Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde> wrote:
> Patrick Elliott wrote:
> >
> > And once again, the existing method, while more accurate, is impractical,
> > complicated and incomprehensible to most people for any reasonable
> > application they might want to try it with. Even the people that have
> > experimented with it so far have yet to get it to work as easily as it
> > would need to be for a newbie to employ it. As someone that doesn't spend
> > all my free time trying things in POV-Ray, that includes me. lol And, as
> > you point out, its quite likely slower, which also makes it impractical
> > for some uses.
> >
>
> What exactly makes you think that any such patch is easier to use?  On
> the contrary - a patch that takes a less universal approach than a full
> scattering media simulation to gain faster results most likely requires
> additional controls to be set.
>
> Christoph

Mmmh... I also think that an universal method is better, and media
functionality in Povray seems complete. Some time ago I also tried to
implement sub-surface scattering trough povray language, after reading some
articles posted in these news. I encountered two problems:

1 - poor results: the quality reached has never been like the one seen in
the image seen for example in the articles about real sub-surface
scattering.

2 - it's very complicated to reach a good approximation/simulation of sss in
povray.

The problem stands for generic objects. It's easy to apply density to a
simple object (a sphere, a box, etc.) but for a generic or complex objects
things change: the only way I found was the construction of a density file
ad-hoc, using macros that scanned the interior of an object and calculated
a particular density in strata near the outer surface. It's not easy to
explain this idea. It was just an idea; my job doesnt allow me to find the
necessary time to implement it... :(

Maybe there are simpler methods. Can anyone find a macro or a method to
simulate sss for a generic object using povray media? This is not the
correct place to ask this question, but the answer could definitevely close
the question if a patch can be discussed or not, I think...

Thanks

AF

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