Interior of educational complex

Pikadili89 · Post by **Pikadili89** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 2:54 am

Hey guys!

I am currently working on this project and I am on very begining. As usual I have problems with noise!

I can't set right values for ENV map and interior lights so I don't get noise! I know that number of light layers increase render duration and I also know that a lot of glass and specular materials gives nosie and fireflies. But images I am posting rendered for 9 hours with network rendering of 2x i5, one i7, one i3 and some very bad PC. And still the amount of noise is incredible! I have three light layers, one is env map, second is interior light and third is hidden, ambient light. I don't know why but interior light gives a lot of noise especialy. The strength of env map is 75000 lux, interior light 75000 lux also (plus increased it in light layers to 50) and hiden one is 35000 lux. Anybody have any advices or tips how to overcome this problem? SSF is 1 and images are around 5000x2500.

Zom-B · Post by **Zom-B** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 3:12 am

Do you use Portals here? I suggest that the EnvMap is only entering the area through the doors, so a portal would help here a lot!

By using LightLayers you can simply see what Layer introduces the most noise (looks like the lamps are the problem)! Indigos sometimes dedicates the CPU time used for lightsources not very efficiently. You can force more CPU time by raising the brightness of the Lightsource that causes trouble, and then reduce the LightLayer power in the GUI!
This is a common workaround for such situations, since Indigo prioritize Lightsources with higher output!

Your rendering looks like you are using MLT, give BiDir Pathtracing a try instead!

Very important is also to not use RGB higher then 204, also not in textures, since with higher values the materials starts to function like a unrealistic "diffuse mirror", read here for more information: http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/vie ... 19&t=12529

Raising the SS value helps fighting Fireflies btw, if you have enough RAM on your machines, give it a go...

BTW: seems like your educational complex is financed by Gazprom

Pikadili89 · Post by **Pikadili89** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 6:04 pm

Hey ZomB!

I am using exit portals but still there are windshield doors, fully made of glass. I checked the textures and I reduced the RBG values for travertino tiles and plaster, only those two had over 200 value. Removed lamp light and also made hidden light and env map in same layer (so now it have only one light layer). I also changed to bidirectional PTR and started render. It took 7 hours and this is the result. Still prity noisy, I simply don't know what to do

And yes, the Gazprom is investor becouse its their educational complex, some kind of university

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 7:57 pm

Hi Pikadili!
Another two things to check, just in case you missed those:
1. (Since you say there are lots of glass doors) check if the glass boxes touch the window frame geometry: if so, make the glasses slightly smaller (or bigger) in order to avoid surface touching.
2. Another important thing to check while working wth multiple light layers: make sure you have assigned the "proper" power to each light in order to be rendered like the others. To do so, check this: try turning off all layers but one at a time. All the layers are equally noisy? if not, try increasing the power of the light(s) contained in the less sampled layer(s) (you'll have to re-launch the rendering). Indigo assigns more calculation power to the "brighter" layers, so you kinda have to "balance" them in advance.

Tell me if I was clear enough!

Zom-B · Post by **Zom-B** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 8:47 pm

Pikadili89 wrote:I am using exit portals but still there are windshield doors, fully made of glass.

Here we have something

If somehow possible, simply disable the glass mesh and render it with "open holes"! If the glass is really needed, then you NEED to use ArchGlass for such constructs! Afaik its not supported by any exporter at the moment, but you can enable that feature for a specular material in the GUI with small checkbox!

Pikadili89 wrote:Removed lamp light and also made hidden light and env map in same layer (so now it have only one light layer). I also changed to bidirectional PTR and started render. It took 7 hours and this is the result. Still prity noisy, I simply don't know what to do

In my first post I explained that Indigo sets CPU time for Lights individually, dependent on their brightness. Its not LightLayer related, but Lightsorce related! By putting multiple lightsources into a Layer Indigo still does this prioritizing!
So divide both Lightsources back into two LightLayers. Give em a quick 1h render, and check what LightLayer does "create" the most noise! Then for example double the emitting power in Your sourcefile for the noisy Light, render, and reduce the LightLayer intensity down to 50%!
By that your LightSource gets double the CPU time then before (rendering faster) and still keeps the same brightness

Do you use the latest Indigo version? Indigo 3.8.3 had some really nice improvement for rendering phong materials, check out my small benchmark here: http://www.indigorenderer.com/forum/vie ... 79#p127179

Another hint I can give ya, is to adjust your "hidden Light" slightly. for the best render performance try to keep your emitters as big as possible regarding mesh size, and having as few polygons as possible!
Maybe you can enlarge the emitter a little more...
Also set the emitter to be a perfect Black diffuse material (RGB 0), by this the mesh only emits light, and don't reflect any.

Pikadili89 · Post by **Pikadili89** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 10:59 pm

Pibuz wrote:Hi Pikadili!
Another two things to check, just in case you missed those:
1. (Since you say there are lots of glass doors) check if the glass boxes touch the window frame geometry: if so, make the glasses slightly smaller (or bigger) in order to avoid surface touching.

Tell me if I was clear enough!

Hi Pibuz!

Yeah, glass always thouches window frames in my models! Surface thouching is cousing some problems like noise or fireflies?! I really didn't have any clue about that! :O
Thanks for awsome tip!

Pikadili89 · Post by **Pikadili89** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:01 pm

@ Zom-B

Ok mate, I'll try your tips and get back with new render!

The most suprising is this of light emiters! I always set some really bright colors for light emiters, I hope that turning them into black will help me a lot! Cheers!

Pibuz · Post by **Pibuz** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 11:04 pm

Pikadili89 wrote:
Pibuz wrote:Hi Pikadili!
Another two things to check, just in case you missed those:
1. (Since you say there are lots of glass doors) check if the glass boxes touch the window frame geometry: if so, make the glasses slightly smaller (or bigger) in order to avoid surface touching.

Tell me if I was clear enough!
Hi Pibuz!

Yeah, glass always thouches window frames in my models! Surface thouching is cousing some problems like noise or fireflies?! I really didn't have any clue about that! :O
Thanks for awsome tip!

YEAH: glasses and metals which share a face with another part of the model REALLY slow down the calculation!
Hope that helped!