In the threads I've read, GISD is not recommended at all for animation; of course these were posts prior to TG3 release. But I'm just wondering if it's beneficial to enable it now for animation. Has anyone done benchmarks? Does it drastically increase rendering time? And how do the settings work? Oshyan mentioned that they used GISD on rendering Hannes's Gorge animation (http://www.planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,16068.30.html). Did it increase rendering time? Thanks.
It increases render time on animation just the same - per frame - as it does on stills. So you can test on a still and if the increase in render time is not objectionable, then go for it. I personally will use it for all future animations, almost certainly. The typical render time increase is a few minutes on a 30+ minute render, which is just fine with me given the benefits it brings.
- Oshyan
Yes, that's not much extra time if you're using the defaults (Are you?). What does Occlusion weight refer to?
Yes, I tend to use the defaults. Occlusion Weight basically controls how much darkening occurs (how much the occlusion of light is weighted), while "Bounce to the Ounce" (hehe) controls the emphasis on light bounces, which generally results in lightening. Increasing both will exaggerate the overall GI effects (unrealistically).
- Oshyan
Interesting!
Looking forward to a lot of in-depth discussion on all of these topics after release is final. Hope to see some new stickies on new render settings (still and animation) too, when time permits.