I have been struggling with the settings to get decent renders with Poser 11 Superfly with lower lighting in scenes. I let this render go for nearly 8 hours, and I still have issues with artifacts left in her crotch area.

Any suggestions and tips from veteran users would be great. Post screen shots of your render settings and lights, please.

This was the Sci fi hanger prop and light set that came with it. I didn't use ezdome or the construct in this scene. Maybe I should have? But the IBL sets that I have for ezdome don't really match the hanger lighting and make it too bright.

What source are you using for the ibl? Are you using an hdr? If so polyhaven might have hdri's you are looking for. 

IBL is not supported by Superfly, you need to find another source of lighting either generic or photorealistic for your scene.  I'll need to look at the model before I make some suggestions.  I imagine that you are rendering with stray fireflies in the scene.

bTW, what is the name of this set?

The set is the SCI FI Hanger. It was a freebie I got somewhere. It renders well in Firefly, as it's a bit older. I haven't adjusted any of the materials and I haven't changed the lights.

Using the EZDome isn't an option, because the lighting from the dome doesn't penetrate the model. It's a solid hanger model, so I am looking at other ways to get it done. I changed the color of all the lighting from the purples and blue hues to all white, but I haven't done a complete render. I stopped the render after about 12 samples because I had a visitor come over.

I am using HDR Haven for EZDome.

What source are you using for the ibl? Are you using an hdr? If so polyhaven might have hdri's you are looking for. 

Not at my computer atm, but if I recall correctly, EZDome does not accept hdrs (error messages).

The user guide you get for the Poser 11 version suggests you use the sIBL archive (url provided) to load.

If it is a completely closed hangar, i also would suggest to see if you can delete or make invisible a wall you don't have in your camera view so light can enter .

Not at my computer atm, but if I recall correctly, EZDome does not accept hdrs (error messages).

The user guide you get for the Poser 11 version suggests you use the sIBL archive (url provided) to load.

If it is a completely closed hangar, i also would suggest to see if you can delete or make invisible a wall you don't have in your camera view so light can enter .

That is not entirely true.  You can load HDRIs into EZDome but considering that the hangar is completely enclosed, it is a mute point to set up such lighting.  An sIBL file can be created but you need alternate software for compose the different components.

Okay that's good to know. Every time I try to load a hdri file to ezdome it gives me an error message. I may need to redownload it.

I am not a fan of completely enclosed rooms hence my suggestion about a wall or ceiling made invisible/removed. I would be interested to see what solution is suggested that works.

Area lights perhaps?

Eta: I am fond of loading a hdri onto the background node using the material setup from ghostship2's tutorial, but OP uses Poser 11 and I use P12.

When it comes to EZDome: I'm using an HDRi on the external sphere and its JPG counterpart on the inner sphere: it's easier to position. I create the JPG  using Photoshop but I suppose that there are other optons as well.

Here's an example. The preview picture is most of the time a small one

I managed to find the Sci-Fi Hangar at ShareCG.com and discovered that there is an open-end for environmental lighting to enter.  Apparently, the amount of environmental light needed to illuminate the hangar will be relatively high.  Instead of using the EZDome, I'm placing an HDRI into the Poser background and ramping its intensity.  But, by doing this, there will be an increase in background noise in the scene.  I'm experimenting now with lighting.

Y-Phil posted at 2:03 PM Mon, 11 July 2022 - #4441061

When it comes to EZDome: I'm using an HDRi on the external sphere and its JPG counterpart on the inner sphere: it's easier to position. I create the JPG  using Photoshop but I suppose that there are other optons as well.

Here's an example. The preview picture is most of the time a small one

I noticed that your screencap is showing a low-resolution HDRI, be very careful with low dynamic range images, they are notorious for causing fireflies when rendered with SSS in Superfly.  

This is what I have so far with Blackbody overhead lighting and a high-intensity HDRI background.

If you use the sIBL Archive, the zips come with jpg, HDR and ibl included.

Thanks for the tip on usage, Y-Phil!

Yep, and sometimes you come across a magnificent HDR image that you would love to have as an sIBL for EZDome but don't have the companion files.  I use sIBLedit to create such files with strict control over the intensity and composition of the images.

I am experimenting with those overhead lights right now.

Update when I get one.

I am happy to see that a thread I started is getting responses. I haven't seen this much attention since the old days when my threads would reach 300-400 pages...

Overhead mesh lights using actual photorealistic light settings in degrees Kelvin.  The actual temperature will determine the light color that is not artificially tinted.  This setup has Inverse Square activated.  

Overhead mesh lights using actual photorealistic light settings in degrees Kelvin.  The actual temperature will determine the light color that is not artificially tinted.  This setup has Inverse Square activated.  

All the materials are in German(?) I think...

I don't know what the lights are...

I found it...

Fortunately, most of the materials have the same shader arrangement, just different texture maps associated with them.  I just revamped the lights to Inverse Square and changed one to high-intensity area light.  I'm trying to keep it close to physically realistic without making it photorealistic if you know what I mean.  I am noticing that the overhead mesh lights are causing a bit of firefly background because I ramped the intensity a little higher than illustrated above.  I also made some material changes but those are easy to manipulate.  

How is this?

If I was in P12, I would denoise this to get rid of the fireflies.  Overall, adding the PhysicalSurface PBR improved the texture response to the lighting.  With the exception of the Area light, all the lighting was converted to inverse square and the intensities increased to match the scene.

So you used the lighting that came with the prop?

Can you post a render with a figure in it?

And can you post a screen shot with your material set up?

That's a lovely light set up, hborre, thanks for showing it.

Sure.  I just finished a quick background render with a figure in it.  Forgive the nudity, I needed something available for Superfly rendering.  Anyway, the V4 model has a PBR procedural SSS skin with a base texture, a total rework of a Syyd Raven set he published at RDNA.  You might find it at the DAZ store.  I am beginning to apply the same procedural shader to other models.  This is what I came up with:

It's a little grainy due to some of the mesh lights but it gives it a film quality.  Screencaps of the materials and lights to come.

This is what I do. Add some primitive boxes to your scene and scale them into the size/shape of florescent lights. I just use a Poser root node with only ambient used. Set the strength to the desired amount. remember to use several of them to simulate light fixtures.

That is looking like what I am trying to achieve. I am rendering now...

These are the modifications I made to the lights that come with the set.  Lights 1 and 8 were turned off, they did not contribute anything to the section of hangar I was using.  This is the same area that you used in your render, Rokket.  I wanted to treat this render as close to physically accurate as possible, all lights converted to inverse square with the exception of the area light that lacks this feature.  If you want a longer depth of light then use inverse linear as a choice.  The screencap below is an image of D3D's XLC (eXtended Light Control script) that works very well in P11.  You can find it under Scripts.  It is totally absent in P12.  This will give you an idea of how much I changed the intensity of each light.

The area light was scaled 900,000 %!  Keep in mind, that this is a huge model.  V4 was scaled to 250% to fit the scene a little better.  The area light is a substitute for the HDRI, although I did provide one in the Poser background, I would have needed to increase its intensity to properly illuminate the hangar.  

Thank you!

I will look for that script. I never paid much attention to the scripts already in Poser. I guess I should...

Yep, self-illuminating primitives work very, I have used those on occasions, even made them invisible yet glowing.  I have moved away from the Poser root for ambient lighting, Blackbody illumination is my preferred method unless there is color involved.

Neat script in P11, I had no idea it existed. I wish they kept it for P12. 

I'm learning a lot today, guys, keep it coming and thank you.

Blackbody nodes for the lights for physically accurate rendering.  Sure I could fake it and visually guesstimate it but why when the renderer can do it and the feature is available.

From what I've seen, most of the shaders are basically set up the same way, very simplistic, and very easy to convert to PBR.  P11 doesn't have a PrincipledBsdf node, so the next best solution is to use the PhysicalSurface node without going completely into Cycles (my preference).  This is the rudimentary change I made to some of the material in the render field of view.  I just noticed that the Roughness channel should be slightly higher and the Metallic channel increased to around 0.8 to give the material some reflective properties.  

Keep in mind, that if you use Superfly rendering, just about every surface in your scene should reflect some degree of light to help brighten up the surroundings.  Next time you watch a movie with a nighttime outdoors scene, observe the ground, it is always wet with water, a highly reflective medium.

Very cool. The render I am working on may take until tomorrow to finish, but I'll post the results...

More than one way to skin a cat...

This time the trick was to make the overhead lighting work for me. I changed the Poser surface to a Physical surface and amped up the emitter quantity.

There are no other lights in the scene.

Thanks for the tip, Traci!

I see that she is not quite touching the ground... I will have to fix the pose now... sheesh

Big difference from your original render and it works very well.  BRAVO!  I rendered my creation with a higher render setting subsequently making a brooding image of a creature in the shadows.  I'll get to posting it tomorrow.

That looks great! Reflections on the helmet  help sell it.

Y-Phil posted at 2:03 PM Mon, 11 July 2022 - #4441061

When it comes to EZDome: I'm using an HDRi on the external sphere and its JPG counterpart on the inner sphere: it's easier to position. I create the JPG  using Photoshop but I suppose that there are other optons as well.

Here's an example. The preview picture is most of the time a small one

There is a small app that can convert HDR to JPG if you are looking to use the same image for the EZDome: Easy2Convert HDR to JPG.  IIRC, will produce a high-res image.  

I noticed that your screencap is showing a low-resolution HDRI, be very careful with low dynamic range images, they are notorious for causing fireflies when rendered with SSS in Superfly.  

Big difference from your original render and it works very well.  BRAVO!  I rendered my creation with a higher render setting subsequently making a brooding image of a creature in the shadows.  I'll get to posting it tomorrow.

That looks great! Reflections on the helmet  help sell it.

Looks really cool! I faffed a bit with that set yesterday, couldn't figure out what the overhead lights' material was as my German is pitiful. 

I used Google to translate.

Here is the last render I made before retiring for the night.  I'm going to revisit some sections of this scene to see if I can improve it.  I'm going to look closely at her eyes, I've been swapping out some nodes and including the GlassBsdf node.

Gives me an idea for a follow on scene. Since the original idea is that she is an operative with a secret life she is forced to reveal to her husband, and he gets taken by a clandestine group to force her to confront them. She ends up in this hanger, where she encounters the aliens. Why not have her encounter a V4 creature like that? Could have her crouched down and hiding from the light. A failed experiment or something...

Looks really cool! I faffed a bit with that set yesterday, couldn't figure out what the overhead lights' material was as my German is pitiful. 

Thank you... had a W40K style thing pop in my brain last night. Your heroine sounds cool.

WOO-HOO!  I finally figured out how to do inverse square and blackbody illumination with the PoserSurface.

Shader:

Render, overhead mesh alone:

I know it probably takes quite awhile to render, but I'd love to see it.

I made a huge mistake in the render I submitted. I had added the developer work lights to the scene so I could arrange the aliens. I forgot to delete them before I rendered. SO, what I posted is not an accurate representation of the lighted scene. I didn't discover it until I had already deleted the aliens. So I am going to redo the render without the lights. And without the aliens...

ATM, I'm running a high-quality render that I may consider a 'final' copy.  I previewed the existing lights through D3D's XLC script and made changes to their light intensities.  I want those lights to compliment the mesh illumination without overwhelming the mood of the scene.  So far, I like what I am seeing.

Rhia474 posted at 7:46 PM Mon, 11 July 2022 - #4441105

Neat script in P11, I had no idea it existed. I wish they kept it for P12. 

I'm learning a lot today, guys, keep it coming and thank you.