GI Methods: Guidelines?

[RyanSpaulding]

Hey guys,

 

I'm a newbie learning here...and I mainly do exterior still renderings...I'm struggling trying to find which GI methods to use and when. Are there general guidelines to go by? Like if I have a lot of glass, it's faster to use one method versus the rest? Or one works better with certain types of materials than another does? Or is this something I'll just simply ;get' at some point?

 

I tend to be trying QMC for the primary GI and Irradience Map for secondary GI...bt have no idea if that's the best solution.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[JamesTaylor]

i think you'll find that irr map as primary and lightcache as secondary will be the fastest for general use

[RyanSpaulding]

So is here a better option if there's a lot of glossy/reflective materials in the scene? Such as a lot of glass and copper...

[bayvan]

You'll have to try and experiment but in general Irr map for primary and LC or QMC for secondary. Another thing you can do is turn on use light cashe for glossy rays in the LC rollout. This should speed up things a little bit. Another thing is to work in Linear space. By doing this you can light your scenes with less light sources and with less lights you'll get a little bit faster renders. Try some of your scenes with this workflow and see the diference.

Sorry for my English.

Best Regards,

bayvan

[Clifton Santiago]

Yes, IR/QMC for exteriors, IR/LC for interiors. Always decrease IR Hsph subdivs to correspond to any increase in QMC Global subdivs multiplier. And usually you want to use Adaptive QMC for AA.

[RyanSpaulding]

Thanks a ton for the info guys!