Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!apple!well!ewhac From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Village Idiot Asks About Raytracing Message-ID: <7818@well.UUCP> Date: 3 Dec 88 09:34:44 GMT Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab) Organization: The International Beam-Wesley-Into-A-Bulkhead Society Lines: 34 Quote: "Raffert was dying. It's difficult to be neat under those circumstances." -- Avon [ #include] I was doing a few gedanken experiments with raytracing, and came up with a few questions. Realize that I've never written a raytracer. Suppose I have an object, a light source, and a flat surface set up as a perfect mirror. Suppose further that I have a thing between the object and light source preventing direct illumination of the object. Suppose further still that the "mirror" is set up to reflect the light from the light source to the object. Question: Will the object be illuminated? Does it depend on whose software I'm using? Suppose I have a flat surface, a light source, and an object in the shape of a convex lens above the surface under the light. Suppose further that the object is set up to be perfectly clear, and refracts light like glass. Question: Will the light beneath the lens object be intensely focused on the surface below, just like a real lens? The point of the above two questions is to find out if, in general, raytracers handle illumination from light bounced off of or refracted through other objects. Finally, has anyone come up with a raytracer whose refraction model takes into account the varying indicies of refraction of different light frequencies? In other words, can I find a raytracer that, when looking through a prism obliquely at a light source, will show me a rainbow? Something tells me that all three questions are rather hard. _-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU \_ -_ Recumbent Bikes: UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac O----^o The Only Way To Fly. hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack") "Work FOR? I don't work FOR anybody! I'm just having fun." -- The Doctor