> I placed a bright white sphere around each light source
> (just as place holders) and then rendered the scene.
> Not one of the spheres got reflected in the cube.

That is what I'm talking about, and they should be visible in the
reflections.

I assume you're using "looks_like" in the light_source definition? Please
remember not to translate the spheres into position; keep them at origin
because they will follow the light sources anyway. (This is one mistake I've
done several times!)

How big are those spheres? If the light is far away, the spheres needs to be
pretty big - usually bigger than you expect, to make a good specular
highlight.

Are the spheres white as of  rgb <1,1,1> ? Your sky_sphere that surrounds
the world, is also white, so you need to go much higher with the rgb in your
light_sources. Same goes if you're using fog.

Have you given the spheres an ambient value of 1?  I think it's a good idea,
along with diffuse 0. To make sure the spheres are properly lit with the
strength you've set in pigment.

Right now I can't think of other pitfalls, but I'm sure you'll make it work.
:-)  As you say, such spheres are placeholders; they won't look too good
without a glowing texture or some heavily blurred reflections. Also, they
will look pretty much like specular/phong keywords because they are simply
spherical.. Of course, the sun is also a sphere (surrounded by a strongly
lit area of the sky) but if we say, the sun is your key-light, I would use
some other shapes for the fill-light /back lights, along with some much
weaker specular values..

Regards,
Hugo

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