Post Processing
A car showroom with the default post-processing settings. The examples on this page all start from this render.
Rayscaper renders images in high dynamic range (HDR). Post-processing turns that HDR result into an image you can display and save, and adds effects like bloom and vignetting. These settings are in the Post Processing section of the Scene Editor.
Post processing settings.
The section is split into AI Denoise, Bloom & Glare, Exposure, Tone Mapping, Color, Lens Effects and Viewport Background. When you use a diagnostic render method, such as normals or depth, the Exposure, Tone Mapping, Color, Lens Effects and Viewport Background controls are hidden, because those passes are shown without tone mapping.
AI Denoise
Section titled “AI Denoise”Removes noise from renders using Intel Open Image Denoise, allowing you to use fewer samples and reduce render time.
Enable: Turns denoising on or off. It’s off by default. You can also toggle it with the Denoise button on the render window toolbar.
Both renders use 64 samples per pixel:
Grain everywhere, strongest on the dark wall and the ceiling.
The same render with AI Denoise: clean, in the same render time.
Bloom & Glare
Section titled “Bloom & Glare”Adds a soft glow around bright areas (bloom) and star-shaped streaks on light sources (glare).
Enable: Turns bloom and glare on or off.
Cutoff: Brightness threshold (0.1-10, default 1). Only pixels brighter than this value contribute to the effect.
Bloom Power: Strength and size of the soft glow around bright areas (0-100%).
Glare Power: Strength and length of the star-shaped streaks (0-100%).
When Glare Power is above 0%, three more controls appear:
Glare Ray Count: Number of rays in the star (2-12, default 6). 4 creates a cross, 6 a hexagonal star.
Glare Angle: Rotation of the star in degrees (0-360°).
Glare Blur: Softness of the rays (0-100%). 0% gives crisp rays, 100% soft ones.
In the showroom the sign, the light strips in the ceiling and the sunlit logo on the door are bright enough to glow. These examples use a cutoff of 1.5:
No bloom or glare: the sign has crisp edges.
A soft halo around the sign and the light strips, as if they really shine.
A wider, stronger glow that starts to wash out the letters.
Glare power 25% with the default 6 rays: short star-shaped streaks on the bright spots.
Glare power 40% with 4 rays: longer streaks in a cross.
Exposure
Section titled “Exposure”Controls the overall brightness of the image, like the exposure setting of a camera.
Exposure: Brightness in EV stops (-10 to +10, default 0). Each stop doubles or halves the brightness: +1 EV is twice as bright, -1 EV half as bright.
Half as bright: the sunlit floor keeps its detail, the room gets dark.
Twice as bright: the room opens up, the sunlit floor turns white.
Auto Exposure: Lets Rayscaper set the exposure from the brightness of the scene, like a camera’s light meter. You can also toggle it with the Auto exposure button on the render window toolbar. While it’s on, the Exposure slider is replaced by:
Compensation: An offset on top of the automatic exposure, in EV stops (-5 to +5, default 0). Use it to make an auto-exposed image intentionally brighter or darker, for example for a moody night scene.
Tone Mapping
Section titled “Tone Mapping”A render contains a much wider range of brightness than a screen can show. The tone mapping operator decides how that range is compressed, which mostly affects bright highlights and colors.
Operator: Choose the tone mapping algorithm. The default is PBR Neutral.
| Operator | Look | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| PBR Neutral (default) | Keeps colors close to the material colors you set, with minimal hue shifts. Highlights roll off gently. | A good default for most work, especially product and material renders where colors must be accurate. |
| ACES Filmic | The film look used in the movie industry: rich contrast, very bright areas fade toward white. | Cinematic architectural renders, scenes with strong sunlight or bright light sources. |
| Filmic | The Hable filmic curve: softer contrast that preserves detail in the shadows. | Interiors and scenes with a lot of dark areas. |
| Reinhard | A simple curve that compresses highlights. Adjustable with White point. | When you want direct control over where highlights become white. |
| Linear | No compression. Bright areas clip to white. | Technical renders, or when you’ll grade an EXR in other software anyway. |
The showroom has deep shadows, a sunlit floor and glowing lamps, so the operators are easy to compare. Look at the sunlit floor, the sign and the red of the car:
White point (Reinhard only): The brightness that becomes pure white (0.0001-10, default 1). Lower values brighten the image; higher values keep more highlight detail.
Adjusts white balance and contrast.
Temperature: White balance in Kelvin (2000-12000 K, default 6500 K, which is neutral). Lower values make the image warmer (more orange), higher values cooler (more blue).
Tint: Shifts the white balance between green (-100) and magenta (+100). Default 0.
Contrast: Flattens (-100) or increases (+100) the contrast of the image. Default 0.
Lens Effects
Section titled “Lens Effects”Vignette: Darkens the edges of the image to draw attention to the center (0-100%). Set to 0% to disable.
Viewport Background
Section titled “Viewport Background”Backplate: What the viewport shows behind transparent areas:
- No Background: Solid black background.
- Checkers: Checkerboard pattern to visualize transparency.
Transparent areas only exist when you turn on Transparent in the Environment section, so the backplate has no effect otherwise.
The showroom from the other side, with a transparent environment. The sky outside the windows is transparent:
The transparent sky shows as black.
The checkerboard shows which parts of the image are transparent.
Reset to Defaults
Section titled “Reset to Defaults”The Reset to Defaults button at the bottom of the section resets all post-processing settings, including Auto Exposure, to their default values.
Credits
Section titled “Credits”The car on this page is based on Car Concept by Eric Chadwick, © 2024 Darmstadt Graphics Group GmbH, from the Khronos glTF Sample Assets and licensed under CC BY 4.0. It is shown with different logos and without the metallic flakes in its paint. The showroom is built from CC0 models and textures from Poly Haven.