Noob question - emissive material vs octane lights

[Jorgensen]

Hi

I wonder what is the pros and cons using emissive vs. octane lights?

When should one use the diffent way of lightning? - or combine them?

Thanks
Bo Jorgensen

[LudovicRouy]

somebody else have made a comparsion of speed in this order (don't remember where I read it)

fastest : daylight, then HDRI, Lights, and finaly emissive material are the slowest

[LudovicRouy]

But you can make a fake sun and combine it with HDRI:

Just place this light far away from your object then increase power and efficiency and decrease size to get more sharp shadows.

[Jorgensen]

Hi

So it's primarily time.

Thanks to you both.

Jorgensen

[profbetis]

Actually there is one reason I would suggest using emissive materials over a light, and that is because you can change/alter the lights from the material editor. Normally this wont change much but I worked on a project where I needed hundreds of lights, some unique, and adjusting them was a huge PITA (because you can't edit multiple lights simultaneously, assuming you're using the 3DS Max plugin?)