Projected Caustics Setup - ‘Quick Caustics’

[NRH1981]

Hello,
I’m trying to find a way to create quick animated ‘fake’ caustics using a light projection source and caustics image map. Currently I’m using a rectangular light, with directionality set to 0.99. This works well but I have two issues.
1. The pool shape is not rectangular and I would like to match the shape of the pool body. Is there another way to set this up for a non rectangular shape?

2. Is there any way to control the light projection sharpness and the softness of the shadows independently? (Like you can with vray sun)

Thanks Everyone

[Vizioen]

I don't use Vray4SU but I'm guessing you can include/exclude things from lights as well in Vray4SU? Just include only the things you want the caustics to appear on.

[NRH1981]

Hi Vizioen,
Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately this feature (to exclude objects) is not available currently in V-Ray for SU. The other issue I have found with the rectangular light with 0.99 directionality is that the caustics do not appear on the side walls of the pool as they would in real life. I found that applying the caustic map to a standard Vray spot light does project the caustic pattern in a more realistic way with softer shadows but it has its own problems, creating a lens effect to the map; curving the edges. If anyone has a better workflow for projecting fake caustics please let me know, would love to compare approaches.