Texture Optimization
3Delight automatically optimize textures for rendering. You may consider preparing textures manually using the tdlmake tool are for these reasons:
- Save start-up time for renders.
- Save local hard drive space as 3Delight will convert textures into a temporary local folder.
The Network Cache
3Delight has a unique feature that improves performance when rendering over networked environments: the renderer can cache textures that are located on the network to the local drive for faster data access and saving network bandwidth. The network cache content is updated automatically: when files are modified on the file server, the local (cached) copies will be automatically updated the first time they are needed for a rendering. If there is no more space in the cache, copied textures are removed to make space for incoming textures by following the Least Recently Used (LRU) principle.
By default, the Network Cache in not active. We recommend you turn it on. The only inconvenience is an initial delay before you start to see the image on the first render (because the first time the cache needs to be filled). The amount of delay will depend on how many textures are used in that particular image. Note that if you use only one computer, and all the texture data are on a local drive of that computer, enabling Use Network Cache won't have any effect.
The Network cache can be activated and configured through the 3delight.config configuration file.