[mcgranahan]

Any apologies if there is a post specifically about this topic, if so then just point me in the right direction please.

I am having difficulty understanding the correct process to utilize multilight while I am running a cooperative network render. At the moment the only I am able to effect light intensity is to plan ahead with a light's power within the MXS file or adjust light intensities through Maxwell Render after the render job has completed, which adds graininess back into my image. I know this has to be the wrong way of doing it, so...

If I run a cooperative network render job with (4) render nodes and have set multilight to "intensity" and "composite" then where or how do I open the MXI file to adjust lighting? Do I open the shared MXI file, adjust lighting and resave the MXI file? Within the Monitor I can right-click the preview and adjust light intensity, but it does not appear to effect the composite image.

What is the difference between "composite" and "separate" settings? If multilight is set to "separate" do I have to go to temp MXI files of each node and adjust lighting and resave a temp MXI file?

Other posts talk about running multilight, so it seems possible. I am just missing a key piece of information. Any help would be appreciative.


Thanks.

[brodie_geers]

Composite vs. Separate refers to the images files that are exported. If you chose composite and have your export images to .exr or .tif each light will have it's own layer in Photoshop. Separate will generate a separate image for each light source.

The way you're doing it doesn't sound wrong. There's nothing really magical about a coop render vs. a normal render in this regard. ML can only be altered in Maxwell Render via the MXI output. I see no reason this would add grain to the image (at least no more than if you output those same settings originally with or without ML on). Put another way, if you render a bulb at 50 watts and later crank it up to 200 watts you should have the exact same effect as if you'd originally rendered it at 200 watts. If you're getting extra grain there's probably something else going on.

Note that you can also use the preview option in the Monitor and right click the preview which will give you the option of opening the preview in Maxwell render.

-Brodie

[mcgranahan]

Brodie,

Thanks for the information. If I understand you correctly, there is no way to adjust light intensities on the fly through Multilight within a network render as one might adjust light intensities on the fly within stand-alone Render? Adjusting light intensities does not have an effect on graininess. The graininess is inherent within the image, relative to material complexity and SL, and adjusting ISO, shutter and light intensities has no effect on it. If I bump light levels up and see graininess then it was already present. I just couldn't see it.

If I have to adjust light intensities after network rendering does it make a difference if I adjust lights through the MXI, adjusting and resaving an image or to open in Photoshop and use the Multilight plug-in?

[brodie_geers]

I think you've hit it on the head. It can be a bother to adjust the settings to the same set all the time. There is a bit of a shortcut to that which is to save your Emixxer data. At least that will save you from having to adjust each slider by hand every time you want to check the progress of your render since you can just load your emixxer file and it'll set the sliders for you.

There is a difference between MXI and Photoshop. Working in Maxwell gives you better quality for a much wider range. If your going from 20 watts to 800 watts MXI is the only way to fly. So I'd get it at least looking close in the MXI and save it. Then bring that MXI into PS. You can still make some surprisingly large swings in intensity (and even color) with strikingly good results if you import it at 32 bits. As you move down into 16 or 8 bit you could still make adjustments but they should be progressively more refined as you'll begin to degrade the quality.

-Brodie