[Bf-cycles] BiDir on Cycles...

[ertuqueque]

Half of my work is architectural rendering... The other half is making TV
commercials, VFX and general audiovisual (3D) design projects...

Actually, all those stuff you mention (render passes, render layers, motion
blur, displacement, subdivision, caching...), are equally important for
architectural rendering. Is a common error to assume that for architectural
work, Lux (or any other physically based / spectral renderer) is a better
suit for the task and you can do without all stuff you mentioned... In all
the architectural projects I've made, I have used A LOT features like
Render Passes, Layers, Compositing... I've even used the faulty
micropolygon displacement from the Sintel's Render branch once...

In case you are curious:

(My lastest architectural project, Blender Internal)
http://vimeo.com/25014763

(This bellow is the one with the micropolygon displacement and GI from the
Render Branch)
http://vimeo.com/15709575

And the architectural project I'm working on right now (my first made with
Cycles), is also going to be animated, a walkthrough of about 1:30 minutes
at HD 720p...

Maybe my work on the bmps has made people thing that I don't like to do
optimization on my projects...

No matter the type of project I do... Architectural, character animated TV
commercial, VFX... My approach is the same.

This project has a buttload of optimization going on... Caustics are
disabled, Diffuse Bounces is set to 3, Glossy to 5 and Transmission to 8.
Most glass objects have shadow casting disabled, there's a special node
setup in the environment to keep light from entering inside the building.
In the windows there's another node setup so they look as glass but they
emit light almost like a "light portal". There are several objects in the
scene that are not visible to the camera and only cast shadows to avoid
some fireflies caused by lights very close to the ceiling (thank you very
much for the "Ray Visibility" panel and "Light Path" node btw)... I can
keep going on and on. I can even send you privately the .blend scene for
testing if you want...

An (improved) image to show the result:
http://s5.postimage.org/i0zfmffh3/image.jpg

But there's just so much you can do with optimization "tricks"...

What I'm trying to say is... At least talking from my experience, an image
is an image. Being architectural, motion graphics, a scene from Elephant's
Dream, BBB, Sintel or a Suzanne on a plane, the approach is always the same.

I'm not trying to change your priorities here, don't get me wrong, you know
better than me about what's needed. But imho, improvements on the Path
Tracing algorithm should be right after those stuff you mention (maybe even
as a parallel development)... It would be even better if another hardcore
developer helped you with that. I know implementing a CPU/GPU BiDir Path
Tracing isn't a trivial job.

Anyway, sorry for the long and maybe patronizing reply... I just wanted to
prove my point, I have to admit that it bothers me a lot when people
separate 3D imagery into categories as if they require radically different
approaches.

Greets and thanks for your hard work.
tuqueque.
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