Pixel filters—What does each one really do?

Wonderland

I’m experimenting with the pixel filters in rendering but can’t tell specifically what each one is supposed to do...

What is the real difference between box, triangle, gaussian, mitchell and lanczos? What would each one be used for? Thanks.

nonesuch00

It's just ever so slight variances in sharpness vs blurriness. You might think bluriness is bad but it's actually how everybody's eyes see most of their surroundings while they focus on an interest on hand. Also, in a render blurriness can hide texture or model details that are wrong, lacking or contrast in detail - eg those highly detailed DAZ model skin materials stuffed into a almost completely flat cothing set.

Mitchell is supposed to be the best and a value of one means no blurriness or exact sharpness. The pixel radius 1.5 and gaussian was chosen because it makes the average render look more photoreal. They've done eye tests comparing guassian & mitchell and found that most people claim they can't distinguish between the two when using the same pixel radius.