Photometric vs Vray IES lightning

[richardconner]

I faced the following problem. The great number of Vray IES (more than 100) in the scene dramaticaly increases the rendering time. Will I make rendering quicker if I change Vray IES to Photometric Web?

[John Dollus]

not really but if you simplify your lighting rig, that could certainly help. It's really quite rare to have to put a CG light in every single location according to a lighting plan. Think more like a theatrical set designer and less like an architect.

[Corey Beaulieu]

I agree with John.

 

I would add that unless you need the shaped shadow, you may just want to use a standard spot light. or close up on the IES and Spots on the farther away. This will speed things up for sure.

[Francisco Penaloza]

Think more like a theatrical set designer and less like an architect.

That's my motto

[Chris MacDonald]

VRay IES and photometric (IES) set to VRay shadow are essentially the same thing, are they not? I mean vray still has to use the same photometric file, and also still has to sample the same number of subdivs per light... You just get a different implimentation/toolset with each. I always use the photometric light out of preference, rather than the VRay IES.

[richardconner]

Thank you all who spent time and replied me!

John, Corey, Francisco I completely agree that one should think like a theatrical set designer. But unfortunately you can't always do that if you have to fulfil certain customer's requirements

Chris, you are right that they are almost the same thing since the same photometric file is used. But there is a difference in details. Nevertheless I have found the solution to this problem and may share with you:

- the best accuracy of light spot shape is achieved by using VRayIES, since there is an option to use light shape comparing to PhotometricLight. In PhotometricLight we can choose the standart variants for Area shadow: Box or Sphere and UVW size.

- but in any case I managed to reduce rendering time with the help of PhotometricLight using VrayShadowMap in Fly-trough mode with low resolution and filtering parameters. And also using an animated camera, multiframe incremetal mode for Irradiance map and Light cache in fly-trough mode.

But for foreground I still use VRayIES, I suppose they are of higher quality.

There is one thing left to clarify. I do not understand the difference in interpretation of VRayIES and PhotometricLight values for color temperature in Kelvin - I've got different colors using the same values. But it's not so important.