Rahul wrote:
> BTW, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that many other posters actually thought
> raytracing might be the *fastest* option around!

Scanline rendering starts with a blank screen, then draws shapes one 
polygon at a time. Its speed tends to be limited by the number of shapes 
it has to draw, so the many spheres scene is basically the worst-case 
for scanline.

Raytracing draws a screen one pixel at a time, regardless of how many 
shapes there are. Its speed is more complicated, but is usually limited 
by a combination of resolution (number of pixels it has to draw) and the 
number of recursive calls it has to make (shadows and reflections).

BTW, random thought--have you tried making all the light sources shadowless?

-- 
William Tracy
afi### [at] gmailcom -- wtr### [at] calpolyedu

    You can never go back. Free Mars.
     -- Kim Stanley Robinson, _Green Mars_

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