Too much surface area?

[bighop]

I started building my house in AM so I could see what a wood floor would be like throughout my little place. A friend of mine saw the attached picture and asked if the cold air return was real or a decal. I told him I really modeled it.

 

He suggested that a decal would be better because when rendering, the light will have to be calculated for each fin (There are 68 fins, and a decal or map would be better. (This is based on a 3D program he uses) Does that apply to AM?

 

Am I really going to tank my render times for adding too much detail?

[robcat2075]

Yves would be the definitive expert on such things.

 

POSSIBLY... a radiosity render might have some small hit with a hidden cavity like that?

In a regular render, a decal might be faster but not much.

 

Antialiasing real geometry seems to take longer than a decal.

 

Try it both ways and tell us what happens!

 

 

I suspect A:M is better optimized than that and I bet his app isn't seriously impaired either.

[Fuchur]

I am quite positive that modelled geometry will result in slightly higher renderingtimes... so with small patch-counts it will not be noticeable. BUt with high once it would...

 

However it will although be affected by the decal-size, etc.

 

*Fuchur*

[Eric2575]

Dont' worry about it and be proud of the modeling you did for the vent. I deal in high detail, high patch count models and can tell you for sure that the time savings is minimal.

[bighop]

Thanks. The detail is fun.