I tend to use a Tweak-Render-Tweak approach to building worlds.

A quick and easy aid to exploring Mojoworld this way is to set up the render window to something other than the large screensize defaults supplied with the program. .

I create a number of smaller render windows of differing size and quality values to give a quick preview of the whole scene (Even though Mojoworld v3 now has a preview render It is still useful to set up a series of your own render windows) My own preference is for something a little larger, (300x200) which gives a reasonable tradeoff between seeing some useful detail and a quick render.

(note the screenshots are from Mojoworld V2)

a) From the Generator Main Title Bar click the Render Menu Icon (1).

Notice the inbuilt default render options Low-Maximum and underneath my own Custom settings.

b) From this menu select 'Settings' (2)

The Render Settings Window will be empty unless there are already some Custom Settings. If so a 'Control Stack' containing the first entries values will show.

NOTE: If you alter any of the displayed settings and click OK they will overwrite the previous values - be careful

c) We want to add a new entry so click the Menu Icon (3) and select 'Add New Settings' from the drop down list.

d) Before you do anything else rename this new entry by clicking the Name Box (4) and entering something suitable.

I like to put the actual size the render will be followed by its quality, low med high etc.

eg 320x200 low

e) Set up the Antialiasing, Geometry Detail and Shadows Checkbox to your own preferred values (5) or use table 1 as a guide.

Note: A 'X' in the Shadows box indicates Shadows are Enabled

f) Finally set the size of the render (6) and click 'OK' to store it.

A new entry will now show in the 'Custom Settings' when you go back to the Render Menu.
Now when you want to do a quick small render just select the entry and speedily render away.

Table 1
 
Antialiasing
Geometry
Shadows
Low
1
0
off
Med
1
1
off
High
2
2
off

Tips

As you can see I very rarely use shadows, (even on full size renders) they really cripple the render time and the improvements are not always worth the extended render time.

I only use high values of Antialiasing on large renders (800x600) and only then if there are a lot of 'jaggies' in the image or very close foreground detail. For these small preview renders these values seem more than enough.

If you don't use shadows it's possible to stop the render from completing its 'Redoing Blocks' pass which again very often adds significantly to the render time but does little to improve the image. Any small 'missed' blocks are easily and more quickly touched up in Photoshop etc.

Whilst on the subject of shadows, turn off shadows on your cloud layers as these also add considerably to render times.

   
- Postcards from Mojoworld -
Concept, design and content © Robert Buttery 2005
Page last updated February 10, 2005