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Artifice 3D Design Community Discussion |
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Posted by Kevin Matthews on September 25, 1998 at 00:02:33:
In Reply to: Radiance Integration posted by Light Man on September 22, 1998 at 18:53:06:
Interesting question. There are licensing issues, but they are solvable.
I would generally agree that the essential rendering algorithims in Radiance are portable C code, that could be run easly on any fast CPU. And as the CPUs get faster, and as personal computer memory and disk managment get gradually closer to pure Unix efficiency, many of the other basic issues get easier to deal with.
Eventually I think these trends will make an integrated Radiance very possible. But for now, I think the tougher issues have to do with the size and duration of Radiance calculations. Certainly some can be done in minutes. But high-resolution renderings of big, complex scenes with difficult lighting can take many hours or even days -- and in a way the power and reliability of Radiance on Unix encourage taking on these really tough jobs.
To actually run these big tough jobs takes a different approach than a typical personal computer application. They are not something to just start and stop at convenience, like a word processor or a 3D design tool. They want to run steadily, without needing attention or baby sitting, until they're done.
For now, the most convenient way to run big processes like a a major Radiance project is to hand them off from your desktop or notebook machine, to a computer in a quiet room somewhere that just crunches the numbers.
And if you've ever had an NT machine tied up for a day or two on a big Lightscape job, you'll know this is not just a Radiance issue. This is where the technology is at, for now.