Christian Froeschlin <chr### [at] chrfrde> wrote:
> You will wish to adapt the gamma settings to get a linear
> response curve, use 16-bit output for higher precision, and
> possibly try HDR output (this is in MegaPOV, there is also
> HDR support in 3.7b but I'm not sure its also for output?)

HDR is supported in 3.7 beta (29) for both in- and output. I tested.

I had the impression that it behaves differently than MegaPov regarding gamma,
but that might be due to the general gamma handling change (or due to fixes - I
think the MegaPOV HDR implementation is buggy in this respect). I didn't
investigate any further, because the beta also lacks other things I needed from
MegaPOV.

(I think photon mapping is already multi-threaded and stable in the beta, and
should be a good deal faster on modern hardware, so in this case I'd recommend
it over MegaPOV.)

HDR will definitely be a good choice with this - better even than 16-bit output
I guess, as it can not only capture very subtle differences in dim areas, but
is also very robust against "overexposure".

The precision of HDR, by the way, is still limited though, especially when
dealing with colors; its resolution regarding hue and saturation of a color are
just the same as a classic 8-bit-per-color format; its high dynamic range is
only achieved by adding an 8-bit exponent to scale the total brightness of a
pixel.

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