"splotchy shadows"

[Hoop]

new settings!

Flipside -- i turned of "store direct light" and set the secondary GI mult to .85 as you suggested. it worked! the image is not antialised for speed here, but the color looks muuuuuuuuch better. Thank you very much for the advice. So, about the "store direct light" option -- Why turn that off? Does it cut down on the brightness of the image? Also, why does light cache work so much better (smoother shadows) for interior renderings? I know these are probably basic questions, but there is no user manual and the tutorials i've found online aren't specific about these differences.

Micha -- i'll try your settings tomorrow. I've got the indoor lighting in the scene becuase the person i'm doing this for, an architect friend of mine, specked lights in those locations, so they will have to be there for realism in the end. good point about the real world white and texture values. i'll double check these. I've heard that before, but i'll double check and make sure my textures are good. Thanks for your help as well, i really appreicate it.

[flipside]

"splotchy shadows"

Hey, it is the lower gi multiplier that did the trick. This is actually very similar to micha's suggestions of using 0.8 on textures and not pure white on colors. The gi multiplier of 0.85 simply makes sure that a bounced light ray is only 85% of the strength, even bouncing off from a perfectly white surface. LC is always infinite amount of bounces, while QMC GI is only 3 by default. That is why an lc image is usually brighter than a QMC GI image.

The LC is smoother because of the theory behind the calculations. Better ask vlado about that

Store direct light, I turn this off because it will give higher quality shadows. If it's on, the light is stored in the LC, meaning it is calculated by LC settings instead of being raytraced. (I think )

[Micha_cg]

"splotchy shadows"

....
Store direct light, I turn this off because it will give higher quality shadows. If it's on, the light is stored in the LC, meaning it is calculated by LC settings instead of being raytraced. (I think )

Hey, could an option like this not be helpful for the IM mode too? Additional to the arealight option? So, the user could switch on this option for all lights and if GI is off, all lights work in standard mode again.

[flipside]

"splotchy shadows"

Yeah, I also wondered why normal lights can't be stored in the IR map like in the LC.