Ken wrote:
> 
> Your not expecting an object that cannot cast a shadow to cast a caustic are
> you ? If I missed the question here maybe you could assign the objects in
> question with the photons_pass_through modifier.
> 
Actually, that won't do it.  The photons_pass_through modifier is not very
well understood (even by myself at times) and hopefully I will be able to
document it more thoroughly soon.

On the other hand, it would probably be a good idea for shadowless objects
to be shadowless for photons.  However, there are two options:

1) fast rendering, but shadowless objects will have ignore_photons enabled
by default (no photons will ever hit a shadowless object, even to get
deposited on them)

2) slower rendering (since the object will be treated like a transparent
object, thus increasing trace level for photons that pass through it)
but photons will get deposited on shadowless objects.

Opinions on which is better?  #2 would be easier to implement (relativly
trivial, actually).

One last thought... a combination of the two might be good.. and might
help POV in general, too.  If a refracted ray is colinear with the
previous ray (e.g. new interior has same IOR as old interior), then
don't compute any more intersections... rather re-use the existing
intersection stack.  Does POV already implement this?  If not, it could
potentiall be a nice speed-up in some instances, and would definately
help with photons and shadowless objects.

-Nathan

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