Lots of problems with BLender. Could it be that I can't use GPU rendering?

I posted a few weeks ago about lighting being terrible and got some mixed replies. None of them really helped unfortunately. I see where most people here discuss using the GPU to render, so I wonder if that’s my problem. I don’t have any option to use the GPU, only the CPU.

There are lots of other issues too, but I don’t think they relate to the CPU/GPU issue. I’ve tried weight painting, but there is only the blue color from the brush, yet in all the tutorials, the colors range from blue (least influence) to red (most influence) for motion of the rigging. I can’t get anything but blue. Similar problems when I tried texture painting. The “texture” remains the solid color of the object, not the texture. Bump mapping doesn’t work either. NOTHING seems to work the way it does in the video tutorials.

But I can do without the latter three problems if I could at least get some decent looking light in my still scenes. I’ve tried the three-point lighting (from Andrew Price) but my scenes just don’t have the same look. They look dark and fake. Doesn’t matter what scenes I try, what strength or type of lamp, or planes with emission materials, etc.

So. does anyone think that it’s because I can’t use the GPU? If that’s the case, then I’ll look for some other program instead of Blender. Too bad though, because Blender has so many features and a great following of satisfied users.

So. does anyone think that it’s because I can’t use the GPU? If that’s the case
Won’t make any difference.

For specific help you need to supply more specific information. I see no screenshots, screencasts or blend files in your post that clearly demonstrate any issues you are having

I don’t think so. The same calculations are being done the same either way. CPU vs GPU is simply which compute device you’re using. The computations being done are identical.

Richard>>>
Not sure what you mean about other things in my post, but in essence you have answered my question, that it won’t make any difference CPU or GPU.

You posted several problems, all of which you need to illustrate with example files, screenshots, or example renders. We can’t help without seeing what you are up against, and the issue of CPU versus GPU is unrelated to what you describe.

maybe you ran into the same problem i had in the beginning? blender has two render engines, cycles and blender internal, and texture painting (to my knowledge) works only under blender internal and need be set up correctly (which i still find confusing), while the light depend on in which renderer you placed them. andrew price now mainly renders with cycles, maybe you had the blender renderer, that produces with same light setup quite different images… with the weightpaint problem, i have no idea…
check in the info panel at top of screen which renderer is selected. if it is still on default it is blender internal…this might explain some of your problems…

Doris, thank you. But I did have Cycles rendering set, not the Blender internal. But now, at least two people have said the it doesn’t matter if I use CPU or GPU processing, so that is one cause removed. Maybe someone will have some more knowledge and reply. Thank you again for your help!

Grab a screen shot - post it here. You won’t get any more help if you don’t share what you are up against.

I’ll be the third person to mention the importance of giving people material/visuals to work with when trying to help you. Communicate right and you save everyone’s time and effort. First link in my signature takes you to a tutorial on how to do it.

I don’t understand what materials/visuals you are referring to. In any case, I believe the question has been answered, that it makes no difference whether I use the CPU or GPU for rendering. Thank you.

What are you working on, what does it look like in your node window, and what are you trying to accomplish vs. what you are getting - pictures and/or screenshots please. THEN we can see it, and respond with better than an educated guess, and you will have the opportunity to get the right answer from someone. Until then, this is all just mystery and doens’t help anyone else with a similar problem or question.

If your question is about not being able to use the GPU, you might start there: by telling us what GPU you have, along with a description of your hardware and OS.

Texture paint actually does work with Cycles. It just works totally differently. You set the active/target image by attaching it to a material node and highlighting that node. It’s the same way you set the target image for Cycles baking, which is a big reason why that (somewhat awkward) UI showed up in the first place. It was keeping the texture-paint convention. The active-image node also sets which texture is drawn in the “textured” draw mode (since you need to be in material draw mode to use the actual texture assignments).

aha, that is great info for me j_the_ninja! yes, i know how to make bake in cycles, now i can paint texture in cycles too, great! thanks for sharing.

Craig, the question was answered, that it makes no difference to render with CPU or GPU.
Cegaton, there is no option to use GPU when I am using Blender, because my GPU is apparently not supported. Currently BLender doesn’t support ATI graphics cards in the official version(s).

There are lots of other issues too, but I don’t think they relate to the CPU/GPU issue. I’ve tried weight painting, but there is only the blue color from the brush, yet in all the tutorials, the colors range from blue (least influence) to red (most influence) for motion of the rigging. I can’t get anything but blue. Similar problems when I tried texture painting. The “texture” remains the solid color of the object, not the texture. Bump mapping doesn’t work either. NOTHING seems to work the way it does in the video tutorials.

But I can do without the latter three problems if I could at least get some decent looking light in my still scenes. I’ve tried the three-point lighting (from Andrew Price) but my scenes just don’t have the same look. They look dark and fake. Doesn’t matter what scenes I try, what strength or type of lamp, or planes with emission materials, etc.

So. does anyone think that it’s because I can’t use the GPU? If that’s the case, then I’ll look for some other program instead of Blender. Too bad though, because Blender has so many features and a great following of satisfied users.

Yeah, those three problems right there, and the supposed need to get a different program - if all that works now becasue of not worrying about GPU, then great - but if not, why not get the help you seemed to need?

Craig and others, my question has been more than answered, so I think this thread is finished. Thanks to all.