I think the firefly render engine is under-rated.

I am pretty new to this type of render, but

 

I think the refraction is pretty damn good.

 

Daffodills from Transpond

Crystal/Diamond model by John Austin  (Becco_UK)

John thank you for this great model.

It is a perfect 57 facet brilliant cut, right?

 

Four spot lights

Only one of which renders shadows (depth map)

No AO, IBL

Nodes: Reflect and Refract on GROUND

Nodes: Reflect and Refract on diamond

 

Made many lighting tests with weak settings,

then cranked everything up for this render.

 

I am highly inexperienced in raytrace render settings,

and did not really know what I was doing;

for instance, I have not the slightest idea what

"irradiance cache" is!

 

I would welcome feedback on these setting as

some may be too agressive and a waste of render

time for no gain.

 

The transparancy might be too high; don't think

you should be able to 'see through' a diamond

that clearly. Nor should the reflections be so

perfect, like a mirror, right? Or....am I wrong?

 

System:

AMD Athlon 3500+

4 Gig RAM

Twin Raptors in RAID0

Windows XP Pro

Poser7 sr1

 

RENDER TIME: 3030 seonds

 

I am rendering an animation now with these exact settings,

just to see how the sparkle goes as I move the camera.

Twelve hours from now I will only have 14 frames,

but that will still be 1/2 second of interesting viewing.

Will post tomorrow.

 

::::: Opera :::::

 

P.S. Needed: model maker to create beautiful jewelry finding

for this. Engagement Ring. Studs for earings. Please contact

me concerning paid commission to do so.