CompuServe Thread

Hi Joe, Besides the answers you've received and will receive (I'm sure), regarding light types, angles, etc., you might try working with the actual material definitions as well to "fake" more even, diffused light such as from an area light. However, I did architectural renderings for several years using 3D software, and if you are needing to actually do a simulation to evaluate light sources, shadows, room illumination, etc., with accuracy, you are not going to be able to do it with this or most any other 3D software. Most "typical" interior lighting is a complex combination of the light emanating from the light sources as well as from inter-reflections among walls and other diffuse surfaces. Ray tracing will not help you much either as it is an illumination model for a highly reflective environment – not very typical of most "real world" situations. Only a Radiosity algorithm will closely simulate these diffuse inter- reflections (possibly combined with ray tracing), and you'll be hard pressed to find one in a 3D program – not to mention that you or your clients will give up on waiting for it to render ! You won't be able to do an *accurate*, algorithm-derived simulation, but you can fake it pretty nicely with a little bit of forethought. Just try to place a *number* of low-intensity lights in the scene at locations where they would best "fake" the diffuse inter-reflections. With some experimentation and a high quality scanline renderer such as 3DS R3, you'll be surprised at how "real" you can make things appear….and 3DS lets you exclude objects from receiving light from a given source which makes it even easier. GOOD LUCK ! Regards, Bill