Looks like I have to be up again in three hours as well.

I did some more skin shader tweaking. I was pretty happy with the new more subtle AO, but something about the sss still bothered me. It seemed too heavy in places. I did some more refinements to the parts that deal with conservation of energy - treating the arriving light in layers. I set up an energy model, where each interaction consumes some of the energy, leaving less for the next interaction. So first is specular reflection. Then comes diffuse. Whatever is left, SSS gets to use. This approach guarantees a balance. It is no longer possible to set up the parameters in such a way that something impossible happens.

I also added another calculation that harkens back to one of my very first postings here at rendo. When skin is facing sideways with respect to the camera, the epidermis effectively becomes thicker, and you see less SSS. Most people would never notice this, and maybe I was wasting time implementing it, but whatever.

So here is another comparison. First a PR2 render.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)