>
>   Why do samples need to store their recursion level?
>   *Rays* need to know their recursion level when they are traced, but
that's
> all. This is trivial and it's the exact same thing as the regular
raytracing
> process is doing anyways (for reflections and refractions).

Ah, yes, that makes sense. Hadn't thought about that.

> > And finally, pretrace. As I understand it, pretrace is
> > just another pass over the picture in order to check
> > if enough samples are present at any given spot.
>
>   AFAIK pretrace is simply a preprocessing step to get some initial
> samples in the scene, thus speeding up the actual raytracing.

But then there wouldn't be a need for several pretrace
passes, would there? I could do one rather detailed pass
right away, and leave it at that. Since POV-Ray normally
works as efficient as possible (there are a lot of really
good programmers working on it), I came to the conclusion
that since sampling is the main factor for the radiosity
calculations, samples are spread and gathered in several
passes, to only place samples where needed.

-- 
Tim Nikias v2.0
Homepage: http://www.digitaltwilight.de/no_lights

 Warp -


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.495 / Virus Database: 294 - Release Date: 30.06.2003

Post a reply to this message