Render errors using deep shadow map..

elhectro

Hello!
Does anybody have gotten errors when rendering with deep shadow like the one in the image I attach? I've got a lot of color points over the most detailed parts... It happens only when I use deep shadow in the lights. I use 3delight, in a windows 8 64 bit, 8 gig ram, dell laptop, i7 processor.
Thanks!

SimonJM

They are a product of a long known bug in 3Delight when Deep Shadow Maps are used. To get rid of them you can try a slight adjustment to the camera position or just a re-render. Those may fix tings. To be certain you'll have to swap to using Ray-traced shadows instead of DSM.

elhectro

Thanks a lot for your answer. I tried to do it with raytrace,but this particular scene was at 6% after 5 hours of render... I also rerendered it 3 times, and the only thing that changed are the places of the spots... It's for a graphic novel, and there are 10 images with the same forest.... it would take 1000 hours of rendering!!!! :ohh:

mjc1016

Some other things...

Change the angle of the lights, slightly.

Reduce the number of shadow casting lights to 1 and do raytraced shadows.

Change the type of lights...point to linear point (if using a new enough version of DS)...or use spots (probably even a better choice).

Check glossiness...they seem to be more prone to happen with highly glossy surfaces or advanced shaders (SSS). Most of those type effects really are designed for use of raytraced shadows, any way (advanced shaders) or look better with raytraced shadows.

One user, not that long ago reported that just changing the collisions/smoothing cleared them up for him...

But...in this case, I don't know of any easy/quick fix. It looks like you have a large amount of trans-mapped items (grass/etc), which are another probable source, several clothing items that probably have smoothing, and from the looks of the skin textures...not the basic/default shader. The only sure fix is raytraced shadows, but with the amount of trans-mapped items, the times will be astronomical...you may be able to reduce that time some by adjusting render settings and/or going with UberSurface and turning off Raytrace for grass and leaves.

JonnyRay

3Delight has also indicated you may be able to fix this by reducing the total light strength of all lights in the scene to 100% or below. If you have multiple lights (say one directional light as the "sun" and several others to simulate the sky, etc. make sure that the total strength for all of them is 100% or lower.

mjc1016

JonnyRay said:

3Delight has also indicated you may be able to fix this by reducing the total light strength of all lights in the scene to 100% or below. If you have multiple lights (say one directional light as the "sun" and several others to simulate the sky, etc. make sure that the total strength for all of them is 100% or lower.

Ah...yes...for got that one...

That may be the easiest one to try first.

Johnny...I wonder if we can get Richard or someone to make a sticky with the 'reduce deep shadowmap 'glowbug' tips'? But someone would probably need to compile a list of them first...

Richard Haseltine

I should add it to the FAQ, if the forum will let me.

JonnyRay

Richard Haseltine said:

I should add it to the FAQ, if the forum will let me.

Oh dear. If the forums won't let Richard do something, maybe we should change the banner to "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here..."

:P

Richard Haseltine

Well, that worked (if anyone feels like proofing it, last post in the FAQ, I'd appreciate it). Another post, on the other hand, took five attempts before it stopped sending me to my dashboard.

SimonJM

Richard Haseltine said:

Well, that worked (if anyone feels like proofing it, last post in the FAQ, I'd appreciate it). Another post, on the other hand, took five attempts before it stopped sending me to my dashboard.

Ooops - you have "3delught" in line one (excluding the 'header') ;)

Richard Haseltine

Fixed that, thanks.