Caustics for swimming pool

[linopoetti]

Caustics for swimming pool:

Hi everyone my first post after my introduction.

So that you have the full picture here is a list of my hardware and software that I am using:-

My hardware:

Dell XPS630i desktop, Intel ®Core ™ 2Quad CPU Q9450 @2.66Hz 2.66 Ghz

8gb ram

Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics card

My Software:

Windows 7 64bit operating system

3dsmax2014x64, using V-Ray Adv 3.00.03

Problem:

I created a scene which has a detached house on a site with a external swimming pool.

My problem is getting caustics to the pool correctly. If I describe what I have tried below then you cans see what I have or haven’t done. I have tried to follow some tutorials on the internet with these results.

Case 1 pool:

Geometry: 2500.0mmx1100.0mm plane 25x80segs

Water mat created from VRayMtl

Reflection glos 1.0, subdivs 20, Fresnel reflection ticked, ior 1.33, max depth 5

Refractions glos 1.0, subdivs 8, (use interpolation and affect shadows not ticked)

Bump in map 2.0, map type noise set to regular.

Vray settings:

Vray GI render setup brute force, Caustics ticked

Vray GI caustics, Search dis 50.0, Max photons 60, Multiplier 5.0

Lights:

Vray sun only, no daylight system: Site dimensions 61000.0x65000.0mm=61x65meters,

Photon emit radius 60000.0mm (system unit settings milimeters)

Vray light properties: Gen caustics ticked, Caustic subdivs 1500, Multiplier 1.0, Gen diff ticked

(When rendered no visible caustics)

Case 2 pool

Water mat created from vraymtl

Reflections:

Reflection colour 255,255,255, reflglos 1.0, subdivs 20, Fresnel reflection ticked, IOR 1.6, max depth 5, exit colour 0,0,0, use interpolation not ticked.

Refractions:

Refractions colour 255,255,255, glos 1.0, subdivs 8, (use interpolation and affect shadows not ticked) IOR 1.6, max depth 5, fog colour 255,255,255, fog mult 0.002, bias 0.0, dispersion ticked, No maps

Vray settings:

The same as above but using alternative geometry settings.

Geometry: 2500.0mmx1100.0mm plane 25x80segs

Shell modifier: Inner amount 0.0, outer amount 5.0, autosmooth

Noise modifier: seed 0.0, scale 80.0, fractal ticked, roughness 0.0, iterations 2.0, strength, x 0.0, y 0.0, z 25.0mm

animation ticked

Turbosmooth modifier: iterations 1, smooth result, update options, always

When rendered no visable caustics

Other attempts:

I have tried adding a direct light for just the pool using the include exclude variables-

Vray sun: Turn off vray sun caustics in light settings, exclude the pool water in the light calculations.

Direct light: exclude all accept for pool water.

Also the sun does not penetrate the water if the effect shadows variable is unchecked anyway.

I have tried many ways but with no caustics visible and have run out of ideas, my guess is that it must be something to do with the caustic settings themselves that I do not quite understand even with the vray help file and the tutorials.

Please can someone advise me please

lino