Managing Physical Lights and Emissive Materials to Eliminate Unwanted Artifacts
How to Resolve Firefly Lights in Your Scene
If you're seeing firefly lights (random bright pixels) in your rendered scene, it's often related to the use of physical lights. Fireflies occur because physical lights emit a significant number of photons into the scene, and in certain situations, they can cause unwanted bright spots. Here's how to understand and address this issue:
Why Are Fireflies Happening in My Scene?
This issue commonly occurs when there are a substantial number number of physical lights being used in a scene. KeyShot's physical lights are designed primarily for use as off-camera studio lights or interior scene lighting fixtures. Although lights may have been set with subdued values, they are still emitting photons throughout a scene, which can lead to fireflies in the rendering.
What Can I Do to Fix It?
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Consider Reducing the Number of Physical Lights: Physical lights can be powerful and cause artifacts like fireflies. Try reducing the number of physical lights in your scene, especially if some of them are used for subtle effects.
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Use Emissive Materials for Specific Effects: For effects like the traveling glow on wires, consider using emissive materials instead of physical lights. Emissive materials are designed to create small, localized light sources (similar to LED-style glows) and won't cause wide-scale lighting issues or fireflies, even with modest settings.
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Adjust Physical Light Settings: If you still need to use physical lights, ensure that their intensity, size, or the number of photons they emit is appropriately adjusted. Sometimes reducing the intensity or adjusting their falloff can help minimize firefly artifacts.
Conclusion
To avoid fireflies in your scene, it's essential to balance the use of physical lights with emissive materials, especially for small, localized light effects like glowing wires. By reducing the number of physical lights or switching to emissive materials, you'll help create a cleaner and more stable render.
For further assistance or detailed troubleshooting, feel free to contact support.