"Jim Hart" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Hi. I am having a problem figuring out why POV-Ray is not allowing me to overlap
> several objects that have emission media interiors. I have attempted to vary
> both pigment and finish, but it seems that the resulting images show the
> surfaces of the objects when they intermix with the interior media of another
> (an effect I do NOT want).

My own experience with this frustrating 'visible container' problem has usually
boiled down to two things:
1) The media samples being different in the overlapping objects--they should be
the same (if that's possible in your scene)
2) Which object (of two overlapping objects) the camera 'ray' sees first. The
first (or 'outer') object actually sets the samples for any other media
container(s) that happen to be inside it/partially inside it. The outer one
completely overrides the inner one. That's an odd but
kind of understandable thing, and doesn't really cause problems. Yet the
'protruding' part of the inner object--the part that's outside the main object
and not overlapping--takes on its own samples count there; the boundary between
the two is really where the  'visible' container artifacts show up.

The solution that almost always works for me is to try and set the samples equal
for both objects--and/or to crank up samples (in one or both) until the problem
is minimized. (Sometimes it's just a matter of not having *enough* samples in
*either* object.) To help explain that further: One media sphere *completely*
enclosed by another will usually NOT show any boundary problems--unless the
larger sphere's sample count is just TOO low.

BTW, as has been stated in many posts over the years, it's best to use media
method 3 intervals 1, and just vary the samples count. (Method 3 will create
more intervals if it needs them.)

KW

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