Real time and pre rendering

[FinnIestyn]

There are two major types of 3d max rendering namely real time rendering and offline or pre rendering. The chief difference between the two is the speed with which the images are computed and finalized. The first method namely real time rendering is used most prominently in gaming and interactive graphics, where images must be computed from 3D information at an incredibly rapid pace. Since we can never predict exactly how a player will interact with the game environment, images must be rendered in real time as the action unfolds. Speed is also very much important and in order to get the motion to appear fluid, a minimum of eighteen to twenty frames per second must be rendered to the screen. If we apply any thing less than this limit the action will appear choppy. Real time rendering is drastically improved by dedicated graphics hardware or GPUs, and by pre compelling as much information as possible. It is pointed out by experts that a great deal of a game environment’s lighting information is pre computed and baked directly into the environment’s texture files to improve render speed. Offline or pre rendering is seen in situations where speed is less of an issue, with calculations typically performed using multi-core CPUs rather than dedicated graphics hardware. Predictability and photorealism are two important features of offline or pre 3D max rendering which is seen most frequently in animation and effects work where visual complexity and photorealism are held to a much higher standard.