Flat Grey Rad Lighting Setup

[MegaPixel]

The attached image shows what I think is a pretty good attempt at setting up my Interior using the flat grey/low solution quality method. I'm faking the ambient light coming from the non-sunlit windows with Omni Lights. I think the Family room and Kitchen areas are ok but the living room is too dark still.

 

Anyhow, I'm looking for some comments on how I can improve upon the lighting based on my posted settings. Everything should be visible in the attached image.

 

The rendered windows in the image were regathered at 25% quality. If I plan to use regather as my final, does the mesh solution quality need to be much higher or is that only if I plan to use Direct Illumination? This will ultimatly be an animation so naturally render times are critical but if I can keep my frames under a half an hour, I could pull off regathering.

 

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions. Mega

[MegaPixel]

"Coughs and clears his throat!"... Anyone?

[Ricardo Eloy]

Honestly, I think you got yourself a pretty good relation between cost and benefit. One thing that pops to me mind is that maybe you could try using area lights instead of the omnis...Have you tried it?

[MegaPixel]

Thanks for the reply Rick. I originaly tried Area lights before the Omnis because I wanted to see soft subtle shadows using the "Area Shadow" type but by render times increased too much for me. Now I am using Omnis with shadows turned off because I don't know how to get that super soft subtle shadow effect out of the "Shadow Map" type. Could you help me out in that department?

 

Mega