You can see side-by-side comparison images with OctaneRender’s existing PMC and path tracing kernels in this forum thread. The new kernel uses a “novel combination of GPU photon mapping and path guiding” to generate sharp, non-noisy caustics even at very low sample counts. New features in OctaneRender 2022.1 include a new photon tracing kernel, which Otoy describes as making rendering caustics “about 1000x faster ” than the previous implementation. New photon tracing kernel makes rendering caustics ‘nearly free’
