Question for Chipp Walters, I'm attempting to render this scene from a side view looking into the covered porch area. I've been experimenting with using your Interior Pak atmosphere and settings. Do you think I may be barking up the wrong tree here? Is this covered area not enough of a closed space to work with those settings?

Just a covered porch area does not always need Radiosity.  I'd try a Specrtral atmosphere with Global Illumination first and adjust the light balance and sky dome lighting gain.  It will render much quicker. 

And Chipp's pack is meant for indoor renders, his settings may not be suitable for outdoor renders. To be honest, I rarely use radiosity for outdoor renders, global illumination or ambient occlusion can do a better job.

 metabog,

Nice model. With so much light already available, you may get away with GI, but Radiosity, IMO, is your best bet for an interior rendering like this.

Here's a quick render I created based on your scene. It's rendered in 'Final' quality for speed purposes, but you should probably render it with a higher quality when you have time.

If you want to use the sun and it's shadows as the primary light source, then try these settings:

Start off with the New Orleans atmosphere. It's a standard atmosphere and as such will render faster than a spectral atmosphere-- and you probably don't need the spectral atmosphere effects with a close up render (unless you're planning on showing a lot of the sky).

Adjust your sun direction so your shadows fall where you want them. I also added a bit of softness to the sun light (5 degrees). Then use these atmosphere settings:

best,

Chipp

Thanks!

Chipp thanks for your advice this does seem to be working well as a foundation - I'll tweak and play with the settings to see where it goes.

Peggy and Bruno - I'll also try your approaches and see what I come up with.

I love the look of Radiosity, but rarely use it since it renders so slow. 

That may change since I got a new spiffy super computer at work  :thumbupboth: