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The Renderer3D uses one of the cameras in the scene (typically connected to a Merge3D node) to produce an image. If no camera is found, a default perspective view is used. Since this default view rarely provides a useful angle, most people build 3D scenes that include at least one camera.
The image produced by the Renderer3D can be any resolution with options for fields processing, color depth, and pixel aspect.
Software vs. GPU Rendering
The Renderer3D node lets you choose between using a software renderer or an OpenGL renderer, trading off certain aspects of rendered image quality for speed, and trading off depth of field rendering for soft shadow rendering, depending on the needs of a particular element of your composition. To choose which method of rendering to use, there’s a Renderer Type pop-up
menu in the Controls tab of each Renderer3D node’s parameters in the Inspector. The default is Software Renderer.
The Renderer Type option in the Controls tab of a Renderer3D node
Software Renderer
The software renderer is generally used to produce the final output. While the software renderer is not the fastest method of rendering, it has twin advantages. First, the software renderer can easily handle textures much larger than one half of your GPU’s maximum texture size, so if you’re working with texture images larger than 8K you should choose the software renderer to obtain maximum quality.
Second, the software renderer is required to enable the rendering of “constant” and “variable” soft shadows with adjustable Spread, which is not supported by the OpenGL renderer. Soft shadows are more natural, and they’re enabled in the Shadows parameters of the Controls tab of light nodes; you can choose Sampling Quality and Softness type, and adjust Spread, Min Softness, and Filter Size sliders. Additionally, the software renderer supports alpha channels in shadow maps, allowing transparency to alter shadow density.
When the Renderer3D node “Renderer Type” drop-down is set to OpenGL Renderer, you cannot render soft shadows or excessively large textures (left). When the Renderer3D node “Renderer Type” drop- down is set to Software Renderer, you can render higher-quality textures and soft shadows (right).