Sorry for the delay. I was experimenting in Pov-ray, trying to understand their "looks like" (But looks like I couldn't 
)
Do glowing objects really shadows? I would have thought they didn't.
That's true. It's quite clear what you're pointing out.
I'm stumped. I tried to find out how Wings handles it.
From my experiments, it seems it's actually "object as point light" (at center of object.) If you create a huge torus "area light" around a standard cube, only the center of cube is illuminated. Rotation and scaling this make no difference to light.
While if I create an Area Light and move and rotate, the difference can be seen at once.
So I'd suggest exporting it as 1 point light , or a union of point lights (choice in user-preference). Because - if you're using irregular objects - there's really no way of knowing where you want to orient it to. Also, that should match the way it looks in the Wings viewport.
Just my 2c. (And hoping that someone who knows more about Pov-ray will chip in. Meanwhile I'll see if my little brain can think of something better)
Edit: BYW, I hope you don't mind my saying. Your references are to Pov-ray 3.6x. It's now at v3.7(RC6)
)(12-23-2012, 01:20 PM)micheus Wrote:(12-22-2012, 12:30 AM)oort Wrote: I am only familiar with YafaRay meshlights and the ones I have done are more like glow in the dark marbles... I think they are used for neon or florescent lights???oort, did you export the scene directly from Wings to get this result?
In POV, I couldn't find a way to produce that result. When we use looks_like the object attached doesn't block light - so, no shadow.
To make a scene like yours I would need to tweak the pov file and use union - like explained ...
![[Image: th_Meshlights.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v635/oort/th_Meshlights.jpg)
Do glowing objects really shadows? I would have thought they didn't.
Quote:For the "new" option that we are taking about here we don't have any orientation, because the object can be irregular.
By being a rectangle/square or circle/ellipse the amount of area defined by AXIS_1_VECTOR, AXIS_2_VECTOR in the area_light declaration (that I need to export to POV) will define the amount or how softly are the shadows produced by an object.
...
the point light array was defined as 8x8, but the area of the plane is: 0.5x0.5, 1x1, 2x2 and 5x5
That's true. It's quite clear what you're pointing out.
Quote:The user can mark these options in the Light Properties to be exported, but - by considering the last picture in the link above - without the right definition for light orientation the user can obtain wrong shadows.
I'm stumped. I tried to find out how Wings handles it.
From my experiments, it seems it's actually "object as point light" (at center of object.) If you create a huge torus "area light" around a standard cube, only the center of cube is illuminated. Rotation and scaling this make no difference to light.
While if I create an Area Light and move and rotate, the difference can be seen at once.
So I'd suggest exporting it as 1 point light , or a union of point lights (choice in user-preference). Because - if you're using irregular objects - there's really no way of knowing where you want to orient it to. Also, that should match the way it looks in the Wings viewport.
Just my 2c. (And hoping that someone who knows more about Pov-ray will chip in. Meanwhile I'll see if my little brain can think of something better)
Edit: BYW, I hope you don't mind my saying. Your references are to Pov-ray 3.6x. It's now at v3.7(RC6)