Raise sample or resolution for better renders

[haffy]

Hi,

I am testing a bit here, I have a scene with sheats with small details in them. When I zoom in I get a perfect result, but when I zoom out like 2m I lose it all.
What is best for getting noise-free detailed images?

I have rendered the scene out with this setting:

3840x2560 px
Max samples: 50000
Diffuse depth 4
Specular depth 4
Scatter depth 2

Took about 15 hours.



And this render is rendered with these settings.

1920x1080 px (this is the target resolution)
Max samples 4096
Diffuse depth 12
Specular depth 12
Scatter depth 8




Test scene with shaderball.

This one is:

Max samples: 2048
Diffuse depth 8
Specular depth 8
Scatter depth 4



This one is:

Max samples: 2048
Diffuse depth 8
Specular depth 512
Scatter depth 4



Or is thsis "adaptive noise" green-thingie not somthing to use for see how noise free the render is?


Another test, cranked up the settings.




Questions.

How much are too many samples in both Max Samples and Diffuse/Specular/Scatter?

And shall I raise the samples in the lights too, to get better noise-free-renders?

Does Octane remove details when farther away in some way?

[haffy]

Thanks Elsksa, will sit down and read those links tonight. But I could not find anything regarding Diffuse/Specular/Scatter depth. Is that now samples, but ray depth? But should I not se much more difference between 8 and 512?

In Clarisse samples were multiplied on the value in Diffuse/Specular/Scatter, is that not the same here?

[haffy]

Yes, that is true. I was active there a couple of years ago. Very nice community and software, but too big/clunky for me as a freelancer/single-artist at this stage.

Yes, I missed it. I was in a hurry to send a scene to RNDR and just did a page search and missed the - in-between ray and depth.

So Max Samples is like AAA in Clarisse, that's nice. The more the better (or brute force) then.

Ray-depth.
If I fast render (without the lock) and raise with +1 each time, I will quickly see when enough is enough. Or do I need to render like 5000 samples at high res to see it? Yes, I can and will use the render-region tool.
That sounds about right, if so.

So in hard terms a simple scene lighted with like HDRI and backplate could only need like max.samp 2048, diffuse 4, specular 4, sss 0 (if there is none) and an indoor scene lighted through a window could need max.samp 15000, diffuse 12, specular 12, sss 0 (if there is none). About right?

Regarding your very nice manual, guide. The "GI Clamping" section seems to be missing some image or video, showing the differenses. Would love to see this, as I think I may be using this wrong too.