Portals that behave like lights

[lupaz]

Hi there.

As it is now, Corona's portals introduce more noise than regular lights. And I was wondering why?
Could we have portals that gather the average of light behind them and cast it just like a light, also blocking any other light by treating the portal geometry as opaque for other light sources?

In a common case:
I have a medium size window. If I put a rectangular light mimicking the skylight I get almost no noise. If instead I use a Corona sun with corona sky, or an HDRI, I get tons of noise. Even when adding a portal to the window, the noise is very noticeable.
So could we have a portal that just gathers the average intensity and color of the light behind it, and casts it forward like a regular light?


Thanks.

[maru]

As it is now, Corona's portals introduce more noise than regular lights.

What? Where?

Could we have portals that gather the average of light behind them and cast it just like a light, also blocking any other light by treating the portal geometry as opaque for other light sources?

I don't think this would be ever possible. That's not how portals are supposed to work.
What if there was a tree behind the window, which would cast shadows into the room, through a portal?

In a common case:
I have a medium size window. If I put a rectangular light mimicking the skylight I get almost no noise. If instead I use a Corona sun with corona sky, or an HDRI, I get tons of noise. Even when adding a portal to the window, the noise is very noticeable.
So could we have a portal that just gathers the average intensity and color of the light behind it, and casts it forward like a regular light?

We should have improvements in this scenario soon - "adaptive enviro light sampling" - https://trello.com/b/EfPE4kPx/corona-road-map-3ds-max

[lupaz]

What if there was a tree behind the window, which would cast shadows into the room, through a portal?

In that case you wouldn't be able to use this type of portal.
But in any other case (I believe the majority of the cases), you would have a tool to keep the general diffuse lighting with the same color and intensity as without a portal, and have a speedy rendering.

It could also be opaque for all lights with the exception of the lights in a list. You can choose to let direct sunlight through for example, casting the shadow of that tree.

Yes, it's a very biased way of rendering. But better than having to place lights manually on the windows and having to guess the average ambient color.

We should have improvements in this scenario soon - "adaptive enviro light sampling" - https://trello.com/b/EfPE4kPx/corona-road-map-3ds-max

Awesome! :)