Over the past few years, a lot of people ask why it takes so long to render. In many cases, it turns out they are using various fX, some of which take more time than others to render. Of course, there are various bus fX (supersampling and motion blur) and also compositing, all of which can consume even more CPU cycles. However, I still thought it might be useful for the Vegas community to have a benchmark, based on measurements, of which each fX takes to render.
I put forty-eight identical ten-second NTSC DV AVI clips on the timeline. I then assigned to each, one of the built-in Sony fX. I used Vegas 5.0d, although I would expect the relative results would be similar in Vegas 6.0b.
I then created a script that assigned a region to each event and named that region with the fX name. I then used the batch render GUI script to render each ten-second clip to its own file. I then copied the file listing of all these files to a spreadsheet and used the difference in the creation timestamps to compute the duration of the render for each clip. I sorted that spreadsheet in two different ways, and present the results below. The actual times, in seconds, is not that useful since your computer will be different than mine. However, the relative times are probably the same, no matter what computer you have. As you can see, there is a HUGE difference in rendering times depending on the fX.
Using this information, you can make informed decisions on trading off creativity against whatever deadlines you have to get the job done.
I could upload the Excel spreadsheet to one of the Vegas support sites, if anyone is interested.
Below, I duplicated the same information twice: once sorted alphabetically by plugin name, and then sorted by performance starting with the fastest and then going to the slowest.
Here is the same table, sorted by speed:
I put forty-eight identical ten-second NTSC DV AVI clips on the timeline. I then assigned to each, one of the built-in Sony fX. I used Vegas 5.0d, although I would expect the relative results would be similar in Vegas 6.0b.
I then created a script that assigned a region to each event and named that region with the fX name. I then used the batch render GUI script to render each ten-second clip to its own file. I then copied the file listing of all these files to a spreadsheet and used the difference in the creation timestamps to compute the duration of the render for each clip. I sorted that spreadsheet in two different ways, and present the results below. The actual times, in seconds, is not that useful since your computer will be different than mine. However, the relative times are probably the same, no matter what computer you have. As you can see, there is a HUGE difference in rendering times depending on the fX.
Using this information, you can make informed decisions on trading off creativity against whatever deadlines you have to get the job done.
I could upload the Excel spreadsheet to one of the Vegas support sites, if anyone is interested.
Below, I duplicated the same information twice: once sorted alphabetically by plugin name, and then sorted by performance starting with the fastest and then going to the slowest.
Plugin fX Time (seconds) "x" times (relative to fastest)
Sony (Legacy) Broadcast Colors 13.9 1.1
Sony Add Noise 64.8 5.1
Sony Black and White 16.2 1.3
Sony Black Restore 12.7 1.0
Sony Border 19.7 1.5
Sony Brightness and Contrast 15.0 1.2
Sony Broadcast Colors 18.5 1.5
Sony Bump Map 99.5 7.8
Sony Channel Blend 18.5 1.5
Sony Chroma Blur 50.9 4.0
Sony Chroma Keyer 59.0 4.6
Sony Color Balance 19.7 1.5
Sony Color Corrector 22.0 1.7
Sony Color Corrector (Secondary) 23.1 1.8
Sony Color Curves 19.7 1.5
Sony Convolution Kernel 79.9 6.3
Sony Cookie Cutter 19.7 1.5
Sony Deform 302.1 23.7
Sony Film Effects 358.8 28.2
Sony Film Grain 42.8 3.4
Sony Gaussian Blur 88.0 6.9
Sony Glow 110.0 8.6
Sony Gradient Map 26.6 2.1
Sony HSL Adjust 42.8 3.4
Sony Invert 17.4 1.4
Sony Lens Flare 75.2 5.9
Sony Levels 13.9 1.1
Sony Light Rays 229.2 18.0
Sony Linear Blur 163.2 12.8
Sony Mask Generator 12.7 1.0
Sony Median 381.9 30.0
Sony Min and Max 2,950.2 231.7
Sony Mirror 49.8 3.9
Sony News Print 30.1 2.4
Sony Pinch Punch 86.8 6.8
Sony Pixelate 22.0 1.7
Sony Quick Blur 41.7 3.3
Sony Radial Blur 79.9 6.3
Sony Saturation Adjust 44.0 3.5
Sony Sepia 17.4 1.4
Sony Sharpen 50.9 4.0
Sony Spherize 82.2 6.5
Sony Swirl 98.4 7.7
Sony Threshold 18.5 1.5
Sony Timecode 16.2 1.3
Sony TV Simulator 69.4 5.5
Sony Unsharp Mask 144.7 11.4
Sony Wave 71.8 5.6
Here is the same table, sorted by speed:
Plugin fX Time (seconds) "x" times (relative to fastest)
Sony Black Restore 12.7 1.0
Sony Mask Generator 12.7 1.0
Sony (Legacy) Broadcast Colors 13.9 1.1
Sony Levels 13.9 1.1
Sony Brightness and Contrast 15.0 1.2
Sony Black and White 16.2 1.3
Sony Timecode 16.2 1.3
Sony Sepia 17.4 1.4
Sony Invert 17.4 1.4
Sony Broadcast Colors 18.5 1.5
Sony Channel Blend 18.5 1.5
Sony Threshold 18.5 1.5
Sony Color Balance 19.7 1.5
Sony Color Curves 19.7 1.5
Sony Cookie Cutter 19.7 1.5
Sony Border 19.7 1.5
Sony Color Corrector 22.0 1.7
Sony Pixelate 22.0 1.7
Sony Color Corrector (Secondary) 23.1 1.8
Sony Gradient Map 26.6 2.1
Sony News Print 30.1 2.4
Sony Quick Blur 41.7 3.3
Sony Film Grain 42.8 3.4
Sony HSL Adjust 42.8 3.4
Sony Saturation Adjust 44.0 3.5
Sony Mirror 49.8 3.9
Sony Chroma Blur 50.9 4.0
Sony Sharpen 50.9 4.0
Sony Chroma Keyer 59.0 4.6
Sony Add Noise 64.8 5.1
Sony TV Simulator 69.4 5.5
Sony Wave 71.8 5.6
Sony Lens Flare 75.2 5.9
Sony Radial Blur 79.9 6.3
Sony Convolution Kernel 79.9 6.3
Sony Spherize 82.2 6.5
Sony Pinch Punch 86.8 6.8
Sony Gaussian Blur 88.0 6.9
Sony Swirl 98.4 7.7
Sony Bump Map 99.5 7.8
Sony Glow 110.0 8.6
Sony Unsharp Mask 144.7 11.4
Sony Linear Blur 163.2 12.8
Sony Light Rays 229.2 18.0
Sony Deform 302.1 23.7
Sony Film Effects 358.8 28.2
Sony Median 381.9 30.0
Sony Min and Max 2,950.2 231.7