It's definitely getting there.
I have to get the lighting amounts roughly right, they are a BIT overdone in
this image.

It does take a LONG time to trace now, even through I cut the main spark
down to 50 lights, and the minor ones to 3 lights.  (BTW: What happens if I
set it to 1 or 2 lights?)

I used to have an area light at 2 illuminating the scene, now it's cranked
down to 0.75 in this scene, and I'm working on minimizing that.

I need to work on the main spark, it's not as complicated as I'd like but I
still want the softer look that I have here. You get a sort of "burning"
look with the longer discharges, as the heated nitrogen rises and cools.

I got tired of the checkered floor.  Interestingly, I was going for a
fractally checkered floor, but this dosen't work:

#declare Floor = object { plane { y, // <X Y Z> unit surface normal, vector
points "away from surface"
                                  0 // distance from the origin in the
direction of the surface normal
                                  photons { target reflection on refraction
off }
                                }
                          texture { hexagon
                                    texture {White_Plastic}
                                    texture {Black_Plastic}
                                    texture {hexagon
                                             texture {Red_Plastic}
                                             texture {Green_Plastic}
                                             texture {Blue_Plastic}
                                            }
                                  }
                          scale <12 * Inch, 12 * Inch, 12 * Inch>
                          }

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'marxlight1.JPG' (50 KB)

Preview of image 'marxlight1.JPG'