This definitely has that extra touch of realism that is missing
in plain vanilla renderings. The tube doesn't seem to be 36x1
in dimensions though, and my previous advice on the fade_distance
doesn't apply here unless you recalculated for the new geometry.

This a challenging scene for radiosity. Is the whole room modelled?
Just blank walls are enough for the out-of-frame parts and maybe
black patches for the window(s). The tonal balance looks ok for
sRGB image but more color variations would be nice. For the moire
I would try blurred version of the normal as normal map. If you
add glass to the scene the render time will explode unless it's
done is two steps.

The http news are broken at the moment so here's a NS link to
a thread where this glass and radiosity issue came up:
news://news.povray.org/3be39102%40news.povray.org
news://news.povray.org/3be532ca%40news.povray.org

First save the rad data from a "quick glass" render and reuse
it in the final render. The image is not important here so 1/2
resolution should be enough. Set glass or transparent objects like
this when saving rad data:

max_trace_level recursion_limit+1 (may need to be higher)
diffuse 0 ambient 0
no normal
no reflection

Then set them back to normal and:

load_file "rad.dat" always_sample off pretrace_start 1 pretrace_end 1


_____________
Kari Kivisalo

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