This page provides information on the GI tab of V-Ray's Render Settings.
Overview
Global Illumination (or GI) is the illumination in a scene that effectively comes from reflected (or bounced) light as opposed to coming directly from a light source. This enables more naturalistic and accurate lighting solutions.
The indirect illumination controls in V-Ray are divided into two large sections: primary diffuse bounces and secondary diffuse bounces.
- A primary diffuse bounce occurs when a shaded point is directly visible by the camera, or through specular reflective or refractive surfaces.
- A secondary bounce occurs when a shaded point is used in GI calculations.
UI Path: ||Properties Editor|| > Render > GI tab
Global Illumination
On – Enables/disables indirect illumination.
Engine – Specifies the method to be used for the secondary diffuse bounces. This option determines the contents of the next rollout. Follow the link for each GI Engine, to see its options.
None – No secondary bounces will be computed. Use this option to produce skylit images without indirect color bleeding.
Brute force – Selects the brute force method (direct computation) for secondary diffuse bounces. See the Brute Force Engine section for more information.
Light cache – Selects the light cache method as the secondary GI engine. See the Light Cache Engine section for more information.
Caustics
Caustics is an effect that is produced when light rays are reflected or refracted by materials, producing visible light patterns. See its options on the Caustics Rollout page.
