Caustics (CineRender Effect)

This effect is available in the Detailed view of PhotoRendering Settings for the CineRender engine.
Note: The Caustics effect can also be enabled for Lamp objects.
See Caustics at Lamp Tool Settings.
Surface Caustics: Enable this option to switch on surface caustics.
Volume Caustics: Enable this option to switch on volume caustics
Strength: This sets the general brightness of the caustics effect. Here, the strength on the left is normal; the strength on the right is high.
Step Size: With volume caustics, photons are saved in the photon tree at regular intervals as defined by this value.
Sample Radius: This specifies how close photons must be to one another in order to be interpolated. Higher values tend to produce better results but take longer to render.
Samples: The Samples value represents the maximum number of photons within the sample distance that will be used to calculate the volume caustics.
First Time: The scene’s caustics will be calculated for the first render only; future renders will reuse the data.
Always: Caustics data is always recalculated when you render.
Never: Caustics are not recalculated when you render.
Save Solution: If you enable this option, the caustics data is saved when you render. Depending on the Recompute setting (above), the saved data can be reused to speed up future renders.