"Edouard" <pov### [at] edouardinfo> wrote:
> Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> > clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> > > (A) There is nothing I actively /want/ - In case you didn't notice, this
> > > is how it /is/ implemented right now. The one who /wants/ a change is /you/.
> >
> >   The question is about clarity and flexibility. The current solution is
> > confusing (as demonstrated by the original post) and inflexible.
> >
> >   Compare the situation to how it would be with photons. What is clearer and
> > less confusing, this:
> >
> >     photons off
> >     no_photons
> >
> > or this:
> >
> >     photons { collect off }
> >     photons { pass_through }
> >
> >   You are basically advocating the former, for the sole reason that someone
> > made the poor choice of using that syntax in megapov.
>
> I've got to say, as a user, the no_radiosity keyword was immediately obvious,
> and followed clearly in the same model as no_shadow, no_reflection, etc. The
> mental model I have is that all objects use all the rendering features, but you
> have the option to turn specific ones off with the no_* keywords. Also
> no_bump_scale follows this pattern.
>
> Radiosity has to turned on globally, but then it affects everything just like
> shadows and reflection do.
>
> Photons have to be turned on per object, which differs from the other rendering
> effects.

Agreed.  no_radiosity sounds perfectly clear and fitting with the other no_*
keywords.  radiosity off is awkward though.  radiosity { collect on/off
pass_through } would probably be better, but I guess it's also harder to
implement?

The call for consistency doesn't sound right when there are several things that
don't sound much logical within povray but are there anyway.  Diffuse and
ambient terms meaning different things in the standard lighting model and the
radiosity one comes to mind.  I mean, ambient in the standard model controls the
amount of (constant) ambient lighting an object gets, while under radiosity it
means how much it contributes!  Diffuse supposedly is the amount of diffuse
reflection and object sends off, that's what should be used or at least sounds
more logical to me.

BTW, I realize now why povray doesn't get more patches and evolves so slowly...

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