upgrading incremental Irradiance maps

[Eldar]

Got a question about incremental irradiance map calculation.

Fairly new user, so please excuse me if this is a dumb question. Still in the process of figuring the most efficient workflow.

Lets say I calculate an irradiance map using incremental frames approach (every 10th), with Medium Animation settings. Once this map is done, is it possible to load the map into memory at later time, and then repeat the same process with High Animation settings, to add the difference in samples to the same file, without recalculating whole thing over? Would it be much less efficient timewise than doing the High Animation to begin with?

Basically, it would be an upgrade in quality of the map. The benefit would be getting a fast result that looks decent first, and if time allows later, go for the full shabang. If time is an issue and it's just taking too long, you have the original map to fall back to.

Also, while I got your attention... Can the "Filter maps" switch in global switches tab affect the quality of irradiance map in any way? Perhaps I am imagining it, but it seems to speed up the process, and if I don't need it till final render, might as well have it off.

Thanks!

[Artizen]

a method that im finding sucessful,
is to render the first pass out at every 50th frame with -3 -2 imap settings,
and later add to that map every 50th frame with higher imap settings but starting at frame 25.
works well for rush jobs
another little trick, is to use a higher fov on your camera for the imap pass.

[Da_elf]

i found in the early beta days that increasing the irradiance maps quality on a second pass usually caused artifacts. havent had a need to try since then.

[vlado]

i found in the early beta days that increasing the irradiance maps quality on a second pass usually caused artifacts. havent had a need to try since then.

Not any more You can add as much detail as you want to an existing map - including zooming into areas of interest where you need more detail.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Eldar]

Great

Zooming tip sounds useful. Think I will try adding a couple of high quality irradiance close-ups of the most significant details once the medium quality map is done.

About the second question. Does the filter maps feature in global switches affect quality of irradiance map? When it's off, no filtering is done on textures, and it looks bad on objects that are close to camera, but I'm curious if that really matters for the map calculation stage.

[vlado]

Does the filter maps feature in global switches affect quality of irradiance map? When it's off, no filtering is done on textures, and it looks bad on objects that are close to camera, but I'm curious if that really matters for the map calculation stage.

GI calculations are always performed without filtering, so that switch does not change anything in the irradiance map. The switch affects only maps displayed directly or through reflections/refractions.

Best regards,
Vlado

[Eldar]

Excellent

Thank you for response Vlado. This is useful to know.