It's a little unclear to me how many bounces will actually happen in this setup:
For example, is there any chance that there will be 16 diffuse bounces if the total max is set to 8?
The amount of Diffuse, Glossy and Transmission are bound by the Total Max Bounces, so in above setup there will only be 8 Diffuse bounces (actually 9 because Blender starts counting at 0...).
When you set the Transparency above to 16 Bounces there will be 16 (read 17), not 8 (read 9). Similar with the Volume.
Bit confusing, I agree...
Thank you.
When you set the Transparency above to 16 Bounces there will be 16 (read 17), not 8 (read 9). Similar with the Volume.
So Transparency and Volume ignore the Total limit?
Do Diffuse, Glossy and Transmission "compete" for bounces? For example, with the numbers in the screenshot, what happens if Diffuse already used up 9 bounces? Does that mean that Glossy and Transmission get 0 bounces? Sorry if my understanding of bounce math is completely wrong.
So Transparency and Volume ignore the Total limit?
Yep!
Do Diffuse, Glossy and Transmission "compete" for bounces?
Nope, they each have their own rays that all start together but end up in different places depending on the material properties. So if everything, including the Total limit, is set to 8, there will be 8 diffuse, 8 glossy, 8 transparency, etc.
Spikey is right that it's not very intuitive unfortunately.