OTOY Forums

Hi everyone,

I've been curious for quite some time as to what the exact differences are between the PMC and Pathtracing Kernel, as they both produce very very similar results. After searching the Beta 2.57 user manual and these forums, I have found no thorough explanation of the difference between the two Kernels. The best comment on PMC I found on these forums was this...

t_3 wrote:pmc = p_athtracing with m_onte c_arlo ray distribution; so pretty much the same, but faster converging noise in many (though not all) situations...

...t_3's response is somewhat helpful, but I'm still looking for a clearer explanation. From my own experience the only relevant difference I have noticed is that PMC takes longer on my computer... (GTX560)

Would someone who is knowledgeable of both Kernels please explain the main differences between the two, and perhaps suggest which is generally better to use?

I wouln't give a technical answer, but a one example from real life.

Everything depends on scene and materials & lighting. From my own observation one kernel is working better for plain material, & other one for glossy materials.

If You want to get the best of the them - try them as different scenarios will lead to different results =) search around for thread in this forums, it has been talked sometime before and there are really nice thoughts users and from developers about difference of these two. just.. Take a big cup of coffee and look around, it's a lot of good info here.

glimpse wrote: search around for thread in this forums, it has been talked sometime before and there are really nice thoughts users and from developers about difference of these two. just.. Take a big cup of coffee and look around, it's a lot of good info here.

Thanks I'll do some more searching.

...Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

for my experience Vray-rt and iray produce the best pathtracing for indoor and outdoor scenes fireflies free.

Octane generates too much fireflies impossible to delete them with filters. This happen only if you use a lot of specular materials and tiny light sources. If you use HDR and large light panels then you will get sharp and noiseless renders.

The best method is to use PMC, less fireflies, realistic caustics, spending 2x the rendering time.