[Josephus Holt]

This is my first serious work with Maxwell, and as you can see I've got some serious problems that I need help with. No materials assigned yet, just the model (this is a remodel of a kitchen for a client in California) and the lighting...which is where I'm asking for help.

After 10 hours...SL 20.50...extremely noisy, I don't think this will clean up even with SL 25.

[URL=http://img24.imageshack.us/my.php? ... .jpg[/img]

Here is my current setup:
1. Glass in windows and cabinets is AGS.
2. Glass sconces and pendant lights are MXM opaline glass (downloaded from MXM site).
3. Physical sky and sun...I'm happy with it.
4. Recessed cans: a triangle-emitter inside a cylindrical hole in the ceiling. Not sure if I have time to deal with this at this point, but this will need a lot more attention as there is a lot of form and dark/light variations in a real recessed "can" light...all is washed out here.
5. Pendant lights over the islands: the lamp is a sphere with an emitter assigned....lot of geometry here...maybe should be a triangle-emitter? Lot of noise from these.
6. Wall sconces in the back part: same as the pendant lights...sphere inside with emitter assigned. Also assigned an emitter (C4D tag) to the glass part of the fixture to emit light...so a LOT of emitter geometry here. Would really appreciate some guidance on how best to do a light fixture that has a luminous translucent glass shade.
7. Sconces at range hood: sphere with emitter assigned...since there is no shade, I can't think of a way to avoid doing it this way...perhaps someone has a better approach. I'm happy with the way those lights look.
8. Undercabinet lights are a 4-edge poly with emitter assigned..those work well...other than I need to hide the light source.

I"m thinking that #5 and #6 are the two main culprits as far as the noise is concerned...would it be a better way to go to put the emitter inside the MXM material of the opaline glass, rather than assign a emitter (C4D tag) to the object (I have no idea without spending a lot of time testing this out which is a better Maxwell approach....maybe someone knows and save me a lot of time?).

Thank you in advance.

[Mihai]

You would decrease the noise a lot by just assigning an emitter component to your glass material and not also have an emitter sphere because all the light it casts through the glass will be caustic light. I'm not sure how much you would see of the shading in the ceiling lights, it would depend a lot on your camera exposure. But an emitter component assigned to the glass geometry would work best and get rid of that noise.

[Bubbaloo]

Mihai's right. All of those little "specks" of light you see are from light travelling through glass at your fixtures.

[rusteberg]

that scene is on the road to becoming sexy. (once you fix your light lice). forget opaline glass. you need SSS.....LOTS OF SSS! every material needs a SSS layer. some two..... make that three with a coating.

[Josephus Holt]

Mihai/Bubbaloo...thx much for your feedback...below is updated version, as you can see it is much improved as far as the noise is concerned...still have some opaline glass in the light fixtures...next iteration I'll replace ALL glass with some form of AGS glass...doesn't seem to gain anything at all to use glass with real physical properties in a scene like this. Wonder if MWRender2.0 will handle caustic light better...seems to be its Achilles' Heel in scenes like this.

Rusteberg...thank you for that insight....it's the "sexy" feel that will appeal much to this client I might go one more time with this non-material-lights-only iteration...no "real" glass at all, add some subtle touches to the light fixtures and recessed can lights. After that will be time to apply the materials....I'll check out your recommendation for lots of SSS in those materials....thanks for that "heads up".


[/url]

[Bubbaloo]

Much better! Don't take Mr. Rusteberg's advice... he was trying to sabotage your rendering!

[Mihai]

The lamp shades should look almost white for the amount of light they cast into the scene. It wouldn't matter in such cases if you use an emitter inside a glass shade because the glass itself will look mostly white in the photo. So you can apply an emitter component to the glass just in case you want to make a multi light animation and switch the emitters off, in which case the glass material will show up. So you don't have to use AGS for the lampshades, you can make a real glass material and just add an emitter component to them.

[Josephus Holt]

Strange black spots.

Any thoughts on what caused that?

I'm sure it has to do with my home-made glass material for the pendant lights...wanted to try something more "glassy" with some color. I started with a AGS MXM, added some color to the reflective layer, added a coating (my guess this is where the culprit lies) and an emitter with very low output.

[URL=http://img22.imageshack.us/my.php? ... .jpg[/img]

I'm not sure I like the pendant light output better, but was a good experiment. Overall satisfied with the lighting for the time being...need to assign some materials.[/url]

[Bubbaloo]

Do you have any SSS in your materials? That's usually the cause of black spots. SSS materials must be applied only to closed meshes.

[Josephus Holt]

no SSS...it has to be somewhere in the pendant light glass. This is what I've got in that MXM:

Emitter

Refractive 20% BSDF Refl 0: 0,0,0 (preset), Refl 90: 0,0,0 (preset), Transmittance: 255, 255, 255 attentuation 1mm, Nd 1.0

Relective 50% Coating Refl 0 236195,155, Refl 90 RGB 255, Nd 20.00
BSDF Refl 0 202,177,141, Refl 90 228,216,188, Transmittance 0,0,0, Attentuation 1mm, Nd 3.00

(Update: Running another one (same scene, different view) without the coating but still have the black spots).

[Josephus Holt]

With materials assigned...SL 22 after 22 hrs. Still a little grainy, but at this point I'm ok with that...maybe not next month

Overall satisfied enough to keep going

[Bubbaloo]

This is turning out very nicely!

[Josephus Holt]

thank you Brian...it's been a long road for me...but starting to pay off. Between Maxwell and VRay I've probably given up over a hundred times I'll add some "life stuff" later on...but for now the client is very happy and will send me a check

question...I got a benchmark of 108 on this render, on a machine that gets a 1374.30 benchmark with the benchwell test. What should/can that tell me?

[Bubbaloo]

B.M. of 100 is good for a complex scene on my dual quad. It's really due to scene complexity, displacement, sss, etc.

[Tora_2097]

yeah, me too. BM around of 100 on my 8core is my usual aim.

Ben