Render (lighting) is quite different from preview window

[mrwho]

The preview window:

http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/3039/scrbd30694ci6.jpg

And the resulting render:

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7740/scrbdaccc0yq1.jpg

GI was at 1, quality at .375
Is this a glitch, or normal? I would really like to have the render look like the preview window, the lighting sucks in the render.....

[bigben]

The preview looks like it only got through the 5 or 10 detail pass. Does it still look like this if you let it go to 40 or 80?? I have found that some aspects of lighting (particularly cloud shadows) are more accurate in the higher detail passes.

[mrwho]

the preview is the final version (started working on the scene, then i ate dinner so I rendered, and it finished the preview window after that)

[Oshyan]

Do you have any surface shaders or displacement on the terrain besides the initial terrain generation (heightfield or power fractal)? Are you using very small-scale displacement? I ask because it looks like it's not necessarily a lighting issue but rather that the terrain is actually black, which can occur with certain displacement-related issues, especially when using very small scale displacements.

- Oshyan

[mrwho]

i figured out the issue.......


the ;display surfaces' box was unchecked in the renderer....

[bvcastilho]

Ok the cause was found for this special rendering,

but anyway the preview window, or even a quick render with some detail
are very different from the final result when youre using complex shaders
and the whole effect you deserve (and find you have) are different in the
final render.

That occurs to me specially when using rocks on the surface. You dont know
exactly what will appear in the final render unless you do some cropped final
renders.

I understand what is behind but that is something I will be very happy to have
as improvement in TG2.

Bruno.

[ProjectX]

fractal details below 0.01 tend to cause this. Even if the smallest scale is set < 0.01.

[bigben]

Do you want a preview that is accurate and takes ages to render, or a preview that gives you a quick preview of what you're working on. Reduced detail renders are a compromise between speed and quality/detail and the more complex stuff has to lose out in this equationfor the sake of speed.  I sometimes reduce the fov of the camera or move it close to a particular feature to get a better idea in the preview, but eventually a cropped render is the only way.