About Background Rendering

The Setup Background Render dialog box helps you define some options to render with a background.

This page discusses:

See Also
Managing Background Rendering
About the Camera Panels

Render Mode

You can select the appropriate render mode in batch mode.

Use the list to select between:

  • Iray (Photoreal or IRT).
  • Stellar produces high quality and physically realistic images with advanced global illumination effects, and supported multiview display, materials, and ambiences.
  • Distributed Iray (VCA and Remote Server) render mode using a cluster of computers.

    To make the command available, activate Enable distributed rendering and define the cluster host name and port in the Distributed Iray preferences.

    You also need to install satellites and, if you are not working on the local host, the background rendering server. For more information, see Managing the Network Computation.

  • Distributed Stellar produces high-quality images using a cluster of computers.

    To make the command available, activate Enable distributed rendering and define the cluster host name and port in the Distributed Stellar preferences.

    You also need to install and start the cluster to be able to connect to it from the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. For more information, see Ray Tracing Cluster Monitoring.

    Important: This option is usable only if you have the DIR license.

Production Outputs

You can define the following options to overload the output properties of the viewpoint or the camera, and to define the file format of the image.

The following options are available:

Option Description
Source Defines the name of the rendering job.
Note: The default name is: $p-$d.
  • $p corresponds to the experience's name.
  • $d corresponds to the date.

For more information about naming a job, see Name a Job.
Camera Displays the selected camera.
Note: When using the Stellar engine, you can select multiple cameras.
Profile Defines the output definition to the window size.
Note: Width and Height options are only available with the Custom profile.
Units Defines the unit for the resolution.
Format Defines the output format for the image.
Color Space Keeps the color consistency.

It can be useful for large color scale screens.

Important: Before using this option, calibrate your screen with a colorimeter hardware.

Animation Effects

The animation effects options help you preview the animation and to define different values.

The following options are available:

Option Description
Sequence Duration Defines the duration of the animation in seconds.
Sequence Framerate Defines the number of frames per second (FPS).
Motion Blur Type Adds a blur effect to the motion.
Produce Video Displays a preview of the animation.
Use H.264 compression Generates videos using the x264 encoding library.

All rendered images are generated in a dedicated directory, in addition to the video file using the H.264 codec.

Important: The video width must be a multiple of 2, and the height must be a multiple of 4.

Stereo Effects

The stereo effects options help you add and customize stereo effects on the animation.

The stereo effects values are based on real world values.

The following options are available:

Option Description
Activate Stereo Activates the stereo effects options.
Number of Views (X) Defines the number of views of the same scene.

Five or eight views are specific to auto-stereoscopic vision.

Interocular Distance Defines the distance between the center of human eyes.

By default, the value is 6.50 cm.

Stereo Distance Defines the distance between the camera point of view and the position of the stereo screen.

By default, the value is 2.80 m.

Depth Scale Factor Defines the scale of the virtual world by comparison with the real world.

  • A value of 1.000: the virtual scene looks as it would appear in the real world.
  • A value superior to 1.000: the virtual scene looks bigger than it would appear in the real world.
  • A value inferior to 1.000: the virtual scene looks smaller than it would appear in the real world.

By default, the value is 1.000.

Screen View Height Defines the distance between your eye and the center of the stereo screen.

By default, the value is 0.00 m.

Tone Mapper

The tone mapper options help you define the values for the image post processing.

The following options are available:

Option Description
Blacks Gives more contrast to dark areas.
Whites Gives more contrast to white areas.
Vignetting Defines the vignetting of the image.
Saturation Defines the image saturation.
Gamma Defines the image gamma.

Note:
  • When a camera is clicked in the Source list, the Tone Mapper area is grayed because tone mapping effects are defined in the camera properties.
  • To reset the default values, click Reset Values.

Image Layers

Image layers options help you define the rendering channels.

The following options are available:

Option Description Example
Beauty Contains the rendered image with the following combined contributions of layers: Diffuse, Specular, Glossy, Emission, and Alpha.
Diffuse Contains the diffuse contribution on the first ray bounce of the rendered image.
Specular Contains the specular contribution on the first ray bounce of the rendered image, that is to say, a mirror reflection or specular refraction.
Glossy Contains the glossy contribution on the first ray bounce of the rendered image, that is to say, all the nondiffuse and nonperfect specular contributions.
Alpha Contains the alpha value indicating the opacity of a pixel with respect to the background.

The range is from 0 (fully transparent, background totally visible) to 1 (fully opaque, background not visible).
Depth Contains the depth of the hit point along the Z coordinate in the camera space.

The depth is zero at the camera position and extends positive into the scene.

All points on a plane normal to the camera direction have the same depth.

The furthest pixels from the camera are white, and the closest ones are black.
Distance Contains the radial distance between the camera origin and the hit point measured in the camera space.

The depth is zero at the camera position and extends positive into the scene.

All points on a sphere centered at the camera position have the same distance.

The distance is related to depth by a factor that is the inner product of the ray direction and the negative Z-axis (0,0,-1).

The furthest pixels from the camera are white, and the closest ones are black.
Normals Contains the unit surface normal in the camera space used for shading at the hit point.
Material ID Displays each object that has a different material with its own unique flattened color.
Emission Identifies areas that emit light.
Irradiance Quantifies in false colors the amount of energy received by an object.

Blue corresponds to the lowest level of energy and red corresponds to the highest level of energy.
Ambient Occlusion Shows how exposed to ambient lighting is each point in the scene.

The range is from black (fully occluded) to white (not occluded).

Ambient Occlusion is only available with Iray Interactive and Stellar.

Important: Ambient Occlusion is only available with Iray Interactive and Stellar.

Hardware

The hardware options let you configure hardware parameters.

Select hardware for the following render modes:

  • Stellar
  • Photoreal
  • Interactive Raytracing.

Note:
  • These options only apply for the local host. For a remote server, you can choose the hardware when you start the server with the command line.
  • Only the available hardware appears in the list.
  • The installed non-NVidia GPUs appear in the list.

Miscellaneous

Other options help you define the background render.

The following options are available:

Option Description
Insert logo in saved images Adds a logo to the lower-right corner of saved images.

Logos are located in C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B424\win_b64\resources\graphic\logos. You can replace them.

Denoiser Enables the denoiser.

The denoiser converts a noisy image into a smooth image and improves convergence time for a rendering.
360° images Generates 360° images in batch mode.

Stop Criteria

You can define various criteria to stop the rendering.

The following criteria are available:

Criterion Description
Iterations Per Frame Defines the number of iterations required to produce one single frame.
Time Per Frame Defines the length time of the production of the animation.
Quality Threshold Stops the rendering when the quality threshold is reached.

If you combine the above criteria, the first criterion to be reached stops the rendering task.