In article <3A5DE21E.13B70413@aetec.ee>, Vahur Krouverk 
<vah### [at] aetecee> wrote:

> Just a thought:
> If dust from this discussion is settled down and common ground is found,
> then perhaps someone could summarize it and put it available (e.g. as
> guideline for rule-of-thumb)?

As mentioned, pretty much everyone has their own "rule of thumb", and 
you will have to just develop your own. However, this is how I do 
things, but note that much of this applies to MegaPOV only:

Make sure ambient+diffuse+reflection <= 1
(I don't include specular in this, because it only applies to certain 
angles relative to each light_source...just adjust it until you get the 
highlights you want. I never use phong highlights. If you use 
iridescence, that should probably go into the above calculations.)

metallic on
reflect_metallic on
conserve_energy on
Use Fresnel reflection function if applicable (a surprisingly large 
number of situations).

I get best results with ambient 0 and radiosity. A high ambient robs the 
scene of contrast and depth, so the only times I use an ambient other 
than 0 is when I have a glowing object or have an object that just needs 
to show up (I sometimes use ambient 1 cylinders aligned along each axis 
for orientation). For test renders, I usually don't use radiosity, but I 
put a light_source at the position of the camera. This helps illuminate 
dark shadows but doesn't destroy the depth cues like ambient does.

Also, I always use "filter", never "transmit" for transparence. When I'm 
going for a realistic transparent material, I use a filter value of 1 
and use absorbing media or fade_color (using the "realistic attenuation" 
function) to tint the glass to the right color. This makes thick areas 
dark and very thin areas almost invisible, which is how things work in 
reality.
Dispersion can add a very nice touch, and photons can really add to your 
scene if you have reflective/refracting objects and something they can 
cast light on (mainly dull surfaces or media, anything you would notice 
light caustics on normally).

-- 
Christopher James Huff
Personal: chr### [at] maccom, http://homepage.mac.com/chrishuff/
TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg, http://tag.povray.org/

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