Blender 3.1 Real Caustics! - How to make a Swimming Pool Tutorial

In this tutorial I am going to show you how to make a semi-realistic swimming pool with real refractive caustics using the experimental Blender 3.1 branch.
The Cycles render has always supported caustics but due to how the cycles Render engine works, it was always virtually impossible to render realistic caustics because of the number of samples required to converge.
But in this experimental version of Blender, you can now render realistic caustics in glass, water and other transparent materials.
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[@pyromaster9095]

great tutorial - good job^^

[@MicroSingularity]

Thank you! 🙂

[@OkGoldVR]

Great tutorial! exactly what I wanted to see :) appreciate your effort

[@MicroSingularity]

Thank you

[@greofficial980]

Finally a nice and fast tutorial, i've watched like 7 useless tutorials with absurd solutions with 9999 nodes and s* to get this simple thing, thank you very much, i hope you multiply your genome and mind model

[@MicroSingularity]

Thank you

[@VIIARK]

Beautiful explained, Thank you!❤️

[@eminkapetanovic6480]

short and straight to the point! Thanks!

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks 😀

[@Postcitizen]

Ah! This is so exciting. I usually switch over to LuxCore for caustics, so definitely going to give the 3.0 cycles version a try now. Really helpful tutorial :)

[@SimFiftyFifty]

You can also cheat it with a light source by tweaking it's material, polyfjord made a great tutorial on this.

[@ourfreebird715]

Awesome tutorial, not just for caustics but a nice and to the point explanation of getting some standing water in. Thank you so much n great work!

[@MicroSingularity]

Thank you!

[@rcommeranitta]

Amazing tutorial, thanks so much, will try it today!

[@ouvie]

good job ty it's short and simple!!

[@JrgenFrderbergTvedt]

Ive struggled with caustics in blender. Thanks for tutorial :D

[@mrktim]

I think the caustic setting is being changed. Can't find that option.

[@LeoSalg]

Make sure you have Cycles selected

[@tayloramillon]

Same, download the new version on the website and it would appear !

[@Toda_Ciencia]

That feature was removed from blender 3.1 but it's now in blender 3.2!

[@med1cg]

@@Toda_Ciencia thank you, was using 3.1 and wondering why it looked different

[@NicolasRouelle]

thanks for the tutorial, i hope they will make volume caustics too

[@poolsandprojects]

Great video, simple and effective! Nice one, Thank you!

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks!

[@PowersVideo3D]

Such a good tutorial. Thanks!

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks 😀

[@Proski_]

Excellent! Tutorial Simple, Easy and Fast Keep it up

[@MicroSingularity]

Thank you!

[@MultiYouhou]

really good tutorial

[@saeeddicap]

that's amazing! thanks for the tutorial man

[@MicroSingularity]

No worries!

[@mrdol]

hey. just wanted to say thank you for this tutorial! very cool, love the effect

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks!

[@naveenpareek9352]

Very helpful

[@BattlestarGenesis]

Thank you so much

[@ed0s245]

Great Tutorial, nice and simple!

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks

[@ar3designs]

very easy to understand. thanks for this

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks 👍

[@Editingpremiere]

thanks best video for this search

[@gustavoalberto8660]

Awesome!

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks 😀

[@hwang_2312]

Thank you 😆😆

[@SourceAwareness]

Many Thanks, Brother, very excellent!! :)

[@MicroSingularity]

Thanks 😀

[@tzwhh204]

Top!

[@vicmail12]

MS, for a decade or so, I've found a powerful, nearly hypnotic effect of gazing through goggles at the dancing caustics on the bottom of a swimming pool while floating with my head in the water on a sunny day. As ripples on the water surface calm a bit, I become more and more entranced. It takes a few minutes. The effect grows and it is very relaxing. I had often thought about trying to duplicate that effect in Blender, so it is quite pleasing to find your tutorial.

[@didi_hua01]

I can't find the caustics option for the light properties, and yes, i have cycles enabled as the render engine.

[@ChrisE72]

Thank you for the nice and easy tutorial. Also, thank you for not speaking faster than the speed of light.

[@captaintuvok714]

I've just installed Blender version 3.1.0 stable and I can't see the caustics options.

[@LeoSalg]

Make sure you have Cycles selected

[@Lostachilles]

If you're still interested, it's in 3.2.0 stable release.

[@linkedwinters]

can caustics be cast through glass? For example, if I were to make an underwater aquarium, would that work? I'm super new to blender

[@MicroSingularity]

Yes. It simulates refractive caustics but not reflective caustics

[@Fisher4]

great video! What GPU are you using?

[@MicroSingularity]

I was using a Nvidia 1060 for that video. I’m using a 3070Ti now

[@T1mothyTee]

I have an issue where I can see the caustics appear in the viewport... but they disappear in the render! any thoughts whats up> ? Using blender-3.1.0-alpha+master-D13533.e900ec7ce6a4-windows.amd64-release

[@CertainlyTrying]

Great video and I was so hyped, but sadly the option isn't there anymore (at least for now). :( I wonder what lead to that decision, because it looked great already.

[@melbendigo]

I'm glad I'm not the only one having this problem. The builds aren't labeled with the numbers next to them anymore either so I tried a couple different ones and then the latest 3.2 build,, but it's not there. Oh well, it should reappear at some point soon.

[@MicroSingularity]

You should be able to go through the archive builds on the blender website and download this old build still

[@ajononikostudio]

@@MicroSingularity It's not there!

[@basspig]

I wonder if this will deal with lective caustics. How about making a parabolic mirror placing a light source in the center and seeing if it casts a focused beam onto a Target at distance away?

[@MicroSingularity]

At the moment I think it only calculates refractive caustics, not reflective

[@basspig]

@@MicroSingularity I wish Luxcore were compatible with Blender 3.

[@elliejohnson2786]

This is nice, but one issue I have is that the water is a bit too blue. I don't think swimming pool water is usually that blue; It's usually the pool itself that's blue and that causes the colour.

[@400grvodki2bokalapiva]

i made the light pink and water is blue but i can’t really see the results because of my weak laptop lol but with 40 samples it looks nOiSe and nIcE

[@loodgack]

I used this tutorial a lot for water, I just don't have caustic light option, at all

[@gerardibanez3015]

i have blender 3.1 and caustics are not in the final version, is there any version (3.2...) where caustics are included?

[@MicroSingularity]

3.2 and later

[@iamrusdark]

Cool! Is it possible to make smth like this in eevee?

[@MicroSingularity]

Only by faking it in the shader

[@brianleechunlok1]

I have just downloaded blender 3.1 beta and 3.2 alpha, and figure I don't see enable caustic in the light properties and neither is there caustic caster and receiver in the object properties, is there something I have to enable first???= =

[@budotsmedia_advertising]

same in 3.2 no causitcs in shading tab

[@TheOne10525]

@@budotsmedia_advertising Yep 3.1.2 no caustics !

[@plexiglass-kz2si]

I'm making a setup almost identical to yours but the caustics aren't working. Blender 3.2.0

[@gerdsfargen6687]

Saweeet.

[@MicroSingularity]

😀

[@gerdsfargen6687]

@@MicroSingularity Just discovered your channel and sure glad I did. Your tute's incredible! Mixing this with a pool tiles procedural material and a sandstone one to simulate a pool. Thanks so much!

[@MicroSingularity]

Glad it helped 😀

[@gerdsfargen6687]

Im trying to play the animation but in render viewport mode using cycles it keeps playing the noise trying to play catch up to the frame sample number (300). Ive got denoise ticked also. Any suggestions on how I can play it back smoother? and it takes forever to render the animation.

[@joanadolphe5529]

Hello, the caustic does not show? where to search for it please.

[@thorntonhough]

Nearly got to end of the tutorial.... But I am now using 3.4 and the caustic options aren't there. Nobody has done a tutorial update to explain the differences. Might just have to roll back to 3.1 what a shame? Any change of an update?

[@ourfreebird715]

Followed this on 3.51 with no issue

[@peachsodaoverwatch649]

I see Shadow Caustics... did they change the name?

[@adgamer_7841]

Where caustic option at?

[@MicroSingularity]

It’s now available in Blender 3.2 alpha

[@tengstudio5980]

cant find that caustic option

[@MicroSingularity]

It’s available in version 3.2 alpha now

[@unknownfox4700]

wow it is great!!!!! but I downloaded blender 3.1 but there were no caustics!!!!

[@MicroSingularity]

I think it must still be in development. You should still be able to download the experimental build

[@unknownfox4700]

@@MicroSingularity ok ☺

[@MicroSingularity]

Looks like 3.2 alpha has them. Just looked at the release notes

[@AZAN3d]

Caustic receiver not show bro

[@busylife3208]

I don't have caustics... What to do??!!!!

[@sshr5182]

does this work on eevee

[@MicroSingularity]

Nope. Just cycles

[@prizkafitriyani463]

"Here we have the P atterns. Now these P atterns are..."

[@Platurah]

Here's the link of the Blender version with caustic : blender.community/c/graphicall/bD1B/?sorting=hot

[@mouldywav]

thank you bro ily

[@r0hiiitt621]

ya a life saver bud 🖤

[@PauloHenrique-kx4of]

i can't find this version

[@MicroSingularity]

It’s in blender 3.3 now

[@PauloHenrique-kx4of]

@@MicroSingularity is weird I don't work with me. I've tried several ways and the caustic effect doesn't appear. One thing I noticed is that in version 3.1 in light we have to enable caustic light. but in version 3.3 it is like caustic shadow I do all the step by step. but for me it doesn't work!

[@PauloHenrique-kx4of]

I fixed the problem. Now it's working.

[@khaotixy]

@@PauloHenrique-kx4of howw?

[@PauloHenrique-kx4of]

@@khaotixy 1- go to render properties tab - light paths - in cautics menu lower the value of filter glossy from 1 to 0.01 or 0.000. Keep checked reflective and refractive. 2 - the light source, be it sun! It needs to have a low angle value. The default is 11.4º, work with much smaller values, like 2º, 1º or 0.5º. Here you will need to do some tests. but download until you can visualize the effect. And of course the strength value also needs to be adjusted. Note, the position of the sun and the direction of the camera in relation to the object reflect on how the light appears to the observer and consequently the result of the caustic effect is perceived. So this needs to be tweaked and tested. And one more thing, the displacemet in the water also affects the result of the caustic effect, this you need to test until you get a result that you think is good so that the caustic looks really nice in your final render! I hope it helps.

[@MrRio3DRMSTUDIO]

much of the beauty of life. Even if I let myself slip, that won't keep down forever. Thanks for asking about how tNice tutorialngs went, and I will

[@waltage]

where is glossy????

[@progettazione_case_moderne]

but do you want to understand that NO ONE USES CYCLE ANYMORE?

[@BackroomsSecCamz]

anyone uses cycles