>
>Well, I'm getting there. HDRI is a way of approximating real-life situations
>that Pov-Ray can't do, or can't do well -- I'm thinking events like depth of
>focus, glare, sun flares.
>

Not quite.  It really has to do with one thing only, afaik.  Simply the
lighting.

By allowing some things to be brighter than simply "all-white" it allows you
to insert a 3D object into a "real life" photo, and have the same lighting
in the room as you did when the photo was taken.  To use my "sun coming
thru a window" analogy, your 3D object could actually be "lighted" from
where the sun hits on the far side of the room indirectly, and not just
from the actual light source.

I still don't feel I'm explaining this very well.  Maybe if I said something
like, "To some extent, it's like radiosity coming from a photograph rather
than from a light source bouncing off 3D objects in a completely rendered
scene."

Slash

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