That is a very interesting idea!  Have you done any testing on it yet?  I'm
interested in how well it performs.  Are you considering adding it to POV
eventually?  If so, we should (at some future time) discuss how photon maps
and the contributing network can work together (unless, of course, the
contributing network works so well that it replaces the photon maps... I
won't feel too bad if that happens).

Steve wrote:
> 
> Tell me what you mean by random sampling. What are you sampling exactly?
> Thanks.

I was speaking of the beams shot out of the light source into the scene.
Originally, I chose a random theta/phi combination (based on a good PDF
which was supposed to lead to uniform distribution over the area of the
unit sphere).  But I was also speaking of splitting those beams up when
they hit a diffuse surface.  Sample beams would then be chosen over the
unit hemisphere based on the surface normal.  This time, the PDF favored
rays based on the surface's BRDF.

-Nathan

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