I might rename to *_photons.  However, if we keep it as save_file and
load_file, then we could use the same keywords in the radiosity{} block (no
need for new keywords) to save/load radiosity.  And yes, this could
definately be done with radiosity (the radiosity octree can already be
saved/loaded by POV for continued renders).  The only problem with radiosity
is that POV will usually calculate more radiosity data during the ray-trace
pass.  This could be prevented if necessary, though.

This feature (saving/loading the photon map) is also intended to help with
network rendering possibities in the future.  It should be in the docs
somewhere.  If not, I'll have to add it.

-Nathan


TonyB <ben### [at] panamaphoenixnet> wrote...
> Is this somewhere in your docs? Is it only useful for photons? I ask this
> because you might want to change the keyword from "*_file" to "*_photons",
> seeing as this might cause confusion later on.
>
> This is pretty cool. I assume that it stores the photon map for situations
> when there is no movement of the lightsource(s) itself(themselves), right?
> Could a similar thing be done with radiosity, to avoid recalculation? I
> remember that at a demonstration I went to, Lightscape would (AFAIK) only
> precalculate the radiosity directly into the textures, and then you could
> render normally with everything looking radiant.
>
>

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