I have been using the Vue 5 radiosity engine to create some very nice indoor renders, but the ceilings always come out a splotchy disaster, that look like someone watercolored it with a broad brush. They are covered with light and dark blotches, and any bump map is entirely absent from view. I have cranked the quality up to 100%, without much improvement.

If a poser character's head is anywhere near the ceiling, his face will be covered by the blothes as well. Not very pretty.

I am rendering a very dark space, so I have turned up the radiosity gain to near .7-1.0, brightness to .5-.8 and the overall scene exposure to +.2-+.3.

Any suggestions for toning down the blotchies and seeing my bumps, or is this a built-in limitation of the radiosity engine.

You may want to try one or more of the following techniques to clear up some of the blotches:

1. Render with higher quality user-settings.
2. Add more lights to the scene.
3. Increase the ambient portion of the light in the scene.

For the bumps to appear, try adding some oblique-angled lights aimed at your intended bump-source.

Atmo > light > quality boost +4.

I tried Phoul's reccommended fix, but the blotches remain and the bump is barely discernible (see attached). That ceiling should be as textured as the back and left walls.

Adding more lights is a poor option, since this would upset the realism I am trying to achieve in this dark temple. Maybe some very weak lights...?

I spent the better part of four days trying to get rid of blotches in an indoor scene I was doing. I finally gave up and turned to GI. Later, I thought, well, adding more lights would add more light samples, and perhaps smooth out the rough light sampling. It's just a theory. However, I did see some improvements when I used custom user-settings over ultra.

Adding extra directional lights did not work, nor did bumping up the quality boost bring out the bumps, though it did smooth out the blotches. The only thing that worked was a workaround in which a mixed the color material with the bump material to bring out the contrast. Came out decent.