Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Adjusting Render Settings
For a scene like this, many of the render settings can be adjusted to improve the quality of the final image.
These are explored in Chapter 7, “Studio Lighting and Rendering.” Antialiasing (in the Settings tab of the
Render Properties viewport) should be set to a good level without going too high (16-32 Samples/Pixel
should easily suffice).
Another area of optimization is in the Irradiance Rays (in the Global Illumination tab of the Render Prop-
erties viewport) used to create the global illumination. If you have textured walls, patterns, and tiles, there
is not as much need for a perfectly clean illumination. This means that the Irradiance Rays setting can be
reduced. The Irradiance Rate can be increased to place some additional space between sampled rays. The
main issue with the reduction of rays in a scene like this is flicker that appears in animation when the calcu-
lation between frames does not align. Enabling Walkthrough Mode creates a cache for the Irradiance Rays
so that the only new rays calculated are the ones in areas outside the camera view for the previous frame.
Similar to this is the ability to save a cache of Irradiance Rays to a file. These rays can then be recalled at
the start of a new render to decrease the finished render time significantly. Depending on the scene, this can
decrease the final render time anywhere from 20% to 75%. After the Irradiance is saved, make sure to select
the Load Irradiance option and navigate to the saved cache file.
One final note on render settings: start small! Render times increase proportionally with the increase in
pixels in the final rendered frame. Increasing the frame size from the default resolution (720×480) to a full
high definition frame (1920×1080) can result in an increase of render time of about 9 times the lower-resolu-
tion frame size. Keep this in mind as you test lighting scenarios. Because reviewing lighting does not require
