TheKitchenAbode

Here's my take on the scene provided by Jon. The scene as provided takes an extremely long time to Ray Trace. On my system the scene as provided took 4.2 minutes (250 sec) to make only one pass on a 1200 X 769 sized output. The primary reason for this is that the scene is lit entirely using point lights. I replaced the point lights with spot lights and now the same sized scene runs in only 36 seconds per pass. That's an 85% reduction in Ray Trace time. 50 Passes, 30 min, 1200 X 769 Graham

Nice vid! Just recalling a few other minor tweaks I made. Using the rainbow tool, change the ceiling and wall material to matte roughness 80% and make the cabinetry and trim matte roughness 30%. I had set the flooring to specular 35%. See how these effect the output. Graham

Scott - check that the ambient occlusion minimum is set at 1.0, the shaded regions seem on the dark side. Graham

Scott - One other thing that slipped my mind. On those island pendants, open their DBX and under lighting change the offset from base to 15 1/2". That will move the light source up into the glass lens, the light is currently outside of the lens. Graham

Also, turn off all other lights that are not in the scene, including the exterior ones and those two 3D lights. Graham

Scott - I think you missed that section of the ceiling with the spray can. The size I ran was 1200 x 587 Environment Lighting off Photon on Caustics on Graham

Scott - One last render from a different vantage point. The dining table chandelier lights (4) are set at 20%. Everything else is as per my last posts settings. As you can see the materials are rendering quite well with good texture features and colour saturation. As it is night time there is are nice interior reflections in the back windows and some of the interior lighting is passing through the windows and lighting up some of the deck elements. Graham

That's a big improvement. I can not emphasize enough that the main key is to sufficiently light the scene and balance the lighting intensities. This is the number one thing to do and only after this is done can one then tweak the material properties if needed. If the lighting is not correct then changing material properties will most likely make things worse not better. Happy Raytracing !!! Graham

Scott - Had a chance to look at the interior. The main issue I found was that there is not enough lights to properly light the scene and their intensities needed to be adjusted. Lighting - Added some additional recessed lights and set them all to 30% intensity,cut-off angle 110. - Reduced the intensity of the pendants to 25%. - Only lights in the scene are turned on. Materials - Made counter top reflective 30%. - Changed stool frame material to Aluminum Brushed. - Changed ceiling color to Brite. Ray Trace Settings - Ambient Occlusion - min=1, max=5. Image Properties - Contrast=36, Intensity=36, Softness=0,Color Correction=50% - Brightness=49, Contrast=83, Saturation=40 Before Changes (as per downloaded plan) After Changes I'm certain there are a lot more things that could be done to improve this, but it gives you a good idea as to how big of a difference a few lighting changes can have. Graham

Suspect that the ceiling fixture in the hall by the stairs is too bright. Reduce it's intensity say 50% and run again to see if the speckles diminish or go away. Graham

Hi Scott - As mentioned those cap lights were the reason for all of those speckles. When this happens it's best to turn off all of your lights and then turn them back on one light type at a time. Run a quick Ray Trace in between to find the light type that is causing the issue. Once you find the culprit reduce the intensity to eliminate the speckles, I usually do this in 50% reduction increments. Also, this is typically a point light issue, so best to focus on them first. Graham

Glad that solved the issue. Happy Raytracing!!! Graham

I suggest that you turn those extra light sources off and delete the two existing cans and replace them with the Line Voltage Can from the library. The only adjustment you might need to do is to change the Cut Off Angle. I would try them as is first to see if this solves the issue. Maybe some setting in those existing cans is off. Graham

You mention that you have a source light below the recessed cans, if those lights are point lights then that is why there is a bright spot on the ceiling. Point lights emit light 360 degrees and if they are to close to an object or too bright they will show up as a blown out spot. If you are using them to add more general lighting to the scene then try positioning them at he half height floor to ceiling level. Graham

Post a pic of your output so we can see what's going on. Graham

Hi Scott - The big culprit on the exterior is the intensity of those post cap lights. I dropped them down to 4%. - Changed the background colour to black 15% luminance - Ambient Occlusion, min=0, max = 1 - Sun intensity=0 - Unchecked Environmental light Image Properties Contrast = 88 Intensity =31 Colour Correction =0 Brightness = 46 Contrast = 81 Saturation = 45 This is after 10 passes Will now take a look at the interior. Graham

Scott - I understand your frustration, been there many times. Post your plan and I will try to see what the problem is and I'm sure others will also chime in. Graham

Scott - Brilliant might be pushing it a bit too far, but appreciate the compliment. Here are the settings, however these will change for every Raytrace depending upon the lighting and the look you wish to obtain. Just a suggestion, but I also believe it is important to demonstrate and discuss specific tips & techniques. Getting a decent Raytrace is about how you combine and apply these techniques. Unfortunately it takes some time and experimentation so one can get a handle on how these things function so you can approach your Raytracing in a more methodical way with more predicable results. Ambient Occlusion - min "0", max "3" Sun Intensity - 4 Photon Mapping - On Caustics - On Image Properties: Tone Mapping - On Contrast - 4 Intensity - 36 Color Correction - 50% Brightness - 49% Contrast - 73% Saturation - 45% Graham

Just ran these yesterday. Ran 60 passes in about 30 minutes, 1200 X 582. Most of the time was spent cleaning up the glass in the pendants, still some slight graininess in the one over the table. What I have found with the glass is that the graininess is attributed to the degree of light variance behind the glass, not the light within the glass. In the second pic the background to the pendant is fairly consistent and the glass is fairly clean. In the 3rd pic the background is lit by a recessed ceiling light as such the glass is still grainy. These were run with caustics On. Graham

Eric - I took a look at your original posted comparison. One thing I noticed is that in the X8 sample there are active lights while in the X9 version there appears to be no active lights, just wondering if this is the reason. Graham

I also have a GTX 745 4GB. No problems with X9 Beta and Raytracing. Graham

Uncheck the "Bloom" in the camera DBX and the lines will be much sharper. Graham

Those are all spot lights so it runs quite fast. About 50 passes in 6 minutes. Graham

Mainwood59 - Was able to recreate the issue, pic below. When in the camera view and if in the Active Layer Display options the Roof Planes are turned off you will get this effect. If you turn the sun off then this effect will go away but will come back if you turn the sun back on. Check to make sure that the Roof Planes are turned on in the Layer Display options. Graham

Pleased that those settings got things under control. The Image Properties settings I used on my posted pic are here below. Contrast - 83 Intensity - 36 Softness - 0 Color Correction - 0 Brightness - 48 Contrast - 62 Saturation - 50 Here is one with some additional lights added in, things seem to be working as I would expect. Would need more work but at least heading in the right direction. Graham