Render Settings Preferences - General Settings tab

In the Menu Bar, click Edit > Preferences, then on the left side of the dialog box, select Render Settings.

Antialiasing

Use Image Samples

Sets the number of samples taken during still frame antialiasing. Higher values produce a cleaner result, while lower values reduce the render time. A value of 256 is a good starting point, but may be too low for interior scenes with full global illumination. Use this option when wanting to only render a set number of frames. For example, if you want 256 frames rendered, you would set Use Image Samples to 256.

Use Time

Uses time, instead of image samples, to set the maximum time it takes to render all still antialiased frames. More time produces higher quality images, but uses more of your CPU. Less time reduces the quality of the image, but has less impact on your CPU. Use this option when wanting to render all frames in a specify amount of time.

Use Infinite Rendering in Viewport

Toggles the use of infinite rendering in the Viewport on or off.

Start update render with

Sets the number of samples at which the antialiasing render update starts. A value of 16 typically prevents grainy-looking progress samples from displaying. The render continues to calculate in the background.

When still frame antialiasing, this sets the number of image samples rendered. When this is set to 1, while still frame antialiasing runs, the render image updates in the viewport after each sample. In some raytracing modes, like Full Global Illumination, the result looks very noisy in the first samples (except if the denoiser is used). To avoid this, set Start Update Render with.. to a higher value, such as 16. VRED does the sampling in the background, only showing, for example, the image on screen, once the 16 samples have been computed, significantly reducing or eliminating the noise.

Adaptive Sampling

Enables the raytracer to skip regions that are already smooth and focus on regions that are still noisy.

Use Clamping Value

Activates clamping of bright pixels to eliminate white spots after antialiasing. The value sets the maximum value for a white pixel. Activating clamping and reducing the value, reduces the maximum resulting image color range.

Pixel Filter

A pixel filter weighs the image samples taken per pixel and therefore controls the antialiasing quality of the rendering. High image filter sizes may result in blurry image results.

Filter

Uses your preferred filtering method from the list. See Render Settings under Pixel Filter.

Size

Defines the number of neighboring pixels in width and height used for filtering.

Features

Monitor Luminance (cd/m²)

Sets the luminance value of the preferred display. When using photometric parameters, the actual monitor luminance is necessary to reproduce the rendering results with realistic photometric values on the display device.

Enable Photometric Parameters

Enables photometric parameters for newly generated scenes, not to the current scene. For a description of photometric consistent rendering, see Render Settings.

Enable Spectral Raytracing

Enables the optimization of all light colors when rendering an image. In addition to the simulation of more reliable colors of materials, wavelength-based spectral rendering enables the user to illustrate realistic dispersion effects. See Render Settings.

Illuminant

Sets the light spectrum considered to be white. Usually this should be D65 to match daylight. The other option, Equal Energy, uses an equal energy spectrum as white. An equal energy spectrum has an equal value for all wavelengths.

Optimize for Many Light Sources

Optimizes light calculation by reducing the quality slightly, in scenes with many light sources. This increases the rendering performance. See Render Settings.

Enable NURBS Raytracing

Enables NURBS to be raytraced when working with polygons.

BRDF Behavior

Sets the default BRDF value for your scene. For information on the differences between these values, see the BRDF Behavior section of Render Settings.

For New Scenes

When starting a project with a new scene, the default behavior is always set to the new rendering behavior, which uses the BRDF GGX model. It is possible to switch back, at any time, to the "old" BRDF model using the Render Settings.

For Exisiting Scenes

When opening a scene created before 2022, a dialog appears asking whether to migrate the scene into the new GGX BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function) model or stick with the "old" behavior.

Note:

In the Render Settings, it is possible to migrate the scene to the new GGX BRDF model at any time.

Check BRDF Behavior on Load

Enables a warning that lets you know if the file contains an older BRDF mode and asks if you want to update to the current one. Disabling this option turns the warning off. The Update BRDF Behavior from File is then used, but only and if it is enabled. The BRDF model is updated with the one contained within the file.

Note:

This option is ignored when a file is loaded via script, as the BRDF mode is always taken from the file.

Update BRDF Behavior from File

Uses the BRDF behavior of the loaded file. This is the default state and provides the same look as when the file was last saved. Disabling this option could change the rendering, as it might use a different BRDF behavior.

Important:

This option is only evaluated if Check the BRDF Behavior on Load is disabled.

Note:

This option is ignored when a file is loaded via script, as the BRDF mode is always taken from the file.

Share Textures

Shares the memory of two GPUs when raytracing textures. When enabled with NVLink active for all available GPUs, textures are only uploaded to one GPU and shared with the others to save GPU memory.

Note:

Share Textures impacts performance when enabled. Also, at present, this is limited to 2 GPUs per island.

Share Geometries

Shares the memory of two GPUs when raytracing geometries. When enabled with NVLink active for all available GPUs, geometries and their acceleration structures are only uploaded to one GPU and shared with the others to save GPU memory.

Note:

Share Textures impacts performance when enabled.

Improve Color Depth

Toggles the improvement of the rendered color depth on or off. Improves the rendered color depth, when enabled.

Sim2 HDR

Luminance Mapping

Sets the luminance mapping for the Sim2 HDR display when photometric parameters are enabled. A value of 1 maps a luminance value of 1 cd/m² in the rendering to a value of 1 cd/m² on the Sim2 HDR display.

Sound

Play Sound After Finishing a Rendering

Plays a sound to let you know when your render is complete. This is useful if rendering is taking place in the background and you are working in other applications.