Installation Guide System Requirements Only Windows is supported at this time. GPU rendering best performance with Nvidia 30x, 20x, or 10x series CPU rendering supported but without the large GPU speed improvements, CPU supported for the "Ultra Denoiser” and Post FX. Installation 1, Unpack the K-CyclesX or K-Cycles in any desired location, 2. Create a desktop shortcut or run directly the "blender.exe”. Setup 1. Under Preferences->System->Device select “Optix”. 2. Turn OFF the CPU processor. It is necessary in K-Cycles for best performance. 3. Under “Render Properties” select the “Cycles” render engine. 4, Select “GPU Compute” device. 5. In the “Performance” section turn OFF "Save Buffer’. The steps below are only for legacy K-Cycles: 6. Below the Sampling->Denoising->Viewport select “Automatic/Optix’. 7. K-Cycles use large tiles so make sure to leave "Auto Tile Size" tun On(Default) below the "Performance" section. 8. Do not use Blenders “Auto Tile Size” Add-on. It conflicts with K-Cycles “Auto Tile Size" feature. 9. The render window is not updated until the render is finished for maximum. performance. It may take a while with high render samples or complex scenes. 10. Using a 4K or high resolution monitor change Performance->Viewport->Pixel Size to tx, Troubleshooting 1, Install the latest Nvidia drivers. 2. Do I clean install first by deleting your C:\Users\XXXX\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blenderi2.93 or 3.00" folder. Then unzip and run "Blender.exe", 3. Go to Edit->Preferences->System to Optix tab make sure to tum off CPU.4. There have been times when the first time running K-CyclesX the Nvidia Opitx kernel needs to compile and takes a few minutes. Let it finish. Itis only done once. After that it should be fine. 5.Try the BMW scene at 100% output should notice performance improvement using K-Cyclesx. The step below are only for legacy K-Cycles 6, Leave the "Auto Tile Size" On. Large tile size are necessary for K-Cycles to achieve 100% GPU utilization and performance. GPU Memory Tips K-Cycles can use slightly more GPU memory for its performance optimization. Large scenes that do not fitin the available GPU memory will get an “Optix’ error. Here are some tips. 1. Check the current available GPU memory using GPU-Z utility or Task Manager under the performance->GPU section. 2. Close other applications that are using GPU memory. 3. Ifthe viewport preview render is active, switch it to solid mode when doing a final render. 4, Run K-CyclesX from the command line. No Ul reduces the use of GPU memory. See docs at: https://docs. blender. org/manual/en/latest/advanced/command_line/render-htm| 5. K-CyclesX Ultra Denoiser Multi-Pass is going to use more memory to store all the passes to get the best denoising quality. If very low in GPU memory can turn this option off. 6. If unable to “Simplify” the scene like described below and low GPU memory, changing the K-CyclesX GPU Boost from "Max" to "High" will reduce GPU memory with slightly reduced rendering performance. Or go to "None" and won't use any more than standard cycles-x and still faster render than cycles-x, but noticeably less than "High" or "Max" 7. Inthe render options in the "Simplify" section use "Texture Limit" to something like 1024 or 2048. If the scene contains mesh objects with subdivision, reduce the "Max Subdivision” to 2 or 1. Last when using particles, reduce “Child Particles” to 0.5. Do both for both viewport and render. 8. Another option for better control without “Simplify” is to manually change object geometry subdivision and particle total count. Geometry objects using "Subdivision" reduce up to level to 1. If using particles, reduce their amount. 9. Look at reducing the size of HDR.10. Instead of using "Simplify" for texture limits, reduce manually the size of texture image files for better image quality. Keeping important textures at higher resolution. | have used the free version of ImBatch, a great utility. Go to the texture folder and sort by size/resolution and drop the large files into ImBatch and resize. Then with Imbatch(free) | drag all the images that don't need closeup or are not important and resize them to 1kx1k or 2kx2k. Also HDR can be resized and save a lot of memory. 11. fusing micro displacements try increasing subdivision "Dicing Rate Render" to 1,00px. 12. The key is to reduce as much as possible for things that are not critical for the scene image quality. It takes some time, but these tips can reduce the memory dramatically for many large scenes to make it possible to fit in the available memory of the GPU Support Get support through the vendor or visit us on Discord at https://discord.gg/XTPB8tcase Using K-CyclesX The different K-Cycles Modes: 1, Default - (Highest Quality), K-CyclesX performance with highest quality without presets. 2, Medium - (with presets), Faster K-CyclesX performance with intelligent rendering presets. 3. Fast - (with presets), Fastest K-CyclesX performance with intelligent rendering presets. 4, Manual, K-CyclesX performance needs to adjust manually the settings, The different GPU Boost: 1, Max - (Maximum boost), Maximum GPU boost, use more memory and maximum, rendering performance. 2. High - (High boost), High GPU boost, use slightly more memory and high rendering performance. At about 90%-95% performance compared to “Max" boost. 3. None - (No boost), No GPU boost, least memory use and good rendering performanceFaster Viewport Updates & Navigation Faster viewport updates, navigation and responsiveness but, will lose viewport rendering performance. Turn ON when viewport rendering updates are needed often. Useful also, when moving scene objects, adjusting camera view, etc or navigating too different areas of the scene in the viewport. Turn OFF when the viewport is static and are adjusting materials, properties, etc. K-CyclesX Ultra Denoiser 1. Multi Pass: Use multiple passes denoising to achieve the highest quality. 2. Transmission: If using “Multi Pass” enable glass/transparency is used in the scene. 3. Volumetrics: If using “Multi Pass” enable when volumetrics is used in the scene. 4. Prefilter: OFF for improving detail and it is faster. If the albedo and normal passes are noisy then ‘Prefilter” should be “ON" to avoid image artifacts at the expense some loss in detail and slower denoising. Recommended setting is to be tuned OFF, unless image denoiser artifacts show. 5. Input Passes: Passes used by the denoiser to distinguish noise from shader and geometry detail. The Recommended setting is “Color + Albeado +Normal’” K-Cycles Post FX Alll the K-CyclesX effects are applied at the end of the viewport render preview samples. After preview render stops adjusting any effects settings is immediate. Viewport/Final rendering for K-CyclesX Post FX effects does work with CPU/GPU with/without any denoiser. The post fx effects are applied before the compositor. Legacy K-Cycles post fx effects in the preview viewport render requires “Optix denoiser to be enabled K-Cycles Bloom Settings: 41. Threshold: Filters out pixels under this level of brightness. 2. Blend: Blend the bloom effect into the scene 3, Size: Bloom spread distance. 4. Intensity: Intensity of the bloom: 5, Color Tint: Color tint applied to the bloom effect. 6. Clamp: Maximum intensity a bloom pixel can have (0 to disabled).K-Cycles Flares Settings: 1. Threshold: Filters out pixels under this level of brightness. 2. Blend: Blend the flares effect into the scene. Glare Power: Size and intensity of the glare flare. Rays: Number of rays for the glare Rotation: Angle of rotation of the glare flare. Thin Level: Reduces the thickness of the glare rays. Intensity: Intensity of the glare flare. Color Shift: Color variation to the glare flare. Color Tint: Adjust the overall color tint of the glare flare. Softness: Softness level of the glare flare. PNOARONA Anamorphic 1, Power: Size and intensity of the anamorphic flare. 2. Rotation: Angle of rotation of the anamorphic flare. 3. Thin Level: Reduces the thickness of the anamorphic flare. 4. Intensity: Intensity of the anamorphic flare 5. Color Shift: Color variation to the anamorphic flare. 6. Color Tint: Adjust the overall color tint of the anamorphic flare. 7. Softness: Sofiness level of the anamorphic flare, Ghosts 1, Intensity: Intensity of the ghosts flare 2. Color Shift: Color variation to the ghosts flare 3. Color Tint: Adjust the overall color tint of the ghosts flare. K-Cycles Tone Mapping Settings: 1. Exposure: Controls the overall exposure of the image. 2. Contrast: Adjust the contrast of the image. 3. Highlight: Adjusts the bright image areas 4, Shadows: Adjusts dark image areas. 5, Saturation: Adjusts the amount of color saturation of the render. 6, White Balance: Controls the white balance of the image.7. Color Tint: Adjust the overall color tint of the image. K-Cycles Lens Settings: 1. Distortion: Adjust a bulging or pinching effect from the center of the image. 2. Axial CA: Adjust Axial chromatic aberration variation in the length of each wavelength of light, 3. Lateral CA: Adjusts Lateral Chromatic Aberration color fringing. It only affects the edges of the image 4. Vignette Intensity: Adjusts reduction of the image brightness toward the periphery of the image. 5, Vignette Size: Adjusts the size of the vignetting 6. Film Grain: Add photographic grain/noise to the image.