Progressive Sampler: Max subdivs vs passes

[Art48]

Hi,

Can someone explain how the max subdivs parameter and the passes relate to each other?
We had a monster rendering here which we did with the progressive sampler, iterating more on difficult areas with the mouse and we somehow managed to reach 10000 PASSES, then the render "finished". I mean the image was good enough, but if we had the possibility we may have let it render another night. Did it end there because of the max subdivs? Even then, its not like all areas reached the set noise threshold sind we moved around with the mouse often.

[vlado]

100 subdivs = 10,000 passes, same as in all other places in V-Ray. The image will stop as soon as any pixel reaches that value. You can set the subdivs to 0 to let V-Ray refine indefinitely.

Best reards,
Vlado

[Art48]

so passes = samples?
Also isn't it kind of counter-intuitive that "the image will stop as soon as any pixel reaches that value."?
Wouldn't it make more sense to stop when every pixel reaches that value? Or am I missing something here?

[vlado]

Wouldn't it make more sense to stop when every pixel reaches that value? Or am I missing something here?

Some pixels might not need to reach that sampling level at all (because of the adaptive sampling). Some better sampling scheme can probably be implemented, but that's the way things work now (this is how the bucket renderer works too).

Best regards,
Vlado