PMC Settings - Getting a balance between quality and speed

[buzby]

Greetings all, been reading through the posts trying to find a balance in rendering times and quality. Most of my work is done in night scenes with low level lighting so I tend to use PMC.

I have been trying to get the best out of the plug-in for C4D primarily getting Octane for the speed but am crawling through renders in PMC. It is taking 5-6 hours to render not sure why. I am attaching my render settings and wonder if anyone has suggestions that might help.

TIA Cheers

[eyeonestudio]

It's Looks like Car Wheel.
Why you use PMC? Have Glass?
Your Sample Count is 10,000....1x GTX Titan?

Try Pathtracing. I use PMC for Hyper Realistic Glass Scene or Complex Light Scene.
Think Optimal Kernel for Your Scene.

[buzby]

Yes it is a car wheel, I have set it up with a circuit board with 6 LEDs that emit light there is transparent plastic lens in the housing that the light passes through.

I was using PMC because I noticed it handles light better, seems to spread more light across the wheels which is more true to life like the real product we are displaying. Also I thought I read that there are less hotpixles with PMC

What should the sample count be if not 10,000?

Would you suggest PT to achieve the same results?

This picture is at 98 % finished and 6 hours

[inlifethrill]

Why would you even use PMC for that? By the look of it - Path Tracing or even Direct Lighting would be enough to render this in a blaze.

[eyeonestudio]

Ok.... inside LED
Look... I make simple scene. Upload for You. Point is Mix Material.

DL1 Scene is Texture Emission

Here is you want. DL2 is BlackBody Emission

DL.zip

(317.02 KiB) Downloaded 482 times

[buzby]

Why would you even use PMC for that? By the look of it - Path Tracing or even Direct Lighting would be enough to render this in a blaze.

I was saying above

I was using PMC because I noticed it handles light better, seems to spread more light across the wheels which is more true to life like the real product we are displaying. Also I thought I read that there are less hotpixles with PMC

[buzby]

Ok.... inside LED
Look... I make simple scene. Upload for You. Point is Mix Material.

DL1 Scene is Texture Emission

a.jpg

b.jpg

Here is you want. DL2 is BlackBody Emission

c.jpg

DL.zip

Thank you, very interesting suggestion. I have been playing with the scene to see what you have done, be right back

[buzby]

eyeonestudio - making a texture emission can emulate the lighting very well, and the render times excellent. however I am trying to capture the effect of the light as it spreads across the surface including object reflections.

e.g. The 1st pic below is a real photo. The light is flowing everywhere and bouncing off of objects.

If I were to use your scene and to to re-create a 3d model and render at your settings in PT I can get the render below.

If I use PMC at 1000 samples I I can get the render below. It is not near the photo but it is less grainy and in my opinion handle the spread of light better.

Lastly using your scene I up the PT to 1000 samples. Still not as good as PMC but render in half the time.

I am including the 3d file if you want to give it a try to get as close as you can to the photo.

[eyeonestudio]

Real World Light Have Very Complex Falloff. Default Area Light is Not.
If you want Real Light Simulation... You Need that LED "ies" Data File.
You can use with octane ies light.

DL4 use Pathtracing Kernel
Firefly --> Reduce GI-Clamp Value
Glow --> Use Post Processing : Bloom Power

DL4.zip

(231.32 KiB) Downloaded 422 times

If you want volume light... do not use pmc. very painful.
serch this forum. keyword "volume light".

[inlifethrill]

Why would you even use PMC for that? By the look of it - Path Tracing or even Direct Lighting would be enough to render this in a blaze.

I was saying above

I was using PMC because I noticed it handles light better, seems to spread more light across the wheels which is more true to life like the real product we are displaying. Also I thought I read that there are less hotpixles with PMC

I hear you, however "spreading more light across the wheel which is more true to life" is not a feature of PMC or of any other kernel for that matter. It's about using the proper settings, not Render Kernel. There are very few cases where you will be forced to go with PMC instead of the faster Path Tracing or Direct Lighting.. and this is not one of them. Spend some time with Path Tracing, i bet you will get where you are headed in far less time.