longer is not necessarily better

[arail]

I'm a novice so bear with me -
I assumed that longer rendering times would always produce a better image with a rendering application like Indigo. But I'm finding that isn't necessarily so.

The image on the right cooked for about half an hour. Notice how the leg of the table at the bottom concentrates and magnifies the light. It's not so obvious in this low res version but on my computer it's quite stunning. But the image on the left cooked over night and much of that highlight is gone.

I'm not sure I have a question - I'm just thinking out loud on the forum.

[Pibuz]

Indigo makes the image always converge to the real life behaviour. Maybe during the first phases it throws on stage some kind of approximation, which is sort of a "complete calculation at an early stage". That maybe let you think that was the correct behaviour, but I assure you: the longer, the better

..not exactly the better: the more correct, we should say. Sometimes tricks make an image more interesting, but those aren't necessarily the real life behaviours.

[everwind]

"longer is not necessarily better"

that's what all men say !




...


sorry

[ENSLAVER]

"longer is not necessarily better"

that's what all men say !




...


sorry

Haha.

I also agree longer is better, even if I do like MLT noise, and that is pretty much what you are seeing, noise. Those bright pixels just haven't had enough time to resolve, some might end up brighter, some darker as the accuracy increases (more calculations).

MLT does shoot up a lot of bright caustics early on, which is very useful when it's a main component of your scene.

If you used PT instead of MLT you might find early on the caustics start out a lot darker, and increase to the same level, in the end you will get the same result from both.

(phew made it through without any innuendos)

[arail]

..not exactly the better: the more correct, we should say.

I think that's a good distinction. I re-rendered the image and stopped at about 45 minutes, when the highlights were the most pronounced. I know the project manager was going to like that one more and ... well, she pays the bills.

Continuing to learn.

Thanks for your replies.

[Meelis]

If u want more sharper highlights try some other tone-mappings,
maybe Ektachrome-320TCD works for you.

[CTZn]

And then you can tune the camera tonemapping with the White Point right below.