G. I. Tab
Global illumination settings are located on the Rendering Settings G.I. tab. These settings are available when Ray Tracing (Draft), Ray Tracing, or Path Tracing has been selected as the rendering method.
- G.I. Pop-up Menu
- Select from None, Path Tracing, Photon Mapping, Path Tracing + Photon Mapping (Standard or Professional), and Radiosity as the global illumination method.
- Path Tracing Settings
- The following settings are enabled when Path Tracing or Path Tracing + Photon Mapping has been selected as the global illumination method:
- Clamp Bright Noise
- Increasing this value reduces sporatic noise at the cost of the perciseness of the rendered result. By reducing the pixels with high brightness, you can reduce noise generated during path tracing rendering. The effect of noise reduction will be more apparent with larger slider values. This effect is useful when highlights are too strong.
- Cuttoff Diffuse
- If Surface Material has a diffuse brightness level that is lower than this cuttoff value, then this value will be ommitted the reflectance calculation in GI Path Rendering. Lower values of diffuse brightness and higher values of cuttoff diffuse when rendering transparency objects or dark color objects will improve speed. This makes rendering speed faster by eliminating material that has weak diffused reflections and low impact for light calculations. The higher the slider number is, the more effective it is. However this also affects quality.
- Irradiance Caching
- When this checkbox is switched on, only some areas of the image are calculated at sampling calculation, and the incident lights is interpolated over the remaining areas. This process simplifies sampling and reduces rendering time.
- Cache Quality
- Adjusts the irradiance caching quality. This value is a ratio of the ray tracing quality.
- Cache Tolerance
- These items are used to set the resolution of irradiance caching. Large values will result in worse path tracing quality but faster rendering times.
- Irradiance Gradient
- If undesired shadows are generated on the minute faces such as corners of a chamfered object, you can solve this problem by minimizing the value to weaken the effect of Irradiance Gradient.
- Sampling Distance
- Sets the sampling quality at the final step of building the irradiance cache, with Fine improving quality but increasing generation time.
- Sample Sensitivity
- Sets thresholds to places where areas of shadow vary widely, such as near walls or at the bottoms of objects. Sets the maximum threshold of the cache before sampling occurs (by default, set to .03). Larger values result in higher sensitivity (better quality), but slower rendering speed.
- Details Enhancement
- Adjusts the filter width automatically to areas where shadows changes rapidly, such as near walls or at the base of objects. The quality of detail can be set with the Quality Ratio setting. Sets the threshold if the previous pass of the irradiance cache is used, a new one generated or if irradiance cache is used on any pixel.
- Quality Ratio
- Sets quality based on a previous pass of the irradiance cache on a rendered pixel, if a new one is generated or if it is applied at all. This value is a ratio of the rendering quality.
Increasing improves quality but slows render time. This is only active when the Details Enhancement checkbox is set to on. Since Details Enhancement only changes based on areas where shadows tend to gather, rendering time is only marginally increased relative to the quality increase. - Clear
- Click this button to delete Irradiance Caching information from the previous rendering.
- Always Clear Before Rendering
- When this checkbox is switched on, the Irradiance Caching information is automatically deleted before rendering starts.
- Radiosity Compatible Mode
- When selected, the scene is rendered closely to the radiosity result, using the radiosity solution.
Note Radiosity Compatible Mode is available in Shade3D Standard and Professional.
See also Radiosity Compatible Mode
- Photon Mapping Settings
- The following settings are enabled when Photon Mapping or Path Tracing + Photon Mapping has been selected from the G.I. pop-up menu:
- Number of Photons
- This text box enables you to specify the number of photons during photon mapping.
- Gathering Scale
- Select Adaptive, Relative, or Absolute as the gathering scale type of photons.
- Gathering Scale
- Specifies the gathering radius of photons as a numeric value.
- Adaptive Scale
- When the gathering scale type is Adaptive, this text box is used to specify the gathering radius of the photons. A larger value increases the radius, resulting in the blurred radius; a smaller value reduces the radius, resulting in a sharp radius.
- Caustics
- When this checkbox is switched on, caustics are created that are cast by light that passes through a transparent body for which refraction was set or by light that reflects off the metal. You can skip more photons for caustics calculation by setting a zoom rate from the pop menu. Because increased photons are not used for global illumination calculation, you can improve the quality of caustics while suppressing an increase in processing time.
- Caustics Gathering Scale
- These items enables you to set the gathering scale of the caustics photons.
- Clear
- Deletes photon map information stored during rendering.
- Always Solve Before Rendering
- When this checkbox is switched on, the photon map information stored before rendering is automatically deleted.
- Radiosity Settings
- The following settings are enabled when Radiosity is selected from the G.I. pop menu:
- Always Solve Before Rendering
- When this checkbox is switched on, radiosity is automatically recalculated when rendering starts, regardless of whether the radiosity solution is available.
- Energy
- Select the range over which the radiosity solution is used during rendering.
- Reflection Factor
- Specify the ratio at which the indirect radiation affects the global illumination. When the value is smaller, then the calculation speed improves, but the effect of global illumination will become weaker.
- Indirect Energy Factor
- Specify the brightness of the indirect radiation.
- Convert to Radiosity Compatible Mode
- Adjusts each of the parameters so that the scene can be rendered closely to that of the radiosity result, using the radiosity solution.
See also Radiosity Compatible Mode
Note This feature is available in Shade3D Standard and Professional.