"Leroy" <whe### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> "tutki" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > I have an old povray scene that I'm trying to tidy up, and one of the things is
> > to optimize rendering times by reducing the number of light sources. Currently
> > there are 44 point lights, which I think it probably excessive. Most of them are
> > inside background objects (multistorey buildings in the background), and
> > probably could be gotten rid of?
> >
> > What are some general guidelines on optimizing light sources in a povray scene?
> > Is there some trick I could use to retain approximately the same look but with
> > less light sources (or with better rendering performance)?  Does povray optimize
> > away faraway fading light? E.g., if a background building is far away then only
> > objects close to it would involve that light source, but other objects in the
> > scene would skip that light source?
>
> I think what you are needing is light groups.
> 3.4.4.2 Light Group in the help file
> Have Fun!

Thanks, light groups are indeed what I had in mind.

Unfortunately, a quick test with grouping objects in my scene into light groups
revealed that the speedup is only minimal: around 13.4 seconds render time
without light groups, 13.2 seconds with light groups.

I probably have to simplify some of my global lights, though. And also reduce
the amount of reflective surfaces. :D  I think in this old scene I got carried
away with the polished chrome surfaces so there's too much reflection going on.

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