I was reading some material on forward and backward raytracing, as well
as a previous post.  I also read in the povray docs (which have to be
the best help files I have come across) about photon tracing and some
other hi-tech methods.

I gather Pov-ray does backwards raytracing.  How does radiosity fit into
the picture?  If pov-ray was to implement forward and backwards
raytracing, would this differ much from radiosity?  Would it take more
than twice as long (on average) to calculate scenes, or would it only
slow down depending on certain objects (eg specular highlights,
reflections, caustics)?

Is photon tracing as CPU-killing as it sounds, or do various shortcuts
(such as those taken for radiosity in current POV) make it realistic in
short term future (within couple of years)?
Any information on what happens in photon tracing??

Finally, I was going to have a scene with some lamps similar to those
old-fashioned street lights (circular head / globe).  I was wondering if
I would get a decent result if I made the lamp globes fairly bright with
ambience, took out all the lights, and used radiosity to light the
scene.  Or something to give a nice light, similar to a 3d-area light I
suppose.  I don't know.  The final render is going to kill my computer .
. .


- Willow

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