Just a thought, someone mentioned that the POV Area lights don't behave as
true area lights with respect to illumination coverage and photons, but they
do make great, fast smooth shadows. To get the best of both worlds, why not
create an area light in the center, then an array of SHADOWLESS point lights
around the center? This would handle both optimized soft shadows as well as
more realistic illumination coverage and photons. It should be a whole lot
faster than a plain array of point lights because no expensive shadow
testing has to be done.

George Pantazopoulos

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In article <3d79e300$1@news.povray.org>, the### [at] attbicom*KILLSPAM* 
says...

> do make great, fast smooth shadows. To get the best of both worlds, why not
> create an area light in the center, then an array of SHADOWLESS point lights
> around the center?

Because shadowless lights don't create any highlights?

Lutz-Peter Hooge

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I didnt see that in the manual... man, talk about bursting my bubble! ;)
Back to the drawing board!

George


"Lutz-Peter Hooge" <lpv### [at] gmxde> wrote in message
news:3d79fa7f$1@news.povray.org...
> In article <3d79e300$1@news.povray.org>, the### [at] attbicom*KILLSPAM*
> says...
>
> > do make great, fast smooth shadows. To get the best of both worlds, why
not
> > create an area light in the center, then an array of SHADOWLESS point
lights
> > around the center?
>
> Because shadowless lights don't create any highlights?
>
> Lutz-Peter Hooge

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George Pantazopoulos <the### [at] attbicom*killspam*> wrote:
> Just a thought, someone mentioned that the POV Area lights don't behave as
> true area lights with respect to illumination coverage and photons,

  The last part is not true. Photons work well with area lights (actually
probably better than with a true grid of point lights).

-- 
#macro N(D)#if(D>99)cylinder{M()#local D=div(D,104);M().5,2pigment{rgb M()}}
N(D)#end#end#macro M()<mod(D,13)-6mod(div(D,13)8)-3,10>#end blob{
N(11117333955)N(4254934330)N(3900569407)N(7382340)N(3358)N(970)}//  - Warp -

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