In article <41a30ffe@news.povray.org>, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> 
wrote:

> Yeager <non### [at] club-internetfr> wrote:
> > I need some explanation about the radiosity algorithm.
> 
>   By the way, if you speak about this algorithm outside the POV-Ray
> community, you should be aware that there exists an algorithm called
> "radiosity" which has basically nothing to do with Greg Ward's
> stochastic global illumination method, and usually when graphics
> people speak about "radiosity" they are referring to this other
> algorithm.

That's really an incorrect use (though common). Radiosity is a problem, 
not an algorithm or technique...the word literally refers to the rate at 
which energy leaves a surface. I personally refuse to say "global 
diffuse illumination" when "radiosity" is a perfectly good word for the 
same thing. The monte-carlo method used by POV-Ray is every bit as 
"real" of a radiosity algorithm. If I'm talking about patch 
approximations to illumination, I'll say patch approximation!

However, the other terms are useful when looking for information...

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: <chr### [at] tagpovrayorg>
http://tag.povray.org/

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