Raytracing Stainless Steel & Chrome

[pamdesigns]

I think I finally figured out settings to get decent results ray tracing stainless, chrome and other shiny metals. It seems the higher I set the indirect photons (I'm using X4 set at 100x100) the less 'fairy dust' I get --in fact almost none. The attached traces are set at 25 passes on High Quality ray traces and the final gathering is only at 9. Caustic photons at zero. I turned up the interior ambient light a bit from the default. I've found the materials look absolutely nothing like the ray trace when looking at them in render view. The shiny metals are nearly black and the ray trace setting is for 'predetermined metals'. The defuse setting for the quartz counter material was reduced to about 70 percent because it looked bleached out when ray traced. I've also found that I prefer to leave tone mapping on as colors tend to look too harsh without it --others may prefer a sharper image by turning off tone mapping. Anyhow, I'm very please with these results that took under three hours each to ray trace.... that's got to be a record!

[David J. Potter]

Pam, they both look great, thanks for sharing your hard won expertise!

DJP

[pamdesigns]

Thanks David! I've been struggling with this 'stainless' thing for months. Drives me nuts to know the fix was so simple!

[Chiefer]

Nice.

Really have to demo x5 ray tracer, you don't have to worry about final gather, indirect photons etc...render time is faster too. you can generate similar results in half an hour or less.

[pamdesigns]

Thanks Jintu! I'll likely upgrade when X6 comes out along with a new computer that can handle it better. Any suggestions? Is your system custom made?

[Chiefer]

You can renew your SSA now, costs less than wait for x6? A friend helped assemble my system, custom made I guess.

[pamdesigns]

When I first created this thread, I thought I'd found a solution to an issue that has been frustrating me in ray tracing with Chief since I began using the software many years ago. Sadly, it was not to be. This current project that is a kitchen with lots of stainless steel has issues with light dots (fairy dust or whatever you want to call it) no matter how I adjust the settings in terms of increasing the passes, photon gathering, or increasing indirect photons to the maximum or adjusting the ambient lighting for the room or the number and intensity of light fixtures. I've tried everything and the problem still persists. The attached drawing is one that I'm currently working on. I'll have to clean it up with Photoshop. I'm not going to upgrade from X4 until I'm confident that Phoebe has been fixed.

[Chiefer]

Can you email the plan so I can test it in x5?

jintu.designs@gmail.com Thanks.

[Chiefer]

A 4-minute x5 raytrace.

[dgavin]

Pam - what are the settings for your under cabinet light? I really like how it looks.

[pamdesigns]

Hi Dennis, they are spot light under-cabinet pucks at 75 watts. The cut-off angle is 160 degrees and the drop-off rate is 10.

[dgavin]

Thanks Pam. I often play and use similar settings but your seemed to look particularly good!
I may need to increase my drop off rate.

Thanks,

[Ron Ravenscroft]

I think I finally figured out settings to get decent results ray tracing stainless, chrome and other shiny metals. It seems the higher I set the indirect photons (I'm using X4 set at 100x100) the less 'fairy dust' I get --in fact almost none. The attached traces are set at 25 passes on High Quality ray traces and the final gathering is only at 9. Caustic photons at zero. I turned up the interior ambient light a bit from the default. I've found the materials look absolutely nothing like the ray trace when looking at them in render view. The shiny metals are nearly black and the ray trace setting is for 'predetermined metals'. The defuse setting for the quartz counter material was reduced to about 70 percent because it looked bleached out when ray traced. I've also found that I prefer to leave tone mapping on as colors tend to look too harsh without it --others may prefer a sharper image by turning off tone mapping. Anyhow, I'm very please with these results that took under three hours each to ray trace.... that's got to be a record!

**** your good. very nice

[Adrean]

Hi Pam,

I've found that in X5, the new progressive ray tracer helps a lot with the fairy dust... you can just start your Ray Trace and let it run until it goes away...

You can test this on your plan if you would like by downloading the Trial Version and running the Ray Tracer... you just won't be able to save the results.

[Chiefer]

Pam,

Adrean is correct, X5 has eliminated the long wait to get decent results - no matter how many lights, 3d plants etc. you have. Try it. Your 2-hour ray traces can be over with in minutes.