Emissive material GI leaking through objects / emitting backwards

Hey everyone,

I have a question about how emissive materials cast light, in particular how the GI handles shadows (both realtime and baked). I'm having some trouble setting up recessed ceiling lights. I would normally use area lights for strips like these, but I thought an emissive mat would be a nice and more accurate alternative.





So I'm trying to understand what's happening here. Are the polygons casting backwards? How do I prevent it from leaking through other objects? Any tips on how I can prevent the lighting from showing where it shouldn't?

 

Here's the same setup but now using area lights.

 

Enlighten? Progressive lightmapper? It looks like there's not enough resolution in the images in your first post.

 

I'm using Enlighten with the same lightmaps settings in both scenarios. I have since switched back to Area lights, but was still wondering if there's some other setting I overlooked to get emissive working better.