One more test I wanted to make.
This test isn't directly related to tone mapping, but I think that tone mapping is affected by it.
For this test I'm using path tracing for secondary bounces. The images have no saturation. I did try to match contrast and exposure slightly (without going crazy about it). No bloom, no DOF.
I notice a couple of things that I think are helping Fstorm almost unwantedly:
1- The energy of bounced light is much less in Fstorm. It makes it look more 3D-like, but it separates colors from surface to surface and adds deeper clarity to corners and small cracks or spaces.
I really wish there was a setting in corona to lower this energy that worked better than Max Sample Intensity. A while ago I started this thread about this issue:
https://forum.corona-renderer.com/index.php?topic=23129.msg164407#msg164407I also think this is the reason why nobody in this thread is talking about exterior renderings: because secondary bounces don't play such an important role in exteriors. If the issue with corona was exclusively tone mapping, why nobody is talking about exterior renderings?
Note: I don't think this is necessarily an issue. Corona looks great, but it seems that the trend in photos and renderings is this one: one where every surface is very separate from each other clearly.
2- Corona applies blur to all textures by default. Fstorm doesn't even have blur in their material AFAIK.
Why? Why blur by default?
The only reason I don't remove it is because Corona's bump mapping doesn't work without blur.
3- And one more thing. This is a question:
Does anyone know what this does exactly?