texture {
            pigment {
                color rgb <251.0/255*BRIGHTNESS, 230.0/255*BRIGHTNESS,
1.0/255*BRIGHTNESS>//nice bright gold color I picked using ps's color picker
                //color rgb <233.0/255, 157.0/255,211.0/255>
            }
            finish {
                phong 0.9
                phong_size 60
                //roughness 0.02
                brilliance BRILLIANCE
                specular .75
                roughness .1

                //roughness .001
                ambient 0.5
                diffuse 0.1 //.1

                //ambient 0.2
                //diffuse .3 //.1
                ////reflection {.3}

                reflection {
                    color rgb <251.0/255*BRIGHTNESS, 230.0/255*BRIGHTNESS,
1.0/255*BRIGHTNESS>//nice bright gold color I picked using ps's color picker
                    //rgb <233.0/255/3, 157.0/255/3, 211.0/255/3>, rgb
<233.0/255, 157.0/255, 211.0/255>//nice bright gold color I picked using ps's
color picker
                    fresnel on
                    metallic 1.0
                    //brilliance BRILLIANCE
                }
                reflection 1
                conserve_energy

                //metallic  1.0
                specular 0.9
            }

        }
        interior {
            ior 2.4
            fade_distance 0.5
            fade_power 1001
        }
        scale < 1.5/2.2, 1.5*2/2.2, .3/2.2 >
        translate < -1.6, 1.1, .4 >
        photons {
            target
            reflection on
            refraction on
        }


I am still experimenting to get what I want.
is the dithering because of:
- the viewer which is doing the dithering on my 32-bit display?
- the monitor, which is a low-end monitor and can't display 10-bit color?
- roughness .1? (beginning to suspect lack of high resolution in this area or
specificity of resolution for roughness should that be necessary - really it
should be derived from the image size). maybe I just need to think about this
more and drop roughness in favor of something that keeps the gold nice and
shiny. maybe roughness is just doing exactly what it's designed to do...)

is the posterization because of:
- the colored lights I am using (Like the gels I learned about in theater stage
lighting in high school), and this is a shadow (I think so)? maybe I should
soften the shadows! I was looking at area lights, but I don't understand the
direction of the vectors, the manual shows 2 of them them going in 2 directions
at once. there are vectors that do that sort of thing, but how would you write
that with the syntax given? this is not explained very well.
- the Bits_Per_Color=16 and Output_File_Type=N (but not sure if PNG can handle
more than 8bpc)? but the posterizing should not look like 2bpc like it does now
on the shadows. still suspect the previous item.

also, the manual section on bits per color does not explain the necessary detail
that there are some bit resolutions it doesn't support (OK, what DOES it
support? what are the boundaries?), and that it means bits per primary color, so
that if you choose 16, the total number of bits is RGB 3colors*16bitsPerColor=48
bits total.

 is there a workaround for having

what I really wanted was a special effect I was able to get from POV-RAY once a
long time ago where a certain configuration caused (oh what's that effect called
where you get the rainbow-diamonds lens effect that looks so cool in some
photos? I think it's diffraction grating (in cameras, a diffraction filter) that
does that. too bad I can't seem to find a keyword for that.


I don't like the way the colors look like brightness was cranked up too high. I
think I fixed this before using roughness 0.5. I could turn down the lights, but
the surrounding sphere (not listed here) would seem darker, maybe I need to
bring up the light levels in that area or something.

the shadows look terrible in that they are posterized. blech. where did the
color bits go?

this is a work in progress. haven't got the font positionings down correctly.


I took the roughness away and now it's really posterized.
what causes this posterization and dithering? I *really* want to get rid of it.
why is it at 4K resolution that roughness is visible? is it supposed to be
visible? I read in the manual I think that increasing roughness is supposed to
be useful for shiny metals to help make them look shinier (I could not see this
logic, some explanation needed).
can I fix that somehow?

apparently you can't follow the shadowless keyword with rgb. ouch.

I noticed in 3.7 the #declare AmbientLight seems to have no effect.

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