Global Illumination

[Saturn]

nasty one.

check rebuild option of your photon map

[IZZE]

Gave that a try and hit render current pass and got this error


RCGI 0.3 warn 362004: no photons stored after emitting 10000 photons from light "spot_root/spot/light" (tag 41d)


So I created a new project and rebuilt the scene, but same results. Its like GI never gets turned on.

[Mic_Ma]

Raytrace is enabled?

Your material has something connected to the Photon node?

[jasonio]

Try temporarily dropping the GI accuracy to 100 to speed things up.

Then gradually increase the spot lights intensity. (By Gradually I mean keep adding a 0 on the end).

At some point it will start to go all blotchy. These are the photons. Now start increasing the number of emitted photons from the spot light, again by adding a 0 on the number of photons.

Once the photons begin to merge you can then raise the GI accuracy. You can also turn on FG with read GI option switched on to smooth it out further.

Make sure that the "rebuild map" option is checked while you do these changes or nothing will happen.

A more detailed breakdown of the process is here:

http://www.treddi.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8436

[bravmm]

You probably know this, but you have to turn on FG/GI in the renderregion as well. Just because it's set in the main renderpanel doesn't mean it's turned on for the renderregion. That one get's everybody confused the first time. You can copy your settings back and forth though from the renderregion to the renderpanel and vv.
Or just post your scene so we can have a look ;-)

rob

[erebos]

hmmm... enclose the scene in a sphere and set it to be part of the GI.

in rendering options/diagnostics, set all the details on (from the left column) and open the script editor to read what your getting as you render.

then try using the photon map one from the right hand column, it should render just the GI effect so you can see what's happening.

[IZZE]

Thank you all for the help. It is nice to see the support here in this forum.

Mic_Ma: Raytrace is enabled

jasonio: I tried your advice, but I se NO change at all. No matter what I do the render looks the same. Rebuild Map is activated.

bravmm: GI is enabled for the Render Region, thanks.

erebos: Tried your advice. No change. Looked at script editor. Nothing there that makes sense to me. I can post some of it here if you want. Or save it for you to look at.

HERE IS MY SCENE (http://www.spiderwebdesignstudio.com/body/GITest.zip) I thank anyone who has the time or effort to look at it.

Im going to go to a friends house and try it on his machine. Maybe mine is wack somewhere.

[visualboo]

Rob mentioned this above but... the render region and the render passes have different settings. You can copy back and forth between them but the way I usually work is to check the box I talk about below and always just use my pass settings. That way I know exactly what my pass is going to look like when I go to render it.

- Right click on the Render Region border (yellow or red).
- Select options
- Check the very first box. "Use current pass options"
- Open Render > Render > Render Manager and use those settings from then on.

Try enabling FG also.

[IZZE]

That has made a difference. Looking up that option in the help file now. Thanks a ton!

[IZZE]

So from what I get from the help file. That option, when unchecked, would overide the setting I have stated in the Mental Ray Render Options?

[visualboo]

Yes, it lets you have independant settings. If you check it, it makes MR use the pass settings.

fyi, I edited my post above with a tad more info.

[IZZE]

That makes sense.

One more quicky. If I uncheck that option, why doesnt my scene go back to the way it was before checking the option? And if I had that option unchecked in the first place. Why didnt my render region settings work? Is it because they were different in some way from the MR settings?

I fell like my photon map is not getting updated correctly. Am I wrong here?

Thanks again for the help. I like the vibe of this forum.

[visualboo]

The way they have the render settings is a little confusing at first.

There are identical PPG (property page) settings for the render region and for the render pass. There is a Regions button and a Render button.

Region PPG:
Render > Regions > All Options

Pass PPG:
Render > Render > Render Options

The Render Manager also gives you a bunch of controls for pass control.

... so, if you uncheck that option and look in the "region" options, you'll see that FG and GI are turned off.

[IZZE]

Thanks again boss.

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