Rendering with Cycles
Ornatrix App can preview your groom with Cycles, a full, interactive path tracer built into the application. Where the working viewport rasterizes hair for speed, the Cycles preview traces light through the scene for a physically based result - global illumination, soft shadows, and correct hair shading - refined live as you work. Together with the ProRender preview, it is one of the two built-in ways to see a groom rendered without leaving the App.
Turning on the Cycles preview
Set the viewport display mode to Realistic to render the current view with Cycles. The viewport display modes are Shaded (and the other rasterized styles) for fast working, Raytraced for the ProRender preview, and Realistic for Cycles. The preview follows the camera and your edits: as you orbit or change the groom, Cycles re-renders the new view.
Progressive refinement
Cycles renders progressively. The image starts rough and cleans up as more samples accumulate while the view is held still; moving the camera or editing the groom restarts the refinement for the new view. You get a quick first impression that sharpens the longer you leave the view settled.
GPU and CPU rendering
On a supported NVIDIA GPU, Cycles renders on the GPU for interactive speed. Without one, it falls back to rendering on the CPU, which produces the same image more slowly. No setup is required - the App selects the best available device automatically.
Lighting and background
The Cycles preview is lit by the same viewport lights as the rest of the App and shares the viewport background gradient, so switching between the working view, ProRender, and Cycles keeps the scene looking consistent. Hair is shaded with a dedicated hair model, so strands read as hair rather than as plain tubes.
While the preview builds
Preparing a Cycles render of a dense groom takes a moment: the renderer must prepare the scene and upload the hair before the first traced image can appear. During that time - and whenever the traced image is still catching up after a camera move or edit on a heavy groom - the App keeps the viewport responsive by showing a fast shaded stand-in of your groom with a Rendering... indicator. As soon as the traced image is ready it takes over and continues to refine, so you are never left looking at a blank or frozen viewport.
Cycles or ProRender
Both are built-in, physically based previews, and you can switch between them freely with the display mode:
- Cycles (Realistic) is a true path tracer, best for final-look lighting and shading quality.
- ProRender (Raytraced) converges very quickly to a clean, stable image, handy for fast look-development. See Rendering with ProRender.
Related
- Supported Render Engines - what the App can preview and export to.
- Viewport Lights - the lights that illuminate the preview.
- Hair and Guide Viewport Display - the fast, non-traced working view.