Smart Sampling Makes its Way Into the Dome Light and Image-Based Lighting

The Chaos Group’s adaptive lights algorithm learns about the scene, analyzing light cache data to decide which lights to sample and which to ignore. A technology that can make rendering faster by fusing a bit of machine learning into V-Ray. One area where adaptive lighting can make a huge difference is with image-based lighting and the Dome Light.

The Dome Light and image-based lighting require a high degree of samples, especially for interior scenes — So it would seem a natural area to extend smart sampling. “We built a smarter dome light based on a similar concept as Adaptive Lights,” Christopher Nichols, Director of Chaos Group Labs says. “Now, the new Adaptive Dome Light uses the Light Cache calculation phase to learn which parts of the light are most likely to affect the scene.”

Artists see more and more AI and machine learning brought into rendering, from noise reduction to Variance Based Adaptive Sampling. V-Ray and other renders are seeing speed increases as a result. Early tests have seen speed increases from 10% up to 700%, depending on the complexity of the scene, contrast level of the HDRI, and other factors.

When can we start using the new Dome technology? V-Ray 3.x for 3ds Max customers can register for the V-Ray Next Beta to try out the Adaptive Dome-Light.

Adaptive Light for the dome is a work in progress so for now; it is only available for CPU rendering. GPU is in the works though. Visit the Chaos Group’s Post detailing the net addition: V-Ray first look: smarter rendering with the new adaptive dome light.