Would it be possible to enable caustics on a per object basis, for example, to only generate them on the inside of a swimming pool?
The Wrapper material gives you some control over that:
Additionally, you can test the new Quick Caustics effect available in the V-Ray material.
Apply it to the water surface, add displacement (simple bump will not work as the effect depends on the mesh subdivisions) and render.
Caustics from the sun will be calculated under the water.
Thank you very much, Konstantin, I will try this!
Does the new Quick Caustics effect take into account the sun’s size to create soft shadows, or does it default to a sharp sun size of 1?
It is quite limited at the moment.
Soft shadows are not supported, and as I mentioned, the feature depends on the mesh topology and only works with the Sun light.
These limitations can certainly be addressed in the future. If there is enough interest in the feature, we’ll continue investing in it.
Thank you very much, Konstantin. If it doesn’t hit performance too much, maybe it might be worth investing?