"MessyBlob" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > Define "same object" in a CSG setting... tricky.
>
> Does this raise some fundamental design questions about POV-Ray? We have the
> original direct lighting model, the radiosity model, and photons, we have
> different attributes, like surfaces/finishes (ambient, diffuse, specular),
> interiors (media, SSLT, fog), and we have different modelling constructs
> (primitives shapes, implicit surfaces, CSG, closed composites).
>
> The problem is that they do not all talk to each other like we would casually
> expect, An example relevant to this post would be SSLT and 'media scattering'
> currently only working with direct light sources.

As for this particular issue, that's just due to an outright hack that's still
in the SSLT code, which circumvents the standard light source handling stuff
until I've found the time to integrate it properly.

> Is it worth asking a fundamental design question about standards and interfaces
> for the very top-level of (classifications of) POV objects? (surfaces,
> interiors, models), so that all compliant features, new and old, will operate
> with all the others? I appreciate that new features might necessarily introduce
> new elements to the interfaces, if they are radical enough.

The interfaces between the various components are still a bit more fuzzy than
I'd like them to be, but integrating SSLT is a good opportunity to address
these issues, and I'm about to do just that.

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