POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : Mirrors in povray : Re: Mirrors in povray Server Time
14 Aug 2024 01:15:39 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Mirrors in povray  
From: Johannes Hubert
Date: 28 Apr 1998 12:02:51
Message: <6i4uka$77t$1@oz.aussie.org>
Jarich Koning wrote in message
<3545E851.54ECE5B1@mail.student.utwente.nl>...
>I have tried to make a disco-ball, wich gives you those nice spots on
>the walls. However, povray doesn't seem able to do this: the reflection
>of a beam of light from a spotlight via a mirror onto the wall. Am I
>doing something wrong? Is there anyone out there who tried this also?
>I've been looking through the docs that came with povray, but couldn't
>find anything...


You are right. POV-Ray (as most raytracers) does no specular reflection.
That means, lightbeams that hit a reflecting surface will not be reflected
to light up something else.
This is due to how raytracing works: Not the lightbeams are traced as they
leave the lightsource, but instead rays from the eye of the user are traced
to see if they "hit" anything and can be traced (probably via
reflection/refraction) to some lightsource.

A workaround: Instead of little mirrors on the discoball, make little holes
and place a lightsource inside of the ball (or something similar...)

Johannes.


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