1 or many lights

[DonQuixote]

Hi everyone
I am sure this has been covered before, but any input would be great

I am rendering a parking garage scene with a car.
I would like to simulate numerous neon tubes on the ceiling
Should I use 1 huge Rect Light that covers the ceiling using a gel to simulate the neon tubes, or several smaller Rect Lights with individual light gels?
What would give a decent result with faster render times?

Thanks!

[vlado]

It depends on the number of lights, I guess it would best to make a few tests what would work best in your case.

Best regards,
Vlado

[DonQuixote]

Hi Vlado

If there are 20 lights...what would be the best way to go (if you had to take a guess!)

[aweidenhammer]

not that guessing would make much difference (you should test it)... but I would probably go with 20 lights. Small areas with lower sampling seems better to me than 1 large area light with a ton of samples (adaptive or not). more control. Maybe the BG lights could go with lower samples. I dunno, more options to optimize if you need to.

Andrew

[DonQuixote]

Thanks for the input
I will try both and post the results here for reference!