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  Just thougt I'd mention this... (Message 1 to 6 of 6)  
From: Dave Blandston
Subject: Just thougt I'd mention this...
Date: 31 May 2010 08:10:01
Message: <web.4c03a5a7b3c516adcba3fb0f0@news.povray.org>
Hello,

I don't know if there's really anything wrong here, but just in case anyone else
has experienced this situation I decided to show this example. Some darker
rectangular areas appear when this scene is rendered with radiosity. It's a
minor problem and probably something I'm doing wrong as usual, and I'm not
asking for any help. During the modeling phase I tried to make sure there were
no coincident surfaces, so I don't think that's the problem. (Version 3.7 Beta
37a)

By the way, the pin hasn't been properly positioned in the hole yet - it's still
a work in progress...

Regards,
Dave Blandston


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Just thougt I'd mention this...
Date: 31 May 2010 11:01:38
Message: <4c03cf52$1@news.povray.org>
Am 31.05.2010 14:06, schrieb Dave Blandston:

> I don't know if there's really anything wrong here, but just in case anyone else
> has experienced this situation I decided to show this example. Some darker
> rectangular areas appear when this scene is rendered with radiosity. It's a
> minor problem and probably something I'm doing wrong as usual, and I'm not
> asking for any help. During the modeling phase I tried to make sure there were
> no coincident surfaces, so I don't think that's the problem. (Version 3.7 Beta
> 37a)

I suppose it's typical artifacts from the radiosity code taking 
additional samples during the final trace. Some pieces of advice to 
prevent this effect:

- Use "always_sample off"

- Make sure your radiosity pretrace gathers a decent number of samples 
already. From my experience, at least about half of all the samples 
should be gathered during pretrace already. (If it doesn't, usually 
decreasing pretrace_end will do the job.)

You can check this with the radiosity statistics. After render, POV-Ray 
will output a table like this, listing the number of samples gathered 
per pass and recursion depth:

--------------------------------------------------------
   Pass     Depth 0    Depth 1    Depth 2           Total
--------------------------------------------------------
   1           1544      40899       7794           50237
   2           6079      72001       2232           80312
   3          22457      95237       1677          119371
   4          66516     106702       1274          174492
   5+        246562     139354       2603          388519
   Final      46489        161          -           46650
--------------------------------------------------------
   Total     389647     454354      15580          859581
   Weight     0.199      0.057      0.027
--------------------------------------------------------

In the "Depth 0" column, the "Final" value should be no more than about 
half of the "Total" value.

(The example shows a render that took more than 88% of all samples 
during a 6-pass pretrace, so that can pretty likely be cut down to 5 
passes by doubling pretrace_end to increase speed.)


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From: Dave Blandston
Subject: Re: Just thougt I'd mention this...
Date: 1 Jun 2010 00:35:01
Message: <web.4c048cc6ddbaa883cba3fb0f0@news.povray.org>
clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> - Make sure your radiosity pretrace gathers a decent number of samples
> already. From my experience, at least about half of all the samples
> should be gathered during pretrace already. (If it doesn't, usually
> decreasing pretrace_end will do the job.)
>
> You can check this with the radiosity statistics. After render, POV-Ray
> will output a table like this, listing the number of samples gathered
> per pass and recursion depth:
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>    Pass     Depth 0    Depth 1    Depth 2           Total
> --------------------------------------------------------
>    1           1544      40899       7794           50237
>    2           6079      72001       2232           80312
>    3          22457      95237       1677          119371
>    4          66516     106702       1274          174492
>    5+        246562     139354       2603          388519
>    Final      46489        161          -           46650
> --------------------------------------------------------
>    Total     389647     454354      15580          859581
>    Weight     0.199      0.057      0.027
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the "Depth 0" column, the "Final" value should be no more than about
> half of the "Total" value.

Thanks! I'll tinker with the radiosity settings. It's so helpful to know what to
work on. I see that my settings must be way off, judging by the table below. The
"Final" number is almost the same as the "Total" number. I appreciate your help
very much.

radiosity {
   count 300
   error_bound .02
   pretrace_start .08
   pretrace_end .004
   recursion_limit 2
   normal on
} //radiosity

  Pass     Depth 0    Depth 1           Total
---------------------------------------------
  2              1        330             331
  3              6       1002            1008
  4             48       7766            7814
  5+           277      27392           27669
  Final      61083    1057679         1118762
---------------------------------------------
  Total      61415    1094169         1155584
  Weight     0.092      0.047

Regards,
Dave Blandston


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From: clipka
Subject: Re: Just thougt I'd mention this...
Date: 1 Jun 2010 09:36:04
Message: <4c050cc4$1@news.povray.org>
Am 01.06.2010 06:29, schrieb Dave Blandston:

> radiosity {
>     count 300
>     error_bound .02
>     pretrace_start .08
>     pretrace_end .004
>     recursion_limit 2
>     normal on
> } //radiosity
>
>    Pass     Depth 0    Depth 1           Total
> ---------------------------------------------
>    2              1        330             331
>    3              6       1002            1008
>    4             48       7766            7814
>    5+           277      27392           27669
>    Final      61083    1057679         1118762
> ---------------------------------------------
>    Total      61415    1094169         1155584
>    Weight     0.092      0.047

Yes, with these statistics numbers it's no surprise that you get those 
blocky artifacts.

Your error_bound is unconventionally low, thus increasing the desired 
sample density; typically, a value of 0.5 will do. "normal on" increases 
desired density even more; unless you use radiosity as primary 
illumination you can typically go without.

As already mentioned, do use "always_sample off"; I'd also recommend 
"low_error_factor 0.5" to force the pretrace to go for a higher sample 
coverage than the final trace would demand for.

The pretrace_start and pretrace_end look quite ok to me at a first 
glance. If the other changes don't give you the desired final-vs-total 
ratio though, you might want to decrease pretrace_end.

The statistics also show that only very few samples are gathered during 
the first passes (and no samples at all in the very first one), so you 
may want to reduce pretrace_start; I'd suggest to start at what is now 
pass 3, i.e. "pretrace_start 0.02"


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From: Dave Blandston
Subject: Re: Just thougt I'd mention this...
Date: 2 Jun 2010 03:35:01
Message: <web.4c0608b9ddbaa883cba3fb0f0@news.povray.org>
clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Yes, with these statistics numbers it's no surprise that you get those
> blocky artifacts.
>
> Your error_bound is unconventionally low, thus increasing the desired
> sample density; typically, a value of 0.5 will do. "normal on" increases
> desired density even more; unless you use radiosity as primary
> illumination you can typically go without.
>
> As already mentioned, do use "always_sample off"; I'd also recommend
> "low_error_factor 0.5" to force the pretrace to go for a higher sample
> coverage than the final trace would demand for.
>
> The pretrace_start and pretrace_end look quite ok to me at a first
> glance. If the other changes don't give you the desired final-vs-total
> ratio though, you might want to decrease pretrace_end.
>
> The statistics also show that only very few samples are gathered during
> the first passes (and no samples at all in the very first one), so you
> may want to reduce pretrace_start; I'd suggest to start at what is now
> pass 3, i.e. "pretrace_start 0.02"

Wow, after several hours of experimenting I think I finally have good radiosity
settings. I had to keep error_bound very low, otherwise the radiosity effect
disappeared in little crevices. One happy side-effect of my efforts was
discovering a better setting for adc_bailout - changing it from the default to
..1 sped things up considerably without a significant drop in quality. Thanks for
the great suggestions!

Regards,
Dave Blandston


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From: Mike Raiford
Subject: Re: Just thougt I'd mention this...
Date: 3 Jun 2010 10:12:30
Message: <4c07b84e$1@news.povray.org>
On 6/1/2010 8:35 AM, clipka wrote:

> The statistics also show that only very few samples are gathered during
> the first passes (and no samples at all in the very first one), so you
> may want to reduce pretrace_start; I'd suggest to start at what is now
> pass 3, i.e. "pretrace_start 0.02"

Heh. I never thought to pay attention to the output statistics to tweak 
radiosity settings.

-- 
~Mike


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