Photo checklist

Torley's settings (as of 2012-08-20) for awesome photo shoots used in official Linden Lab materials — and just for fun! Many of these are overridden debug settings:

Rendering quality

• RenderVolumeLODFactor = 8
  • Smooths out jaggies on spheres and other curvy objects.

Depth of field

Optimized for "creamier" bokeh and softer DOF appearance — which has the side benefit of somewhat higher performance. Optional: tap Ctrl-0 a few times to zoom in and narrow the field of view, creating a more intimate relationship with the tightly-focused subject matter.

• CameraDoFResScale (Blur Quality) = 0.2
  • Lowered from the default of 0.7 so that there's more of a gradual ramping when you zoom into a subject. Can provide some analogue-feeling "diffuse blur", like smearing Vaseline on the lens.
• CameraFNumber (F-Number) = 2
  • Adjust per scene: lower it to something like 0.050 if zoomed out and shooting tilt-shift-style cities
• CameraFieldOfView (Field of View) = 2.5
• CameraFocalLength (Focal Length) = 250
• CameraMaxCoF (Circle of Confusion) = 20

All of these are conveniently found in Exodus Viewer's World menu > Visual Settings, under the CAMERA tab.

HDR (Color grading)

Available in Exodus Viewer:

1. Select World menu > Visual Settings
2. Click the HDR tab.
3. Check all these boxes, from left-to-right: Deferred Rendering, High Precision, Gamma Correction, and Tone Mapping.

The following "recipe" is tentatively called "[TOR] Adv. Filmic Day Warm", which takes advantage of tone-mapping for a wider dynamic range.

• Gamma
  • Red = 0.8
  • Green = 1
  • Blue = 1.2
• Exposure
  • Red/Green/Blue = 0
• Offset
  • Red/Green/Blue = 0
• Vignette
  • Amount = 0
  • Power = 1
  • Multiplier = 1
• Tone Mapping
  • Tone Mapping Technique = Advanced Filmic
    • Make sure it's Advanced so that the below sliders are exposed:
  • Exposure = 2
    • Change this depending on how "dark" the overall scene is — nighttime scenes' highlights may benefit from Exposure = 4 or even 8. Very scene-specific, since setting it too high may wash out daylight store signs.
  • Shoulder Strength = 0.25
  • Linear Strength = 0.1
  • Linear Angle = 0.15
  • Toe Strength = 0.15
  • Toe Numerator = 0
  • Toe Denominator = 0.3
  • Linear White Point = 11.2
  • Exposure Bias = 1

After setting all of the above, click the + button to save this as a new preset. Name it as Torley has, or choose another name that works for you.

• • Red = 0.8

Useful references

• Strawberry Singh's "Debug Me"