Attached Link: http://www.colacola.se/howto_1.asp?pic=26

I've seen a couple of lighting related threads here lately so I though I would post mine test results as well. It's more than 14 images with setup specifications so I'm not writing it all again in this post. Please follow the link to have a look at it: http://www.colacola.se/howto_1.asp?pic=26 Please give me more suggestions for combinations to test and comments regarding if you agree or disagree with the conclusions so far. You can also download the scene and test combinations that I haven't tested yet and I will of course add your findings to the results. The hardware isn't important since I'm comparing render times to an index.

Very good and informative test - thank you! Jimi

I am very glad you did this, thanks.

Interesting/cool comparisons. ;o) What are these though? Render time: 02:06:26 (474.1 x index) (120.7 x index) (49.6 x index) Index? AS

I think one index is one default render (16 seconds in that case) so a 49.6 x indes is a render 49.6 time slower than default render. Good for engineers! Thank you Bazze, it is realty accurate and well explained!!! And that ball is really cool. I love the overall look of your site, any problem with coca-cola?

one way that might get you off in terms of realistic lighting is making a lightdome, disabling the shadows, and just guestimating soft shadows on another radial light placed in the scene (considering there's only one light source). does that make sense? drac

Thanks for the very informative series (and baseline comparison) - BTW the setup Drac suggested is the one I ended up using on 'Badlands dawn' - proved pretty tractible...

AS -> the "index" is as Vasquez explained the default render (16 sec in my case). Drac -> I'll try that setup too Vasquez -> Yeah I get legal threats from coca-cola every day, and from Pepsi-cola, Cuba-cola, Jolt-cola... :D