[reberts1]

Each rendering I do is different in terms of complexity and materials.
Therefore I do not really know, without periodic inspection, what SL to shoot for.

What is a good process to determine the target SL for a scene to achieve clarity?

I am also leveraging network rendering.
So if I target a specific SL, such as 20, will the clients stop when the composite reaches 20?

[Tim Ellis]

Each rendering I do is different in terms of complexity and materials.
Therefore I do not really know, without periodic inspection, what SL to shoot for.

What is a good process to determine the target SL for a scene to achieve clarity?

It depends on the scene you are rendering really. In my arch-viz renders, sl16-18 will suffice. If I'm rendering jewellery, then sl20 or higher. It depends on caustics, can be very noisy and a long time to clear, reflections & type of materials used.

I am also leveraging network rendering.
So if I target a specific SL, such as 20, will the clients stop when the composite reaches 20?

Yes, network rendering will work to a combined SL. So set to 20 and the nodes will stop and combine, when the combined sl reaches 20.

Tim.

[reberts1]

Thanks Tim.

I was thinking in terms of process, that rendering a very small image to clarity, then noting the SL, would provide a target SL for higher resolution versions.

What are your thoughts?

Sincerely,
Rick

[Mihai]

Yes that's a good way to proceed. You will get a pretty accurate idea what the SL necessary for the full size version will be. It's difficult to tell because you may have a scene with an area that takes longer to clear, for example a very reflective vase near a wall. So you'll get a lot of indirect light bouncing back and forth between the two.

[Bubbaloo]

Yes that's a good way to proceed. You will get a pretty accurate idea what the SL necessary for the full size version will be.

I will have to disagree on this one. In my experience, lower resolution images need extensively higher S.L. to clear, while high resolution renders need lower S.L. to clear to the same visual clarity.

As an example, an interior architectural rendering I have finished recently needed about S.L. 20+ to clear at 1000 pixels wide (16:9) while a 5,000 pixel wide render only needed to go to around 12 S.L.

I think it has to do with the percentage of the final image one noisy pixel "blocks out" in a low resolution render compared to a high resolution render.

One thing that might help is to do a blowup render of a slow clearing part of your render at 100% of your final render resolution. So if your final render will be 5,000 pixels, do a 10% (frame size) blowup at 1,000 pixel resolution to determine how long it will take to clear the noisiest part of your render.

[kami]

The great thing about this is: if you render an image larger than needed (to SL12) and scale it down it looks almost the same as the small image (SL20).
but in my eyes the images looks sharper, even if it is noisier in the first place.
but if you render exactly the resolution you need, you can render a crop (preferably a darker corner) to check which SL you might need.