POV-Ray [plugin] (updated: 2016/Aug/08)

[micheus]

I noticed that for some reason if an object converted to an area light has hard edges it causes the scene to fail to render.

Thanks oort. I found what was wrong. Fixed. (go top)

I noticed that an object converted to an area light is visible in the scene but the standard Wings3d area light is not.

oort, I believe that the Avariant has used it just to implement the orientation vectors (a reason why it was using only three vertices from that plane) - necessary for this kind of light - as I tried to explain here many times (see post #19).

Just an addendum I found:
"How do I make a visible light source?" or: "Although I put the camera just in front of my light source, I can't see anything. What am I doing wrong?"

"How do I make a visible light source?" or: "Although I put the camera just in front of my light source, I can't see anything. What am I doing wrong?"

A light source in POV-Ray is only a concept. When you add a light source to the scene, you are actually saying to POV-Ray "hey, there is light coming from this point". As the name says, it's a light source, not a physical light (like a light bulb or a bright spot like a star). POV-Ray doesn't add anything to that place where the light is coming, ie. there is nothing there, only empty space. It's just a kind of mathematical point POV-Ray uses to make shading calculations. (re.: Tips and tricks to achieve useful things)

Have you posted in the Pov-Ray forum as suggested by maker?

Not yet, but there is a lot of links related to this when I "gloogled".

I believe that we can mature these concept together and make the changes when it be necessary.
At this point I'm going to finish fixing bugs taht you guys have found in order to make the plugin work for the next Wings3d release.

But just to foment these questions, I found some informations about the light on other renders (I would like to add only the video links, but I couldn't - it's better watch in full size):
VRayLight examples

How To Use Textures and Objects to Light Your Scene With and Without Global Illumination in Cinema 4D

How to emit light from Objects in Autodesk Maya

Don't go away.