning away in the home office (and I don’t think a single machine could match the cloud in this case for efficiency).
Here are some sample pics (down sampled) so you can see the range I was working with:
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