I am just now getting back into animating with Vue after a LONG hiatus (other than some very brief dabbling about a year ago that is), so I am admittedly a little rusty with settings, etc.  

I did a test animation (see attachment) in a GR environment where I was pretty pleased that there was virtually no noise in the render.   Then again, there were no procedural terrains or trees off in the distance, etc.   However, what I did notice (and you will too) is that shadows are dancing all over the place.  Even in the beginning where the camera isn't even moving, suprisingly, the shadows are jumping all over the place.

I'll list ALL my render and light settings (only used one light: Sun) for this animation (and/or post pics), and I was hoping someone could tell me what settings would clean this up with minimal impact on render time.  Any insight on settings would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

(Warehouse Main Render Settings)

**      SUB-RAY SETTINGS WERE**: 5/5 (I'm guessing this is kind of low, and could be the culprit?)

 **(Warehouse Anti-Alias Settings)
**

 (Warehouse Atmos. Light Settings)

 (Warehouse Light Shadow Settings - SUN)

Let me know if there is something else that needs to be seen.  I'm guessing it has something to do with the subray count and/or the Shadow Settings under the Light's shadow properties. 

Thanks!

-Tim

Didn't realize the video did not attach (over size limit I guess), so here is a link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/86555226@N06/8599919787/in/photostream/lightbox/

Not sure what kind of compression flickr applies, but it was already compressed to MP4 (nice quality) before this, BUT rest assured the compression is NOT the issue.  The shadow movement is there in the original high-quality AVI.

I don't use shadow map.  I leave geometry at 100%.  I don't use Texture AA.

Yeah, shadow-maps always caused a similar issue in Poser.  I actually didn't realize that was checked off until I posted the screen captures.  Interesting there are shadow-mapped AND ray-traced shadow-maps.  I'll give that a shot first, if that doesn't help I'll try the others.

Although, Geo at 100%?  Wow, doesn't that kill render times?  Also, just curious why no Texture AA?

Thanks, Shawn.

-Tim

Quote - Although, Geo at 100%?  Wow, doesn't that kill render times?

I have not noticed.  But I am using Vue 9.5 now which doesn't have that option, so I can't test.

Quote - Also, just curious why no Texture AA?

Because texture maps are already AA when they are created.

Quote - I have not noticed.  But I am using Vue 9.5 now which doesn't have that option, so I can't test.

Ok, color me confused ... how are you setting it to 100% if Vue 9.5 doesn't have that option.  (Sorry, I used 9.5 very briefly, so I can't remember it's setting options.)

Quote - Because texture maps are already AA when they are created.

Ok, now I'm really confused ... how are Tmaps already anti-aliased?  Also, texture filtering reduces noise due to high-frequency components of textures ... or so I thought.

Vue 9.5 didn't offer a control for Geometry %.  It was built-in.  Could not be changed.  Texture filtering is a whole other thing than texture AA.

Texture AA is taken care of when using a photo editor.  There is texture AA in your Renderosity avatar image.  You will know when an image is not using AA.

Texture filtering is needed when doing animation.  Especially when the camera is moving.  I'm doing some animation right now with a Poser figure inside of Vue.  Vue reminds me to turn on texture filtering when I render an animation. I set it to 10 - 30% depending what the scene is and how the frames look when played back.

Right, okay ... gotcha.    So what would texture AA be mostly used for ... procedural textures I gather?

So if I think about this being analogous to video game settings, Object AA is similar to AA settings in games.  Although video games have multiple types including Supersampling, Multisampling, CSAA, MLAA (and then there is Quincunx, Transparency, and Gamma Correct Antialiasing USED BY nVIDIA).  Not sure how the AA slider would/could translate to thse levels/types of AA though, of course.

Then there is Texture Filtering in video games (binlinear, tri, and anisotropic), with various ub-types and levels, which probably is similar to what Vue is doing with Texture Filtering.  

That leaves texture AA, which I don't think really has an equivelant in games.  

Does this seem correct?

There is also "GPU Anti-aliasing" ... which I have found does exactly what the manual says it will do.  If you have a image or animation with extremely thin objects -- like telphone cables, wires, etc. -- it does a great job of smoothing them out.