Render Timing Benchmarks

Expected Render Times

Onset Engine’s render times depend heavily on the selected visual style preset, the output resolution, and the active render quality (Draft vs. High).

The following table provides approximate relative render times per minute of output. Note: Actual times will vary based on hardware.

Preset / Mode	720p (Draft)	1080p	4K
Draft Mode (FFmpeg Concat)	Fastest (< 30s)	N/A (Forced 720p)	N/A
RAW / STANDARD	~1x baseline	~2x baseline	~6x baseline
AGGRESSIVE / AMV	~1.5x baseline	~3x baseline	~8x baseline
PRESTIGE / TRAILER	~2x baseline	~5x baseline	~12x baseline

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Factors Affecting Render Speed

Several variables in the editor.py pipeline directly impact how quickly your video finishes rendering:

CPU Cores

The rendering pipeline relies heavily on the moviepy library, which is CPU-bound. Operations like frame extraction, scaling, and compositing utilize multiple CPU cores. A modern CPU with 8+ cores will significantly accelerate STANDARD and PRESTIGE renders.

GPU Hardware Acceleration (Encoding)

Onset Engine utilizes encoder_utils.py to check for hardware encoders.

• NVIDIA: Uses h264_nvenc with CUDA acceleration.
• AMD: Uses h264_amf for hardware encoding.

Note: GPU acceleration is used for the final H.264 video encoding step, but the frame-by-frame visual effects processing remains CPU-bound.

VFX Complexity

The style_preset chosen dictates the complexity of per-frame operations:

• Lightweight: RAW applies no color grading and relies solely on hard cuts.
• Moderate: STANDARD applies subtle zooms, transitions, and minor color adjustments.
• Expensive: PRESTIGE and TRAILER utilize intensive processing, such as:
  • MiDaS Depth Parallax and focus breathing (AI depth estimation).
  • Heavy color grading (e.g., teal_and_orange or warm_film).
  • Luma-matte transitions and speed ramps.
• Cutout Pop Transitions: Enabling this setting triggers rembg background removal on every transition, drastically increasing render time.

Smooth Motion (60fps Interpolation)

If Smooth Motion is enabled, Onset Engine performs a post-render pass to double the framerate (e.g., 30fps to 60fps) using optical-flow motion-compensated interpolation. This can add significant overhead, often doubling the total render time.

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Tips for Faster Renders

1. Use Draft Mode: Draft mode bypasses the heavy moviepy pipeline and uses a pure ffmpeg concatenation approach. It is extremely fast and skips all VFX, making it perfect for reviewing beat-sync pacing before a final master render.
2. Lower Output Resolution: If 4K is not required, 1080p will render up to 3x faster while retaining excellent quality.
3. Choose Simpler Presets: Opt for RAW or STANDARD instead of PRESTIGE if you don’t need cinematic depth parallax or heavy color grading.
4. Disable Expensive Extras: Uncheck “Cutout Pop Transitions” and “Smooth Motion” in the GUI to save massive amounts of processing time.

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Hardware Recommendations

Onset Engine gracefully scales based on available hardware, but performance thrives on better specs:

• Minimum Specs:
  • Memory: 8GB RAM minimum.
  • CPU: Quad-core processor.
  • Note: If VRAM is below 6GB, Onset Engine enforces a 1080p safety cap to prevent out-of-memory crashes during NVENC encoding.
• Recommended Specs:
  • Memory: 16GB+ RAM.
  • CPU: 8-core processor or higher.
  • GPU: Dedicated NVIDIA GPU (for NVENC) or AMD GPU (for AMF) to accelerate the final encoding step.