This is odd...

[AJLynn]

With apologies to Jeff Patton, see attachments (Max08 file). I was messing around with an oversimplified version of a space I'm working on to experiment with some settings and exposure control, and I wanted to bounce a caustic off the floor. Used the Satin Varnished Wood preset, and started getting this sort of crap:

 

361053: no photons stored after emitting 1000000 photons from light "Sun01|Light" (tag b93): canceling emission job

RCGI 0.6 warn 362004: no photons stored after emitting 10000 photons from light "Sun01|Light" (tag b93)

 

and a very slow photon map calculation with no apparent caustics.

 

Long story short, after some experimenting, for different values of the reflection glossiness on the wood floor:

 

0.51 and over produce the expected effect

0.5 and under produce the error

 

WTH is so special about glossiness=0.5? I would think that any reflection glossiness should be able to produce a caustic of whatever blurriness.

[robkar97]

Have you tried enabling the photon radius setting for the sun? Focus the beam of photons on the window. However, that does not explain your problem. Have you set the geometry to receive/generate caustics where necessary?

 

Robert

[MasterZap]

Correct; this is by design (although you could question the design )

 

Photons either reflect "glossily" or "specularly". Only "specular" photons contribute to caustics, only "diffuse" and "glossy" photons contribute to global illumination.

 

The A&D material treats any glossiness above 0.5 as "specular" for photons, and anything less as "glossy". Hence, it will not propagate caustics for glossiness 0.5 r less.

 

/Z

 

With apologies to Jeff Patton, see attachments (Max08 file). I was messing around with an oversimplified version of a space I'm working on to experiment with some settings and exposure control, and I wanted to bounce a caustic off the floor. Used the Satin Varnished Wood preset, and started getting this sort of crap:

 

 

 

and a very slow photon map calculation with no apparent caustics.

 

Long story short, after some experimenting, for different values of the reflection glossiness on the wood floor:

 

0.51 and over produce the expected effect

0.5 and under produce the error

 

WTH is so special about glossiness=0.5? I would think that any reflection glossiness should be able to produce a caustic of whatever blurriness.

[AJLynn]

Thanks for clearing that up.