Study Topic: Irradiance ?

Mistara

does DS have irradiance settings?

What does irradiance do exactly?

What are the best possible irradiance settings?

Thanks.

prixat

Irradiance Caching (IR) is probably the most common method for calculating GI.

You may have seen those pre-render screens in poser with the dots all over them.

3Delight generally prefers no pre-calculation, it uses other methods to keep the render speeds high, so Studio doesn't use IR.
You'd have to write your own script for Studio to use this method.

Mistara

i thought the poser red dots were idl calculation?
the red dots get denser or less when i change the idl value.

it's mysterious, but as far as i can tell, firefly and 3delight totaaally different

Renpatsu

There are many options in 3Delight that are not necessarily directly exposed via the UI, but with a bit of help through e.g. scripted renderer scripts you can actually do a lot. Requires some delving into it, but there are quite a few examples in the "3Delight Surface and Lighting Thread".

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21611/P495/#642793

Might get a bit technical in that thread though ...

prixat

Misty Whisky said:

i thought the poser red dots were idl calculation?
the red dots get denser or less when i change the idl value.

it's mysterious, but as far as i can tell, firefly and 3delight totaaally different

Each dot represents the sum of (direct light + indirect light) at that point.
So yes changing IDL will change the Irradiance cache.
(That GI I mentioned is Global Illumination, IDL is just one component of GI)

There are alternative methods, like 'Ray tracing', 'Path Tracing', 'Photon Mapping' etc. They each have their particular strengths and weaknesses. You choose the most appropriate for your job or even combine them as necessary.