ABSTRACT
Although there are numerous lighting strategies within mental ray, it all boils down to understanding two essential methods of global illumination; Photon Mapping and Final Gathering. Each can be used independently of the other, or they can be used together to give even more lighting control. The key to using either of these methods is to understand the process. Once you understand what’s happening, you’ll understand what you can do to “tune out” the artifacts and “tune in” the solution. We’ll start with explaining photon mapping within mental ray.
