2008

NOTE The “quality” refers to the accuracy of energy distribution, not to the visual
quality of the solution. Even at a high Initial Quality percentage, the scene can still
show considerable variance. This variance is resolved by the subsequent stages of
the solution.
Increasing the percentage value of Initial Quality.
Increasing quality does not greatly increase the average brightness of the scene, but
it decreases the variance between different surfaces in the scene, such as the faces of
the sphere.
Refine Iterations (All Objects) Sets the number of Refine iterations to perform
for the scene as a whole. The Refine Iterations stage increases the quality of
the radiosity processing on all objects in the scene. Gathers energy from each
face in order to reduce the variance between faces using a different process
from the Initial Quality stage. This stage does not increase the brightness of
the scene, but it improves the visual quality of the solution and significantly
reduces variance between surfaces. If you don’t reach an acceptable result after
processing a certain number of Refine iterations, you can increase the number
and continue processing.
TIP If you plan to use Regathering at render time, you generally don’t need to
perform the Refine stage to get good-quality final renderings.
6004 | Chapter 18 Rendering