Some confusion over rendering settings

[gbambo]

If necessary, assume for all questions following that I am rendering with the Path Tracing kernel.

Elsewhere it is noted that Imager settings are ignored when using an Octane camera. That makes sense if one is referring to the imager setting in the render panel, but why are there imager settings in the Octane camera properties panel? These are always ignored?

In another post on rendering tips, the development staff advises rendering stills by rendering oversized, with reduced sampling and filtering turned off. But I do not see how to turn filtering off. Is that done by setting filter-size to 1.0?

Aperture – Aren’t aperture and f-stop synonyms? What units are being used here?

F-stop – Does this effect DOF as in a real camera? Or only when focustype = focal depth?

ISO - “Higher equals noisier.” Does it also equal brighter, reflecting the greater sensitivity of “faster” film?

DOF – This seems to be already determined by specifying Aperture/F-stop in the context of a specific camera’s FL (determined in Octane by specifying FOV). Is this an override?

Gamma – this is confusing, as there is a gamma setting in the 3ds max settings in addition to the one in the Octane settings. Are they independent or do they cumulate? And when I go to save rendered images, preserving the gamma set in the rendering settings is not one of the choices (or it is grayed). That seems counter-productive.

[Karba]

If necessary, assume for all questions following that I am rendering with the Path Tracing kernel.
Elsewhere it is noted that Imager settings are ignored when using an Octane camera. That makes sense if one is referring to the imager setting in the render panel, but why are there imager settings in the Octane camera properties panel? These are always ignored?

In case you use Octane Camera all camera and imager settings are gotten from camera object.

In another post on rendering tips, the development staff advises rendering stills by rendering oversized, with reduced sampling and filtering turned off. But I do not see how to turn filtering off. Is that done by setting filter-size to 1.0?

Aperture – Aren’t aperture and f-stop synonyms? What units are being used here?

F-stop – Does this effect DOF as in a real camera? Or only when focustype = focal depth?

ISO - “Higher equals noisier.” Does it also equal brighter, reflecting the greater sensitivity of “faster” film?

DOF – This seems to be already determined by specifying Aperture/F-stop in the context of a specific camera’s FL (determined in Octane by specifying FOV). Is this an override?

All these settings are explained in manual of standalone.
Aperture affect to DOF blur strength.
all other setting you mentioned affect only exposure.

Gamma – this is confusing, as there is a gamma setting in the 3ds max settings in addition to the one in the Octane settings. Are they independent or do they cumulate? And when I go to save rendered images, preserving the gamma set in the rendering settings is not one of the choices (or it is grayed). That seems counter-productive.

Turn off Max gamma.

[gbambo]

I checked the manual before posting.

Your clarification helps fill in the gaps in the manual.

Much appreciated!

[gbambo]

So I still do not understand how to turn-off filtering, as suggested elsewhere in the forum

The manual would benefit from clarification of the ways in which the settings do not reflect a full-blown simulation of a physical camera. For example, you stated f-stop does not affect depth of field. But, in a physical camera, this is a primary consideration in planning one's depth of field.

Thanks for the feedback!

[roeland]

The exposure, F-stop and ISO settings in the camera imager settings affect the exposure, but not the depth of field. The depth of field is given by the aperture setting in the camera setting, and is the size of the aperture opening given in centimeters.

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Roeland