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Wow. I figured the spots would get bigger, but also blend a bit more. I don't think Caustics is borked, I suspect it has more to do with either the mesh of the reflector or something with the tube light. I've DLed the file and try a test or two.

One other thing I would like to point out just as a general observation is that Carrara has some settings to simulate things like light and physics, but first and foremost it is an artististic program, and while the simulations can look good, they do take shortcuts or maybe it would be more accurate to say, aritistic license, with those effects, so they aren't going to be 100% accurate.

Bummer! Carrara 8.5 files aren't even recognized by Carrara 7.2 Pro. I had hoped that if there wasn't something C8.5 specific that I could open it. Sorry.

Is there an export option to save the file in an older version?

I'm not seeing a way to downversion a Carrara save. Is there another export format that preserves all the details, like Collada?

I just took three renders, and even with the caustics at reasonable settings I got light-cookies on the back of the reflector, just not as many. Without caustics, no light-cookies. This is the sort of thing that could spawn new test-scenes, if only I knew how specifically to "bake" light-cookies.

You are getting the bleed-over because you left the edges of the reflector non-creased.  Crease them, and that will stop.

The spots are a combination of leaving the filter too small - the default of 10% makes for nice water or wavy glass, but bad metal or smooth glass - and leaving the photon count too low: 50000 seems pretty good.






       
 

  

Creasing the reflector object would never have occured to me.

I love those circles for a discoball effect....  I'm sure there's no way to control them though.

Thanks Fenric! I don't use Caustics that often, but the times I do use it, I feel like a room full of chimps banging on typewriters- Most is garbage, but once in awhile you'll get Shakespeare.