Here
are some suggestions for optimizing rendering times:
- Use internal lights on the fluid instead
of a Maya light, especially if you have a lot of lights, or you
are using expensive light types (like area lights). To use an internal
light, turn Real Lights off in the Lighting section
of the fluidShape Attribute Editor.
- Lower the Quality setting
as needed to speed up preview renders.
In general, lower the Quality until
you see dotty artifacts, especially along the fluid edges, then
increase it a bit. You can then try increasing the Contrast
Tolerance. A low adaptive tolerance is useful when you
have a fluid with sudden boundaries. Both Quality and Contrast
Tolerance affect the shadow quality.
- Raytracing with Receive
Shadows turned on in the Render Stats section
of the fluidShape Attribute Editor can increase
rendering time.
- Avoid the Billow Texture Type.
Use Perlin Noise instead, with Inflection turned
on.
- Try using the Shading Samples Override attribute
in the Render Stats section of the Attribute
Editor of the fluid. This may work well when you have
a soft edged fluid (a hard edge will need anti aliasing). The fluid
might look acceptable with Shading Samples and Max
Shading Samples both set to 1. In some cases, this could
half the render time.