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I have kind of an odd question -- I assume emitters in Maxwell are using a black body based spectral curve which is fine for many light sources... however fluorescent lighting often does not match the Black body curve with spikes primarily in the greens and other irregularities...

So how do we specify the proper spectral curve for fluorescent lighting?

Best,
Jason.

Since I'm asking odd questions, I've got another:

Optical Brighteners are often used (in paper for example) which appear brighter in the presence of ultraviolet light... Do we have access to ultraviolet light (and infrared for that matter) in Maxwell?

It would be cool for special effects

Best,
Jason.

Would there be any difference in rendering though specifying an exact spectral curve, as opposed to just entering the K value from the manufacturer?

I think that we can have several sources with different spectrum which produce the same K but the way we perceive the objects under these emitters is different. Maybe Half Life is talking about metamerism.

Exactly -- objects under fluorescent lighting can behave differently than under incandescent... and since Black body is a match for incandescent (more or less) K temperatures would match those illuminations parameters but possibly not fluorescent lighting.

My point being that if you wanted to render a scene that looked like it was lit by "cheap" fluorescent lights how would one set up the emitters to match the curve correctly.

About halfway down the page here they talk a bit about what I'm getting at with CRI:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamp

Best,
Jason.

You guys are pretty hardcore. It's good (read: depressing) to know that while I'm trying to figure out how to render a passable leaf, there are people out there distinguishing between the light output of a $6 fluorescent vs. a $12 one.

/cry

-Brodie

Don't feel bad man, this is just my job -- I've got to leave no stone unturned in order to teach... My interest is specifically in the way the program works and what it's limitations are than any particular application (like archviz, etc). My thoughts are if I can explain in layman's terms some of the deeper level stuff in Maxwell then those who do have a specific application in mind will be better able to do their jobs -- it's just the way I do it.

My own renders are pretty far out, I use Maxwell to add realism to the unreal.

Best,
Jason.

brodie_geers wrote:You guys are pretty hardcore. It's good (read: depressing) to know that while I'm trying to figure out how to render a passable leaf, there are people out there distinguishing between the light output of a $6 fluorescent vs. a $12 one.

/cry

-Brodie