[Solved] Devel/Debug Settings

[melviso]

I am finding the default settings for Corona a little off so I am looking into tweaking it further for what I am trying to do. Unfortunately, the settings/parameters of the devel/debug don't give a description or tip of how they work when a mouse is hovered over them like the production settings. I am interested in the devel/debug settings for Corona A6.

Is there anywhere where one can get the description of the parameters?

[FrostKiwi]

I am finding the default settings for Corona a little off so I am looking into tweaking it further for what I am trying to do. Unfortunately, the settings/parameters of the devel/debug don't give a description or tip of how they work when a mouse is hovered over them like the production settings. I am interested in the devel/debug settings for Corona A6.

Is there anywhere where one can get the description of the parameters?

Since 1.4 any change is a Bad one.
For A6 back when there was no adaptivity, you could balance AAvsGI to favor a site, lower MSI to combat fireflies and switch to the appropriate HDCache mode, when it was still being used.

Anyhow, devel/debug settings make no sense in being touched, unless you count using the low quality flag from Embree, which results in light leakage on thin geometry.

You will barely find enough info, unless the devs give you some.
The functionality of Multy importance sampling vs material sampling, amount of portal cast Rays,  etc. Have all been found to be perfect in how they interact the one Values you should touch if you want to optimize.
These are aa vs GI and so on.

[romullus]

I am finding the default settings for Corona a little off [..]

If you don't know what those settings mean, how you are so confident that those settings are bad? o_O

[melviso]

If you don't know what those settings mean, how you are so confident that those settings are bad? o_O

I never said they were bad. The default settings work excellently in most scene conditions. I should have been more specific.This is what I am experimenting with. In the wip corona render, I don't get much indirect illumination from the sunlight (corona sun with daylight system) that hits the wall. The intensity of light should be enough to illuminate the interior to create quite sharp dark shadows. Right now, the shadows look too soft and the row shelves furthest away from the light by the wall should have darker shadow contrast. I have added a photo reference of my experiment. Is there anyway to achieve this. I kinda boiled this down to corona default settings. Maybe tweaking the settings might give me the results.I have a workaround for this but if later I decide to change the lighting or render a different time of day, it would be time consuming.

@SairesArt
Appreciate the info, mate. I did try tweaking some of them. Didn't see any changes.

[PROH]

Hi melviso. Looking at your reference photo, I would say that your model is about 40-50% to wide, and a bit to deep. If your trying to get the light "reacting" like on your reference photo, then I think you should do a bit more modeling and texturing before starting tweaking the dev. parameters.

Just my 2cent :)

[melviso]

Hi PROH, nah I tried that. The problem is still there. It doesn't have to do with size of the box. Notice how dark the shadow the slanted box creates on the wall. In real life, the further away an object is from the light source, the darker the shadow and higher the shadow contrast it will cast on anything behind it compared to an object closer to the light.

The shelves are still not casting shadows even with a smaller box. I increased the sun intensity here.

[romullus]

Most of the shadow richness difference comes from different tonemapping and shadows softness mismatch almost certainly comes from different scale and or scene setup. I don't think that single setting in devel/debug rollout is responsible for result that you get. You should start from trying to recreate scene and lighting as close as you can and end up in doing best possible job in post processing stage. And leave debug rollout as it is.

[PROH]

On your last picture the shelves are still to far away (the box is to deep), and besides that, there's an rooftop window above the shelves letting mostly indirect light in (on the reference photo).

[FrostKiwi]

I'd like to clarify a few things to prevent misunderstandings.
No change at all of any setting will result in a different visual. All changes will result in how fast rays are being cast. You can only optimize speed, not looks in those settings.
(Apart from MSI which will decrease caustic brightness)
You can set Embree to Low quality and Fast and you will gain 1%-2% performance, as it skips coverage tests and may result in random bright pixels.
Again all only changes how fast it is being rendered or which rays get prioritized.

Everything else:
Shadow softness
Strength of bounce lighting

Will not and cannot be affected by changing any settings values.

What will change those is:
How much energy does the material consume, is there enough ground to actually reflect indirectly, scene scale correct?, Sun or HDRI softness etc.

Lastly: certain things cannot be changed without others! Bounce strength is linked to material Diffuse and how much energy it nom noms, since everything is Physically based.

However!:
You can use the Material Rayswitcher to change those individually. To get stronger GI bounce for instance. But this is not physically correct anymore.

Link to faking GI:
https://coronarenderer.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/5000529341-what-is-rayswitch-material-map-

[melviso]

Most of the shadow richness difference comes from different tonemapping and shadows softness mismatch almost certainly comes from different scale and or scene setup. I don't think that single setting in devel/debug rollout is responsible for result that you get. You should start from trying to recreate scene and lighting as close as you can and end up in doing best possible job in post processing stage. And leave debug rollout as it is.

Scene is set using real world measurements. Cgart has always needed some form of the 'human touch'. The renderer can only do its best and u take it from there. Will leave the debug rollout as it is. Thanks for the info.

Everything else:
Shadow softness
Strength of bounce lighting

Will not and cannot be affected by changing any settings values.

Noted. Thanks for the clarification. I am aware of the rayswitch material/map as well. :)

[lacilaci]

I noticed this very recently. I found it very hard to get sharp shadows from bounced sunlight. Increasing intensity didnt help. Vray did work as expected.

Mostly not a problem for me, but i found bounce light strange in corona