Am 19.11.2011 03:02, schrieb Ben:
> Thanks!  Can you recommend any unbiased renderers, then?  My goal is to
> eventually produce real optical devices to test the predicted results (series of
> optics).
>
>
> Warp<war### [at] tagpovrayorg>  wrote:
>> Ben<nomail@nomail>  wrote:
>>> Can POVRay be used to make nearly-accurate-to-physics models for optics beyond
>>> refraction and reflection... to diffraction, interference, etc.?
>>
>>    Short answer: No.
>>
>>    The so-called unbiased renderers, which support BRDF definitions, are
>> designed for this exact purpose. In other words, if you are able to
>> describe the physical property of an object with a BRDF, the renderer
>> will then be able to simulate that property with a high degree of accuracy.
>> (Of course in many cases it will be extremely slow, and getting a good,
>> non-grainy result can take humongous amounts of time.)

It should be noted that unbiased renderers typically don't take you much 
further than POV-Ray with radiosity and photons enabled, as they don't 
model light as waves either, and therefore can't support interference 
(e.g. diffraction or iridescence) nor polarization-related effects (e.g. 
birefringence).

The main difference between biased (e.g. POV-Ray) and unbiased renderers 
is not primarily what types of illumination effects they support, but 
that (by definition) the latter use algorithms which are guaranteed to 
not introduce any artifacts except per-pixel statistical noise (which 
can be reduced by investing more computing time).

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