> Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
>

> >   Btw, as a curiosity: If you are wondering whether it makes any
> > considerable difference whether the direct lighting is calculated
> > as a point light source or as an area light, the answer is that in
> > some scenes it makes a big difference:
> >
> > http://warp.povusers.org/images/arealight.jpg
> > http://warp.povusers.org/images/lightgrid.jpg
> >
> Thanks for the images.  It does indeed produce a much bigger difference than
> I imagined.
>
> Ken

I should have been more detailed in my follow-up to your images. What
strikes me immediately is that lightgrid.jpg (which I take to be an array
of real point lights) produces *much* smoother illumination on the wall and
sphere than does the area light.  Surprisingly so. And the shadows from the
sphere look smoother than I would have imagined. Do you happen to recall
the difference in rendering times of the two images?

KW

Post a reply to this message