Nice thought Sythen. I was also thinking something similar in approach but different in sense of its implication like - It would be nice if we can see the Photon Gathering/Importance Sampling while Light Build (Like Vray Irradiance Samples or any other common renderer out in the market), that will give tremendous visual information for actual working of Lightmass and will eventually help in understanding and manipulating settings in Baselightmass somewhat easy. 4.11 is far more better then any previous Engine versions but still I feel like it lack basic tools for refining or finding bugs while light building, especially when it comes to tweaking Lightmass settings (Lightmass settings available in Engine UI are painfully simple). As I have reiterated many times before that simple settings of Lightmass are perfect for quick setup but may become major hindrance when it comes to adjusting or manipulating it for realistic light build, Ultimately there is no other option but to jump in BaseLightmass for Final Built. Portals made a major impact for small scenes now, simply putting it solves 90% of the bugs but for complex scenes we still require some kind of editing in BaseLightmass to get that super clean look.
It would be nice if we can see some more features in Engine UI itself regarding Lightmass, More detailed settings related to Photon Density, Irradiance Samples, Irradiance Radius and so on with ample explanations in Engine Docs for Noobs like me and not only for hardcore programmers out there (I think Engine Help Documents need serious update regarding the Lightmass Settings and Portal help).
Lighting Quality presets are really helpful but If we can get something similar for Lightmass settings also like - Expert Mode or Advanced Mode - Giving users enough settings to fully control the behavior and intricacies involved.
Here’s the thing you shouldn’t have to get that deep into tweaking to get good results! The render engine needs to be easier to use not harder, I’m no expert but I have used many engines and this is the most difficult to get right. In the real world of paying jobs in Architecture you don’t usually have days to tweak lightmass settings, for video game makers it’s different those are usually long term projects. I don’t know why we don’t have something like “samples” which seems to be standard nomenclature for render engines - e.g. turn up the samples and get better quality (longer render times too!).
If we play with “Cube” position (ie, moving it away from “Bloc”, even slightly), or its rotation on Z axis, the “leak” effect tends to change and/or disappear.
Could it be related to the increase in the amount/distance of Light that Bounces (better know as the Troutman Effect) in prod mode ?
That could explain why it appears only with the production settings.
My guess is that it will become a reality soon enough. Epic is realizing their engine has a lot of potential outside the gaming world and they are adjusting. Have you watched the Unreal Engine Enterprise twitch stream? They talk about that. I think lots of new solutions has been developped for the Mclaren car customizer and soon we’ll see more and more improvement for architects, designers, etc! Exciting times!
so guys… i still dont get it. can somebody summarize please? we are using portals which came with 4.11 and anything addition to that in .ini file or not? everbody takes different approaches i guess… i just dont want to overkill and weeks of rendering lol… what is the “enough” settings for quality now?
Ini is for experienced users who want maximum control on every settings or access settings that are not in the editor interface. it’s not mandatory at all to mess with it.
Really interesting posts here. What about vxgi? Anyone tried it out? I have been considering it for archviz but my laptop has a Geoforce GTX 780m. Will vxgi still be compatible with the card or there will be issues with it or some features are missing? I don’t mind low frame rates since I can render it out as image sequences rather than record it. Or is there an advantage to using Lightmass over realtime GI?
Have you tried turning up Global Illumination in your Post Process Volume? I’m not sure if it is the standard way to brighten things up for everyone but it seems to work wonders for me.
Lighting will always be correct if you follow the physically based model. Your portal might also be a little wide. In my experience, I always try to make mine fit exactly inside a hole (yours has a bit of an overlap with the wall).
