saving irradiance map for animation

[sv]

Hi,

I have a shot in an animation, where a simple camera moves from outside of a log cabin in through some doors to the interior. The doors are animated opening over about 40 frames or so. so here is my question:

can i render out the ir map only for the entire shot and save it, then render, or do i have to do it in three parts - 1) beginning to doors opening, 2) calcualte the ir for each frame where the door is opening and then 3) from doors open to finish - thus having multiple ir maps?

Any help would be welcomed. I have already rendered the sequence, and noticed that where a new section is calcuated on a different machine, there is almost a "bump" or a frame flicker where the ir map changes. Before anyone points it out - this is not a authorisation problem.

Any info on how the ir map is calcuated, and the differences it can give between machines would be helpfull.

Cheers.

[ml-a]

Here is how Da_elf makes it. Hope he don't mind

usually this is what i do for opening doors example:
1-100 room1. door1 closed :saved irradiance map r1.irmap (door opens between frame 101-120)
95-125 door opening: single frame irradiance map
121-200 room2. door1 opened :saved irradiance map r2.irmap

the 5 frame overlap on either end is just to do a very quick blending fade. its not really neccisary though.

[Da_elf]

im working on an animation flythrough render with moving doors right now actually using this method.

[sv]

great, thanks ever so much.

good to know i was more or less on the right tracks - is it commonly known that switching from one saved irradiance map to another can cause a slight visual change then? Is doing a blend the most common way to get around this, or do other people know of any clever ways to get really consistently crisp animation where there are GI map switches?

Any help, as always, is most appreciated. I would also be interested to know if vray uses some sort of randomisation during the GI calculation, and this is why there is a slight change between different GI solutions. This would just help me to understand the process better.

Thanks a lot.