NumHemisphereSamples is how many rays will be traced at the base level of refinement for the final gather, which means direct shadowing for a skylight. IndirectLightingQuality already scales NumHemisphereSamples. So those settings are equivalent to massive brute force, something like 16k rays before adaptive sampling even kicks in, which explains the render times.
Personally I won’t spend over 20 minutes building lighting for such a small scene but I know you guys are going for maximum quality.
Most people serious about arch-viz probably have access to a decent render-farm. Even if it takes 10 hours for the final bake, this isn’t a big problem as long as it’s predictable in the end!
Is it possible to give us something like this? In Modo for example if there is noise I know to increase the samples in the lights. So, for us non technical people can we get an over view like.
Blotchy try x, x and x
Light leaks, increase lightmap rez and x
Etc.
alright! I’ve been waiting this for type of thread- now that we got the heavy hitters in the line up makes it even better. I will post my results as well.
Static Lighting Level Scale : 0.7
Num Indirect Lighting Bounces : 100
Indirect Lighting Quality : 10
Indirect Lighting Smoothness : 0.7
And in the BaseLightmass.ini :
NumHemisphereSamplesScale=100
I haven’t more screenshot of before vs after, but had splotches like that everywhere, and now is a lot more clean, for me, this balance time vs quality is ok, I know isn’t perfect, but good enough:
I notice that, for really nice " shadows" see post for reference, check the second picture the indirect lighting smoothness needs to be around 0.4-0.7, it really depends on the scene ( I’m using bounce cards ), since that value can mess up the entire scene.
Do you use any alternative tricks to achieve those soft shadows?
So, I am wondering. What is smarter. Light your scene with only a skylight and a directional light or use the bounce card + spotlight technique? Which gives better results?
From what I’ve seen if you’re using only sunlight and skylight, in order to have proper indirect lighting inside an apartment for example, you should increase the Indirect light intensity on the light itself, but that for me seems to be the main problem with light leaks, so I usually stick with bounce cards.
The bounce card technique is used widely on Max/Maya/Vray/other renderer because it gives better results and you can control much better the indirect lighting on an area.
I also use a bit of boost on the lightmass settings to increase the overall brightness on the scene…but also using the post process Indirect lighting gives you good results ( in realtime, which is nice ).
So, better not use fake lighting with bounce cards? Only sun and sky? I am afraid that its not enough to light a whole house only through the windows …
I personally think you put lights only where they exist in a real building. So, if lighting from windows isn’t enough add light fixtures where needed - either down lights or lamps/sconces etc.
