How do I make the room brighter in ray trace?

[ED-209]

Hi,

 

I was using a very old, low-spec PC to test out CAX7 and started a ray trace which, naturally, turned out quite grainy. I have since bought a new PC, and while the image is much sharper, the light seems wrong for some reason; it's way darker than the previous (grainy) one. Is there a trick to getting the light in the dark room to match the light in the grainy room? I've attached pictures so you can see what I mean.

 

In short: I want the light to be like it is in "Grainy kitchen.PNG", but with the sharpness of "Dark kitchen.PNG" (which is somewhere between passes 5 & 6).

 

Thanks.

[TheKitchenAbode]

It looks to me as if Photon Mapping was on in the lower pic and off in the upper.

[Kbird1]

34 minutes ago, TheKitchenAbode said:

It looks to me as if Photon Mapping was on in the lower pic and off in the upper.

 

I think Graham might be right X7 still has the old stainless steel materials that went black when Photon Mapping was on....

 

try my old library from here if you want photon mapping on....

 

Also:

- try turning the chandelier off , so you don't get that light circle on the ceiling ( or alter the light data for it.)

 

- try raising the Ambient occlusion if it is too dark and/or the direct sun intensity eg 20-30 range ( make sure house has a roof and basement built too)

 

 

[ED-209]

The photon mapping box was unchecked, I've raised the sunlight to 20 and the Ambient occlusion to 5-10. Fingers crossed...

 

Update: It's done exactly the same thing, but it's brighter outside...

Edited November 7, 2017 by ED-209

[Kbird1]

perhaps I remember it incorrectly and Photon Mapping needs to be on with that old stainless material? i see it is still black

 

***edit..... quick search on raytrace and black metals , shows photon mapping should be on to fix that , though it may cause speckles in the glass depending on viewing Angle...

[ED-209]

I switch photon mapping on and it seems to have worked! The image is on pass 2 @2% but it shows that it worked. 

 

Out of interest, how long should each pass be taking? Or does that depend on the individual image?

 

Thanks for the help everyone.

[TheKitchenAbode]

The time per pass depends primarily on your computer, size in pixels of the pic and the number and types of lights. Looking at your posted pic I would think it will need at least 30 or more passes to clean-up the grain.

[mrscott]

Agreed

[Christina_Girerd]

While this doesn't deal with the particular raytrace specs, here are a few tips I learned from my early raytracing that you might be able to apply.  I raytrace on almost every single project I do, and I've found that I can do fewer passes with larger raytraces and get a better looking result than smaller one with more passes.  I typically do raytraces of 3000 or 5000 pixels wide for my clients, normally no more than 10 passes and resize it smaller when I put it in the layout file.   If I just need a little overall brightening, I have found it is far faster to just brighten it up in my paint program.  I end up brightening up almost all the raytraces I do at least a little.  But that only takes a minute. 

 

Since you are talking about x7, I looked for an older sample in my files and found a kitchen I did in early 2014 - prob x7 or x8?  I used to always note the number of passes and the length of time on it, so this particular raytrace was 7 passes, 4000 pixels wide and took 3 hours and 12 minutes.  I probably ran it over night back then since it had a lot of lights on. My hardware would have been older and slower too.  In the very beginnings of raytracing, I also used to "cheat" and give the ceilings their own material that I would make slightly emissive to generate a bit of their own light since dark ceilings was always an issue.  I often put in one or two "add lights" just to add overall brightness to interiors as well.  While this may not be purist for getting it all exactly from the scene, it can save a bunch of time.  BTW, these days my raytraces only take about 20 minutes or less - progress!  Anyway, good luck!

 

 

[Chrisb222]

19 hours ago, Christina_Girerd said:

While this doesn't deal with the particular raytrace specs, here are a few tips I learned from my early raytracing that you might be able to apply.  I raytrace on almost every single project I do, and I've found that I can do fewer passes with larger raytraces and get a better looking result than smaller one with more passes.  I typically do raytraces of 3000 or 5000 pixels wide for my clients, normally no more than 10 passes and resize it smaller when I put it in the layout file.   If I just need a little overall brightening, I have found it is far faster to just brighten it up in my paint program.  I end up brightening up almost all the raytraces I do at least a little.  But that only takes a minute. 

 

Since you are talking about x7, I looked for an older sample in my files and found a kitchen I did in early 2014 - prob x7 or x8?  I used to always note the number of passes and the length of time on it, so this particular raytrace was 7 passes, 4000 pixels wide and took 3 hours and 12 minutes.  I probably ran it over night back then since it had a lot of lights on. My hardware would have been older and slower too.  In the very beginnings of raytracing, I also used to "cheat" and give the ceilings their own material that I would make slightly emissive to generate a bit of their own light since dark ceilings was always an issue.  I often put in one or two "add lights" just to add overall brightness to interiors as well.  While this may not be purist for getting it all exactly from the scene, it can save a bunch of time.  BTW, these days my raytraces only take about 20 minutes or less - progress!  Anyway, good luck!

 

 

 

Nice tips, THANKS!