On Mon, 08 Feb 1999 21:58:13 -0500, Carl Bartels
<cab### [at] bravo436chemmcgillca> wrote:

>Does anybody have any thoughts about making a patch to add true
>diffraction
>to povray.  For example, the idea of double slit interfearence pattern
>or the
>diffraction of a pinhole (good-grief, Bessel functions!)  Or would
>mathematical
>optics (vs. geometrical optics) not be raytracing anymore?
>
>I've never done much with pov except apply patches and trace scenes so
>if anyone
>has some idea, please let me know.

My brother and I were discussing the issue in the bus a couple of days
ago, just after his exam in radio waves and radio lines. We were
thinking of tracing spherical waves, but then we thought the wave can
be represented by rays and the wave equation for these rays. More
precisely, monte carlo rays in all directions, more rays where needed
(slits, edges, wedges, gratings, etc.) Interference is easy to model
this way but it requires backward raytracing. Tropospheric refraction
is also easy to model. Hydrometeoric scattering is somewhat difficult
to imitate and virtually impossible to implement realistically. Then
we was we had missed the busstop...

Peter

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