Pffffft! I NEVER go higher than 3/3 GI. You're a braver man than I, TU!
I really don't think it's worth it, but then, I'm only making silly little pictures for myself as a hobby, not for commercial production. I do what's required to convince, in the fastest time possible. No physicists or directors are scrutinizing my
angles of incidence, or
indexes of refraction.
This faked version is really fast to render and the scales are editable through the
'constant vector 01' node values, now set to '1'.
Higher values in this node, e.g. x=2 y=2 z=2, will make caustic pattern scaled half as large as the defaults, lower values e.g. x=0.5 y=0.5 z=0.5, make the pattern output exactly double in size. In other words, opposites.
I'm really taken with the ability that TG2 has. I couldn't get quick, procedural results like I do with TG in
any other program I own. As far as I'm concerned TG now makes Vue 6 seem like a toy. And people still moan about how TG takes 'too long to render' or is 'too buggy to use'. Pish! Give it a chance.