#3DSV3 raytracing
Greg,
Actually they don't have to leave 3DS completely for Schreiber's Sun routine.
Granted it is not an IPAS because of the issue of Spot light creation. To
avoid quitting 3DS, they can save the .3DS file, Shell to dos and run the sun
routine, exit back into 3DS and then simply reload the modified .3DS file. Not
too much of a penalty when shelling, but it does require a reload of the file.
Trade off is that they end up with an optimized spotlight for nearly parallel
shadows and optionally an object representing the sun itself. Both the sun
object and the spotlight have the keyframe data established when they reload
the .3DS file. Maybe with the new IPAS3 features, guys like Keith and Gus can
give us some really cool tools.
CT.