[eric nixon]

Yeah not working here either, I remembered it wrong, The 'no tricks' setup is only working for underwater shots, sorry about that one..

Like Brian said, Tom used low-res + high-SL

[numerobis]

Like Brian said, Tom used low-res + high-SL

ok, thanks for confirmation!

and concerning the "low-res" thing... as i said above, i tried at 600px for two hours... no caustics at all - so i think this couldn't have been the setup for this "25 min"-test...

[m-Que]

Like Brian said, Tom used low-res + high-SL

Actually, no.
If you check the first image for example, you can see, the geomtery of the ball and the railing (underwater) where not distorted.

You can easily get tricked when using pure blue pool. But try using checked (black & white) tiling for example - and you'll see all the tricks and imperfections (of tricks) at once.

[Bubbaloo]

[numerobis]

yes, we all know this, brian
very nice image... but a bit more than 25 min

[Bubbaloo]

yes, we all know this, brian
very nice image... but a bit more than 25 min

Yes, just a bit.

[m-Que]

What was that again Brian? SL 33?

[zdeno]

... SL 33?

no, 33 years.

SL only at 30,48

[Bubbaloo]

It's still rendering.

[eric nixon]

I just found this;

http://www.mediafire.com/?ipms8b3oua5w11d

poolwater pdf, havent tested this though.

[m-Que]

I just found this;

http://www.mediafire.com/?ipms8b3oua5w11d

poolwater pdf, havent tested this though.

This is probably one of the oldest known tricks that has been here for years.
The funny thing is, due to a bug, it didn't work in 2.5 (I think), but as far as I remember it has been fixed now.

[eric nixon]

I cant get the thing in the pdf to work with 2.6, sorry another red-herring me thinks

[numerobis]

thanks eric! I know this one and it's still working (or again) but this one doesn't generate the water refraction.
So the best looking fake solution for me now is a two plane version with one "real" water object hidden from GI and the other one with a "caustic mask" hidden from camera and reflection/refraction.
But this doesn't produce reflected caustics i think...

[eric nixon]

My workaround is to generate a caustic render-pass with physical-sun... and it works well if the water object has some thickness like a lumpy pane of glass
See this render, I cant upload images right now, just files
http://www.mediafire.com/?eg8iegmv4fdvne1

Then composite the result.. but if you try and make a caustic emitter or caustic weight map thats not gonna work, I tried once

[numerobis]

thanks for the image. I think you can get the same in one pass if you hide the water object from the camera. But then there is no water refraction.
And to you combine two passes will not work i think because the position is not the same.