mia_x equivalent of blinn photon settings

[wizlon]

have you tried mip_rayswitch?

or the Indirect Illumination Option on the offending materials (if they are mia)?

[CurtJ]

Thanks, I'll have a look at mip_rayswitch, but the indirect illumination option (there's only the one parameter that affects GI) knocks back the diffuse effect of the photons as well as the bleed.

[Theodocious]

several ways to do this:

not recommended, but you can turn down the GI illumination scale in render globals, for a quick fix (but it's not physically accurate)

even better, turn down the photon strength of your light or decrease the photon exponent. you can also decrease the number of photon reflections

additionally mia_x allows for per-material GI overrides in the shader attributes.

[CurtJ]

several ways to do this:

not recommended, but you can turn down the GI illumination scale in render globals, for a quick fix (but it's not physically accurate)

even better, turn down the photon strength of your light or decrease the photon exponent. you can also decrease the number of photon reflections

additionally mia_x allows for per-material GI overrides in the shader attributes.

Thanks for your suggestions. I should have mentioned that I'm currently using only one light source, emitting photons and no direct light, so I can't turn down the GI scale or the photon strength without having to change the lighting setup (it's a single area light emitting photons into a small room, using 1:1 scale units - not sure if this is wise now that I've started it), and I've not used FG in the hope of increasing render time.
I think the GI overrides you mention are the same thing wizlon was talking about:

...the Indirect Illumination Option on the offending materials (if they are mia)
so adjusting that reduces the bleed, but also reduces the brightness of the surface. I think I'll just use a maya material with my usual method, but I was hoping I'd be able to use mia_x.

[YourDaftPunk]

I believe that your mia_x material is also your photon shader by default. Graph the output connections in the hypershade editor and you'll see that the mia_x.message is going into the shader group's photon slot.

Basically, you can create another identical mia_x with the colors turned down (red with very little saturation maybe) and plug it into your original shader group photon slot. You could also pick one of the basic mental ray photon shaders and set a color there (though using a mia_x would be most accurate).

I'd test this out for you, but my machine is locked in a fluid sim. Good luck.

-shawn

[CurtJ]

Nice one Shawn! That's the ticket. I had one of those 'moments of realisation' when I read your post - always a nice feeling. :)

Just tested it on my little netbook (I'm about to zzz so will test properly on workstation tomorrow) and it works perfectly. I just plugged a basic mr photon shader into the slot, like you suggested and got the exact result I was after - better than I expected tbh.

Thanks mate!

[YourDaftPunk]

No problem, glad it worked!