How to fix jagged lines

[fjolivette]

Hello to all, I'm having some issues with obtaining straight, crisp lines in my renderings. I used Photon Map #9 for the attached renderings, some of which had rendering times of more than 48 hrs or longer. I'm not sure if my problem is the rendering setting I choose or if it's the light sources in my model. I have a few light sources with (ies) properties, a few fake emitter sources, nothing out of the ordinary I know that have a few lights I need adjust the power on such as the ceiling mounted 2x2 fixtures located under the2nd floor gym area. I guess my question is what would be the best Rendering Setting for a model such as this with lots of textures and lighting properties to achieve portfolio worthy images. Time isn't much of an issue at this point. I had a 75K sq. ft spa for Senior Design which is over now, thank God, but I'm going back through the model with the hopes of fine tuning some stuff. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance...

[Fletch]

This looks like a great project.
Definitely use Easy 09 Interior Progressive. After 60 passes on a corei7 like yours it will be great. After 120 passes it will not get much clearer.
If you are in a hurry - Low+ It's actually a quite well-balanced setting. Some fuzzy/soft reflections/shadows may not look great.

The jagged edges are because you have stopped the render before it was complete. The manual gives good tips about which render setting to try.
See also this thread about the best render setting to use.

Basically, easiest most worry free settings are: daylight exteriors: Easy 08, interiors or dark exteriors Easy 09, difficult technical lighting scenes: Easy 10.

[Gaieus]

I actually use Easy > Low+ the most (I rarely have fancy caustics and such in my project).
However always take into consideration, that - as Fletch says - you need to wait till AA is finished. There is no "half finished" AA so no point turning rendering off while it is running.

Also, sometimes (depending on texture for instance) it may even take longer than the rendering part itself so be patient.

[fjolivette]

Thanks for the info...I used easy #5 to produce the pics attached. Allowing the rendering to finish fixed the choppy lines. Constructive criticism to improve the renderings is welcomed by all means.

[Fletch]

They are beautiful! Great work!
Seriously... use Easy 09! It will render faster. In 3-6 hours you should have a great rendering.

[fjolivette]

Thanks for all your help Fletch and others...I took your advice and rendered one of the scenes with Easy #9 this weekend. However, there seems to be some vast differences in color rendition between the two rendering settings. The pic rendered with "Easy #6" the lighting is a lot softer and the shadows and color seems to be a lot richer than the pic rendered with "Easy #9". I didn't change any of the lighting properties between the two renderings, therefore, I don't really understand why there are such vast differences. I did use PS to touch-up the pic rendered with Easy #6 a little. Did I miss setting something within the rendering settings or is this just the way Easy #9 renders? Thanks for your help again.

[Fletch]

I find myself, with Easy 09 setting Gamma to .85 or .90 in the Camera tab of the Render Dialog. It varies in nearly every scene. Exposure also is very important.

Easy 09 calculates something like 100 bounces of light for each pixel. Easy 07 calculates 6 or 7. So the fact that the lighting results are different is not surprising.
If they were the same results, why even have 2 different settings?

That's a good question- why have 2 settings? If the scene you are showing renders faster with Easy 09, why have Easy 07?
Because each scene is different... and may have different results. The generalization to go by would be that scenes with fewer lights render faster with Easy 01-07. Scenes with lots of lights will render faster with Easy 09. But it's just a generalization.

[SpookyChick]

FWIW, you might want to use fredo6's round corners plugin in sketchup(available at the sketchucation plugins forum). Some of the scenes have razor sharp lines on the corners / edges of walls, and other items. That can detract from the realism, in some cases. It adds to the polycount, but not too badly, as long as you are selective about the edges and corners you round.
Other than that recommendation, all I have to say is beautiful work!

Cathryn