sooperFoX wrote:

> What do you use for your finish? I have:
> 
> default { finish { diffuse 1 ambient 0 montecarlo { mc_diffuse { 1 2 2 }
> mc_use_cosine_distrib } } }
> 

Almost the same:

#default {
   finish { ambient 0  diffuse 1   montecarlo {mc_diffuse {1 2 1}} }
}


As a result of my experiments with MCPov I did come to the conclusion
that it works best if runs as many passes as possible (mostly limited by 
my own patience) but by using settings that also each pass is as fast as 
possible. Finally I end up with usually 500 - 1000 passes.

I usually also use mc_colour_clip 1.0 because (for my own scenes) this 
works just fine and I'm also a bit skeptical about the approach of 
rendering at higher resolution and downsampling the image. Does this not 
just reduce the number of passes you let MCPov do its fine work and so 
avoid the stage when it starts to trace rays from minor reflective 
materials? Thats the same I do get with the low colour clip value.
If you want/need this effect of reflected light you'll have to be 
prepared to be veeeeeery patient anyway.

But for sure this all is only valid for the way I do use MCPov and this 
is mostly for scenes that where already designed to be "radiosity only" 
and the strenth of MCPov is, it can indeed produce superior results in 
less time than traditional POV-Ray radiosity.

As a conclusion: The statement (I've read somewhere) the best thing 
about MCPov is, you no longer have to struggle with tweaking some 
settings, is only true if you really do not care about rendertimes.
Tweaking MCPov settings (and well chosen portals) can make a huge 
difference for the ratio between rendertime/quality.

-Ive

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