Adaptive Sampling of Lightmap Texels
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Summary
This feature intends to solve two problems:
- Currently novice users are exposed to technical jargon like sample counts, and
- Sampling of lightmap texels can be more efficient
For building lightmap texels, we currently use the same number of samples. However, some texels will converge more quickly so adding more samples here is wasted work, yielding slower bakes. For example, areas lit by direct light would require less samples than recessed areas lit primarily by indirect light.
Use Case / Intended Outcome
With “adaptive sampling of lightmap texels”, texels are sampled to the user's desired noise/quality threshold (Draft Quality, Medium Quality, Production Quality). Once this threshold is met, the sampling work is moved to other texels.
This way, bake times are accelerated, artist iteration times are increased, and novice users won’t need to be exposed to technical jargon like sample counts.