Pepe's Hangout - a test

Daz 4.14 Iray render comparison of different lighting environments.

Machine specifications:

Gpu - Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER Founders Edition

CPU - Ryzen 3 3200G

16GB RAM

Render Progressive Settings:

Render Quality 5

Rendering Converged Ratio 99%

All other render settings default values.

No Post-Processing on any render other than title and copyright info.

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Results:

Test 1

Daz default lighting environment (Environment Map: Ruins)

...

2021-01-02 02:29:32.866 Total Rendering Time: 1 hours 9 minutes 44.45 seconds

Test 2

Iray Outdoor Environments (Environment Map: MauiA)

...

2021-01-02 04:37:35.710 Total Rendering Time: 44 minutes 15.98 seconds

Test 3

Ocean HDRIs (Environment Map: Blue Sky) with Sun Grabber (sun luminance 125,000 kcd/m^2, temperature 4500)

...

2021-01-02 13:03:18.672 Total Rendering Time: 57 minutes 1.13 seconds

Test 4

Iray Outdoor Environments (Environment Map: MauiA) with Sun Grabber, settings as in Test 3.

...

2021-01-02 14:24:57.622 Total Rendering Time: 43 minutes 2.26 seconds

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My Evaluation

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In my opinion, Test 4 is the best result.  Also you might notice that the render time was the fastest of the four by just over a minute.  The MauiA environment map is an outstanding HDR, having been professionally shot on location with the right equipment by someone who is knowledgeable about their craft.  It yields rich skin tones on the character and gives decent all-around lighting to the subject.  However as you can see in Test 2, the MauiA map left some noise in the image even at a render quality of 5 and a converged ratio of 99% (this is particularly noticeable on the palm tree trunk over Addie's right shoulder). As I have maintained, an HDR needs to have at least one independent light source to give utility and depth to the lighting and to help reduce noise.  This is what I designed the Sun Grabber to do.  I think accomplishes this task easily and well. Note that I get similarly improved results with any environment map using the Sun Grabber.  

4.14 has a couple of weirdnessnes that aren't part of the scope of this test, however, it is very convenient to have the environment and tone mapping settings available in the Scene Tab. 

Hopefully you all find this somewhat informative.

Enjoy!

Causam

January 2nd, 2021