You ask a very good question, and I will do my level best to answer what makes a render take as long as it does.I'd like to ask to the talented artists that are following this forum what is their rough estimate for rendering a scene like the 2nd teaser with the graphic card(s) that L&P is using? If I understand well, the higher the number of characters the longer it takes to render. What is the relation, polynomial, exponential?
I think it has been discussed before and if I remember well some general consensus was that the concert itself would not take a major role in the event **even because of** the technical limitations of rendering a "crowd" of people and complex environment.
These 2 teasers obviously offer many possible scenarios for how the event will play out, with many different nuances and for all tastes. But I think the technical limitations above can prune some of them.
Bar fight? It could be one way to go, but is it really doable? (honest question) Manipulating so many characters plus rendering could be very time consuming in terms of development, even for L&P standards. I'm not ruling it out, I'm really asking if it is something that could be doable in a reasonable amount of time and just from a strictly technical point of view.
My personal feeling is still that nothing that rough will happen in the bar (i.e. bar fight, assaults etc) both because of the technical limitations and because I don't think it's the way L&P wants to go. For sure I'd expect some interactions with the people at the bar, some loud comments, eye glued to the two girls and so on. There can be a way of writing all this in a way that builds up some narrative tension and that, e.g., once again explore Sophia's pleasure in being "the center of attention".
And if anything, I won't be surprise if the location will be used later on for one of Aiden's tasks.
Finally, it has pointed out that no one from Sam's family is there. I'd also add that it's a bit strange that there are no friends of the band, being their first live performance normally close friends will be invited to come. Could be the two ladies arrived a bit too early (only the drums are on stage) and others will join soon (thus the dramatic entrance of the two in a such a bar could play a more dramatic effect)?
Or again have we reached some technical limits and there is no space for others? Will it be addressed in the dialogues, giving a reasonable motivation for the lack of support for the band even for the closest friends/relatives (e.g. it's school night)?
In the grossest of terms the time to render a scene is dependent upon the maps used in the scene. There are diffuse, specular, bump and normal maps. Normal maps are your best friend because they simulate textures that are not really there, and were not introduced until Gen 3. Each map is responsible for part of what you see (and don't see) on any surface on any object in the scene. Remaining in the realm of a simple explanation: The maps cover the polygons, and the more polygons covered by maps the longer the render time.
For example, I developed a Gen 1 scene on a beach with Gen 1 girls, then I put Gen 1 bikinis on them. The Gen 1 bikinis literally constituted 90% of the file size of the scene and rendering crashed every time after waiting hours. Removing the bikinis offered a scene I could render in less than 30 minutes. However, a nude beach scene was not my goal at the time.
As we progress in DAZ generations the tendency is to design with less polygons and use more maps that simulate a texture or effect (using more pixels). The kind of lighting also has an affect on render time. Low resource-heavy shaders can also mitigate some of the long render time.
Although the computer 'sees' the entire scene even if it is not in the view of the render and effects render time. However, I have rendered a multiple person scene in one angle in 17 minutes and the same scene from another angle took 1 hour and 45 minutes. There are other factors that also affect render time that others may add to this if they wish.
In short, a fast DAZ artist finds the resources that have less polygons and more normal (and bump) maps while homogenizing the lighting type to reduce conflict that increases render time. This is just a thumbnail sketch answer, and with L&P's rig using smart methods I would estimate between 30 and 45 minutes to render this scene.
I hope this helps, Jack.
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