Pretty happy with final result. Could be a bit denser with foliage. I intend to work on my trees file after this and finish and refine what I have already done. Hope you like. Comments welcome.
Image file with Cycles render
Thatâs a great looking scene. Itâs got some lovely details going on.
Thanks.
In the animation the windows do flicker. I think due to face fighting.
Faces too close or on top of each other. They âfightâ to be the one to render in a still.
Itâs a beautiful result, but I have the impression that the reflections from the light emitters and the rocks on the water are too elongated, as if something was not right with the reflections (I know that the emitters in the windows cause the ring-like reflections; thatâs not the point here, just how the coast and the light reflections do not look like plain reflections).
Note that this only seems to happen to the Cycles render, not to the video in Evee. I am not sure why this could happen, but if it was not intended, it may be a good idea to check the water surface and its properties. Did you play with the refraction index of the water material? Or did you play with light ray reflection number or something for rendering, maybe to shorten the times? - I am intrigued now 
Very nice setting for this island. Great job.
Ta. I wondered about flicker. I had problems before I added solidifier mod with strange material. So it looks like it needs to be a bit thicker still. Thanks again for suggestion.
Cheers.
PS. I would attempt to fix this but geometry is no longer linked so I will just try to remember for next time. I originally had two windows one of which had a wall boolean cut out and one not. Unfortunately I ended up duplicating this one. It could also be window itself one of which had a solidifier mod, one not.
Glad you noticed. I was hoping you could tell me? In cycles the Light Paths setting [Blender 3.6] are the default. The only setting I had that was different to Grantâs was my bump strength although low was 7 times or 0.075. I revised lesson on scene building.
It was a total fluke that this problem occurred and I am trying to work out why. When I lower the bump strength hey presto! The bigger bumps must cause the light to skip like pebbles? Thanks once again.
Cheers.
PS. In some way I like the original because it looks dismal and drizzly which is why I had more bump originally. I didnât foresee the problem with reflections. I think it would look more realistic if you could make the emitted light attenuate more so the bigger reflections would die off more quickly. Iâm not sure whether this is possible? Fascinating learning experience anyway.
This render looks better on that side, and note that it is still an artistic image, so if it conveys your idea, it is good - as long as you control it 
.
Regarding the Bump, it affects the normal map, so how light is reflected at a specific point. If you crank it up, you may start sending the light anywhere unexpected (which is cool for some materials, but only if you really want it 
).
In my experience, Bump works well as long as you keep it ârealisticallyâ dimensioned. This means that you donât have to push it beyond the effect that things would actually cause on the light. If you go beyond it, things may go out of control.
Donât worry about numbers being low. I have used Bump a lot (just went through the materialsâs nodes course ), and the right amount for a natural look is usually âlowâ to very low, both in Strength and Height (it is not a universal thing, but in many cases âjustâ 0.01 or less is still enough to get a good effect, just for you to see that all values need exploring and experimenting ).
Donât worry about the reflections settings in the renderer for this exercise. I was just asking in case you touched the value and had removed too many. The default value is more than enough for many renders, even with some foliage, and can be decreased, but not without checking first.
To get that âdismalâ look you mention, maybe you can look for other options, from adding a diffuse atmosphpere with some fog or drizzle looks (e.g. through materials) to working with compositing.
Thanks greatly for you wisdom and experience. Yes atmospheric effects like mist sounds like a great idea. I will have to read up on that one.
Thanks again.
