is it a good idea to use lightcache for exteriro renders. does anyone have any problems with it? Any pros and cons?
In my experience lightcache seems to soften exterior shots a bit to much. Contrast and details in shadows seems to be the main area. Other than that…
Tony
I use lightcache for nearly everything now… well lightcache and IR map, or LC and QMC.
I would say that the reason that things look to soft is that the GI fills in a lot… or a lot more than before. You can fight this by adding some contrast to your image or reducing the value of the secondary bounces… try a 0.75 from what you have.
nice render get rid of the clouds. ick. hehe but cool stuff. yeah ive been playing around with light cache for exteriors
hey fabrizio
cool bushes… 
how did you made these?
best regards
themaxxer
well I’ve run few tests with lightcache and as supsected it’s memory eater. With standard IR + QMC in my scene with a lot of trees and disp it took about 800 MB ram. With IR + LC it was… 1.3 GB!!! too close to crash.
set up your equipment right and that is not near crash… but live in your own cage 
Sounds like I should take another look at using lightcache for exteriors.
Tony
the eaves always look too light with LC for exteriors in my opinion. not enough contrast or colour bleed in the example you gave.
on the other hand with IR + QMC the shadows can often be too dark requiring photoshopping
now if there was a Irradiancemapping option which blended with LC and primarily used QMC and was nice and fast that would probably be sweet 
yes thats 3 bounces!!!..why not?
LC is always a great quick early analysis of your projects lighting[/b]