Hello, I was hoping for suggestions on getting the shadows on my render less jagged. I improved it much with increasing subdiv surface, render samples, and applying multiple importance sample to both the hemi and world lights but the shadows are still a bit jagged. I am using cycles rendering. Below is the current render and settings. Thank you for your help!
a)
Your environment texture isn’t mapped correctly. You set the mapping to “Mirror Ball”, but from the looks of the preview it in fact is an equirectangular (spherical) map. To see the difference: This is the same map, first as mirror ball and second as equirectangular map:
b)
You’re using a low dynamic range image (LDRI) for your environment (a .jpg, for that matter). That will work for reflections etc., but will not light your scene as brilliantly as a high dynamic range image (HDRI / .hdr or .exr file) will.
c)
What resolution is your environment texture?
d)
Cycles does not support hemi lights and replaces them with sun lights. Might as well use a sun lamp in the first place…
Ambient Occlusion, Factor 1 is not a best thing to do imho. Can we have some details on the ground material? Could you substitute that with a plane with just Diffuse on and see if something has changed?
MIS Map resolution is best to keep at multiples of 2 - 512 in your case instead of 500. Better increase to 1024.
