What is the best way to optimise the rendering of EasyCloud clouds?
I have been working on a scene and have made some test renders which I have posted below, but I am struggling to understand how to get the best result without unnecessarily long render times.
My starting point was the recommendations in the thread
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=6442.0In the examples below all renders used the Render > Render Quality > Anti-aliasing 12, this setting was optimised for the populations of Xfrog plants.
Figures for settings in parentheses are the prior setting (to remind me what I was using previously).
Render Test 1:
[attachimg=1]
Atmosphere > Quality > Samples 64
Easy Cloud > Quality > Quality 0.75
Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail 0.8
Render time 00:04:14.
The default EasyCloud > Quality > Quality setting. The result is too noisy.
Render Test 2:
[attachimg=1]
Atmosphere > Quality > Samples 64
Easy Cloud > Quality > 1.0
Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail 0.8
Render time 00:04:59.
Little improvement after increasing the EasyCloud > Quality settings from 0.75 to 1.0. The result is too noisy.
Render Test 3:
[attachimg=3]
Atmosphere > Quality > Samples 64
Easy Cloud > Quality > 1.0
Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail 1.0
Render tie 00:06:14.
Increased the Render node Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail setting from 0.8 to 1.0
I actually made a final render with these settings at 2000 x 1000, I was unhappy with the result, there is still too much noise in the clouds.
[attach=7]
Render Test 4:
[attachimg=4]
Atmosphere > Quality > Samples 64
Easy Cloud > Quality > 2.0
Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail 1.0
Render time 00:12:13.
The render is much better, but the render time has doubled.
If the Easy Cloud > Quality setting often needs to be set to 2 to eliminate noise then perhaps the slider needs to be altered in a future update to have a wider range, currently the maximum setting is 1.
Render Test 5:
[attachimg=5]
Atmosphere > Quality > Samples 32 (64)
Easy Cloud > Quality > 2.0
Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail 1.0
Render time 00:10:59.
No change, which is not surprising, as the cloud quality is likely to be determined by the Easy Cloud Quality settings rather than the atmosphere samples.
Render Test 6:
[attachimg=6]:
Atmosphere > Quality > Samples 32
Easy Cloud > Quality > 2.0
Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail 0.8 (1.0)
Render time 00:08:23.
Decreasing the Render > Quality > Micropoly Detail made little difference, but speeded up the render.
What does the Easy Cloud > Quality > Sample jitter setting do, when might I need to change it?
What does the Easy Cloud > Quality > Smallest Scale setting do, when might I need to optimise it?