Blender's Eevee Rendering Engine Lecture Notes

Introduction

• Eevee is Blender's other rendering engine, useful beyond stylized rendering.
• Quick iteration and 4K animations in minutes.
• Recent updates make Eevee more powerful and versatile.

Setting Up a Scene in Eevee

• Start with a basic room:
  • Create an empty room using loop cuts for windows.
  • Adjust camera and lighting (sun lamp with strength 15).
• Issue of light bleed in Eevee:
  • Avoid paper-thin geometry, use a solidify modifier for thickness.
  • Understand Eevee uses hacks for faster rendering.

Eevee's Shadow and Lighting

• Shadow Samples and Steps:
  • Steps are akin to accuracy for shadows.
  • Increasing steps reduces light bleed.
• Lamp Settings:
  • Lamp size affects light softness and shadow accuracy.

Noise in Eevee

• Similar to Cycles, Eevee has noise issues.
• Noise is localized, affecting only specific areas (e.g., softened edges).
• Adjust viewport and render samples for cleaner results.

Reflection and Probes

• Reflection issues due to screen space limitation.
• Probes (light probes) offer a solution:
  • Plane, Sphere, and Volume probes exist for different purposes.
  • Probes must be configured correctly to address reflection artifacts.

Light Bounce and GI

• Ray Tracing vs. Fast GI Approximation:
  • Ray tracing for reflections, Fast GI for diffuse light bounces.
  • Fast GI is essential for realistic renders in Eevee.
• Threshold setting determines when to use ray tracing vs. Fast GI.

Reflections and Screen Space

• Screen space affects reflections and bounce lighting visibility.
• Probes help simulate reflections for objects not in view.
• Placement of probes is critical for realistic rendering.

Handling Textures

• Importance of proper texture application and UV mapping.
• Adjust glossiness and roughness as needed for realistic effects.
• Disable temporal accumulation for sharper textures.

World Lighting and HDRIs

• Issues with world lighting in Eevee (uniform application, no shadows).
• Volume probes help block unwanted world lighting.
• Tweaking probe placement and settings is crucial.

Final Render Optimizations

• Optimize by adjusting probe usage and texture load.
• Use appropriate settings for different materials (e.g., glass, volumetrics).
• Reduce unnecessary texture maps to improve render times.

Conclusion

• Eevee is powerful when used correctly and can achieve realism.
• Requires understanding of its limitations and workarounds (e.g., probes, light settings).
• Regular baking and configuration adjustments necessary for optimal results.