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

[micheus]

Still there is the option to mix both menus (object and light), but I'm not sure to be appropriated and I'm not the person to decide about this - that's why I started this threread.

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I wouldn't like to bring for this thread that discussion/brainstorm we are having in POV-Ray plugin thread but, it seems to be necessary some comments here.

Right now - my tests show - Wings treats the "Object as Area Light" as (1?) point light placed at center of object.

Yeah, we already took about it.
The main goal of use (set) an area_light for any kind of light (point,spot,parallel,...) is produce soft shadows, isn't it?
The addition of area_light <vec1> <vec2>, size1, size2(see picture below) to the point light definition (that you can see in the .pov file, after export an Area light from Wings3d) will do that: a point light with soft shadows.

The object's size or shape or angle have absolutely no effect on the lighting.

yes, you are right. It doesn't affect the light, but the shadows. That's why the dimension and orientation of the plain defined by vetc1 and vec2 are important.

Did you forget about this image I put in the other thread:

The light is just a bright point in the air and it's not variable, but take a look at the shadows: it's softer for each time I increased the dimension.

also - in accord with the documentation -, yes, the orientation (defined by that two vector) influences too.
Check these two images exported directly from Wings - no .pov tweaked:

Horizontal


Vertical

as you pointed out, it could be a mess to guess the orientation the user wants.

That was before I discover that Area light is not getting its context menu working. If so, we will able to use the same operation we use for Spot, Point and Infinite - use the Position Highlight option in the context menu.

I'm not sure, but I don't think Pov-ray has a concept of meshlights.

Maybe its not exactly what we would like, but v3.7RC? has improved it - I just discovered these days. There is a new keyword area_illumination in the light statement. See the result:

object looks_like without area_illumination


object looks_like with area_illumination