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set.a.light 3D calculates every image on the graphics card. That single fact decides the hardware: the processor and the amount of system memory matter far less than the graphics card and its video memory. This page lists what the program actually checks, and what the quality and resolution you choose will ask of the card.
Applies to BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA · Windows and macOS.
What is required
| What | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Graphics card | Must support compute shaders. Checked at every start; there is no fallback mode |
| Windows | Renders through Direct3D 11, so the card and its driver must support it |
| macOS | macOS 12 Monterey or newer, rendering through Metal. The installer checks it: on macOS 11 the package refuses to install |
| Graphics driver | Current. Most reports of black views, flickering or a failed start are an old driver |
That is the whole list of what the program itself checks, and it is the same list for every edition. There is no second, recommended configuration on this page: figures for processor, system memory, video memory, disk space and the supported Windows versions are published on elixxier.com and maintained there.
The first start downloads the content package, so plan for a fast connection and several gigabytes of free space. See Install set.a.light 3D and start it the first time.
When the card is not good enough
If the graphics card cannot run compute shaders, the program shows a dialog titled Unsupported Hardware whose text names the card it found:
Your GPU ({name}) does not support compute shaders, which are required to run set.a.light 3D.
Closing the dialog quits the program. On a laptop with two graphics chips this is often the wrong chip rather than the wrong machine: in the Windows graphics settings, assign set.a.light 3D to the dedicated card and start it again.
This dialog is one of the few screens that stay English in every interface language.
Why the graphics card decides everything
There is one renderer, and it traces rays. A quality level does not switch a mode on or off — it buys more light samples per pixel and more texture detail. So render time scales with the compute power of your card and with the number of pixels you asked for, and nothing you turn off makes the calculation fundamentally cheaper.
Video memory behaves differently from speed. Textures, the model geometry and the render target all have to fit; the two settings that fill the card fastest are the resolution and the quality level, because from High upwards textures are loaded at full resolution. A card with little memory is not excluded — you trade resolution and quality for it, in that order.
What a quality level costs
Quality levels
| Level | Samples in a final render | Samples in the live preview | Texture detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 60 | 40 | Two steps lower |
| Medium | 90 | 60 | One step lower |
| High | 120 | 80 | Full |
| Ultra | 210 | 200 | Full |
Read the table as a budget: Ultra asks for three and a half times the samples of Low for the same image, and the two lower levels also load textures one or two steps below full resolution.
What a resolution costs
Render resolutions
| Resolution | Long edge in pixels | Available in |
|---|---|---|
| 800 px | 800 | BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA |
| 1200 px | 1200 | BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA |
| 1600 px | 1600 | BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA |
| 1920 px | 1920 | BASIC, STUDIO, CINEMA |
| 3840 px | 3840 | STUDIO, CINEMA |
The long edge doubles from 1920 px to 3840 px, so the pixel count quadruples — this is by far the heaviest thing the program does. BASIC offers the list up to 1920 px. See Large and print-ready renders (4K) and Resolution.
Displays
Any resolution works; the interface scales in five steps from 100 % to 200 %, automatically by default. On a 4K screen leave the automatic scaling on, and set it by hand only if the result is not what you want — see Settings.
Tips & limits
- Keep the graphics driver current, and update it before reporting a graphics fault — see Graphics problems.
- Close other programs that use the graphics card while you render. They compete for the same video memory.
- A desktop card renders the same image considerably faster than a laptop of the same generation. That gap is normal, not a fault.
- The studio navigation assumes a two-button mouse with a wheel.
Spaceand drag pans the view, so the middle button is convenient rather than required. See Move around the studio.
Troubleshooting
- The program quits at startup with a dialog about my graphics card. See “When the card is not good enough” above, then Graphics problems.
- Rendering is far slower than I expected. Work through the levers in Make it faster — resolution first, then quality.