On 4 Oct 2001 05:29:44 -0400, Warp wrote:
>Timothy R. Cook <tim### [at] scifi-fantasycom> wrote:
>: Something which troubles me is that when I put a light source near
>: a surface (such as a ceiling), the rest of the room is illuminated
>: but the surface proximal to the light remains unlit
>
>  It doesn't "remain unlit". It's just that the angle of incidence of the
>light on the surface is so small that the diffuse illumination is very dim.
>  This would also happen in real life if you had a room with walls and floor
>which don't reflect light (but which you can somehow see anyways).
>  The reason why the ceiling is illuminated as well is because light reflects
>from the floor and walls and illuminates the ceiling.

I think it's also an effect of the inverse-square law.  The ceiling is 
closer to the light source, so it gets a lot more light.  A little tuning
of the light intensity combined with fading might make a huge difference.

-- 
plane{-z,-3normal{crackle scale.2#local a=5;#while(a)warp{repeat x flip x}rotate
z*60#local a=a-1;#end translate-9*x}pigment{rgb 1}}light_source{-9red 1rotate 60
*z}light_source{-9rgb y rotate-z*60}light_source{9-z*18rgb z}text{ttf"arial.ttf"
"RP".01,0translate-<.6,.4,.02>pigment{bozo}}light_source{-z*3rgb-.2}//Ron Parker

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