avoid Ambient Shadow steps / layers

[schizo]

Hello Fractalists,

sometimes my images rendered with Mandelbulb 3D had some undesirable steps / layers in the parts of the fractal that are near the camera.
Here an example:


Modifying DE stop, Raystep multiplier, Stepwidth limiter never solved that problem.
When rendering my 360° Fractal Death Valley animation http://www.fractalforums.com/movies-showcase-%28rate-my-movie%29/t22966/ these steps became a bigger problem. They created a lot of change in the lower part of the animation which was very bad for video compression and so resulted in bad quality.

Then I noticed that the image before the Ambient Shadow calculation was without steps / layers. So I found the knob to turn. 

To avoid steps / layers in the foreground switch in the "Postprocess" options the "Ambient Shadow" from SSAO15 to SSAO24 or SSAO24r or DEAO.
Don't start the image with SSAO15 because switching to another mode later will change the look.

This will raise rendering time for ambient shadow but also raises quality. In my case DEAO was best because it keeps the colors from original SSAO15 the best.

With this example parameters (steps / layers in the forground) you can check the difference of the different modi:
Mandelbulb3Dv18{
g.....w....50...U0....I...E3hMKnKyrxziq1vXh/oPzjTVAK.ZWCuzfm2kK4ae7..9TbkzEWzRzj
................................SdhG7t2dG22........Y./.........E........C/2...wD
...Uz6/...E/.....sD//.....UT/...mE...6k2.....Eofe6692xXD/.......y/.G.pAnAp1....k
yY....kD12../..........wz.................................U0.....y1...sD...../..
.w1...sDUPQbnJqsHsPXLEKOnwdFyyJ7f3tzQOWjHM0jHFFk4t1D9ST9HVQ.yau1YCvAwMWjRwRBl0CM
Ys1TzBQT0n28y0fSX4KaFMYDU.....2z.........2....kD.2....sD..G.....................
.............oAnAt1...sD....zw1.......................................bE40....8.
.....Ksulz1.....o.kz.kHDJ/FH.M6.G....M2...UT....m....c3...EE....v....MY1..UGio5U
JB2.3U1KE8qlci6XBFqSwFQeC06.oc..zzSi..kuvBTuCfuD6U0dRIRSkzH..........2k.mwzXWF1.
.sM93P58iz9.H0/bvOonz...........V2U0.cXAr...np0CG3AszsFbG7eFT5uD.kuFj53XB.IH/sIy
6Sem..EFE.DBuczj.KTld5ia..A.oBvEZprxz40/8.kfuKA..s6QZJdbqz98hE2Jv5G0.1UPo7z4qyzD
3/.DxXuG4...hYPUXQd../kYYkROxp.E.YlN.aIu/.2...8cU0.E./2Ezz/cU08../2E.tzDU08c..2E
./IzT/8cU0.E./2EQs5cU08../2E./bTU08c..2E./2ly/8cU0.E./2EMw5cU08../2E.lqTU08c..2E
./2kz/8cU0.E./2E...cU08czz/cU08cyz1cU08cxz3cU08cHFLMmNKOZl4NlsWOkR4.b/.RT72Pp7bQ
E....2..F2E.....I....w....EE0x4SElKMoZaPpp4...........................k/.MU/4...
.ok.1Ak.0.UNaNaNaNawz4iSIsuFV9yD........kz1........3.1.......E0k........E.2.....
...................................wz...........................................
........................}
{Titel: Keyframe #46}


happy rendering
schizo