Christopher James Huff wrote:
>In article <web.3e4118dbc7b69b7a1c4fca030[at]news.povray.org>,
> "Neil Conway" <nei### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
>
>> Are multiple reflections handled by the radiosity & emitting media code?  (I
>> mean multiple reflections from regular objects btw.)
>
>The emitting code doesn't "handle" any reflections. I don't know what
>you are asking, your question doesn't make sense.

What I meant was, is the light emitted from an emission medium reflected
from objects onto other objects?  (I'm starting to get the idea, sorry it's
so painfully slow.)  I now believe the correct term is "inter-diffuse"
reflection.  I know that radiosity handles multiple reflections for regular
light sources, but it's not immediately clear if the same applies to
media...

>You seem to have a misconception of how raytracing works.

[See a couple of messages higher - I had misunderstood the FAQ (sheesh!)
when it said that reflections of light from mirrors weren't possible...]

>reflections of other parts of the scene is possible this way, computing
>reflection of light through a scene is not. Photon mapping can handle
>light coming indirectly from a light source through a reflection, but
>media does not emit photons.

Thanks for the tips.  I had been browsing the source code, and had just
reached the conclusion that media don't emit photons :-))  (I think this is
what you alluded to in a previous message?)

However, it looks like a simple patch to generate genuine photons from media
- lots of CPU time, but fairly straightforward, no?  I might give that a
stab if it's not a desperately stupid thing to try...

thanks again
Neil

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