LED Strip and noise levels

[Jpjapers]

Im working on a project that features hundreds of meters of LED Strips all of which are curved as they are around the outside edge of a racetrack. The only way i can currently achieve this is with a light material. However the light material warns users against using it as a main scene light source. The scene has dozens of overhead corona lights but The scene is also heavily influenced by the light from these led strips and is of course super noisy because of this.

Is there a better way of doing this?

[TomG]

Scatter actual lights along a spline? Also the Light Material should be fine used as a main light source, it's Self Illumination in a Physical Material that shouldn't be used as main lighting. In fact Light Material performs the same as an actual light of that shape, except in the case of spheres as the Spherical Light is a mathematically perfect sphere so can be calculated faster.

[maru]

However the light material warns users against using it as a main scene light source.

That's not true. Self-illumination in a Corona Physical / Legacy material has this warning.
Actually:
- if the LEDs are just going to "glow" as in "appear as something bright" then you can use self-illumination
- if the LEDs are going to illuminate scene objects with strong light, then LightMtl or Corona Lights are the way to go

[Jpjapers]

Hmm ok my mistake. My second question then would be whether there are any under the hood changes that could help with the noise in this setup?

[maru]

Depends where the noise is coming from. Is it from direct lighting? Or some bounced light? Maybe there is a reflective surface somewhere close to the lights?

[Jpjapers]

Depends where the noise is coming from. Is it from direct lighting? Or some bounced light? Maybe there is a reflective surface somewhere close to the lights?

The noise is coming directly from the LED light. The reflection on the floor is very noisy. The floor has some high frequency detail in the bump but isnt very glossy.
After 100 passes the noise is still prevalent sitting at around 12% in the VFB.