2.5.3.2 Diffuse Reflection Items
When light reflects off of a surface the laws of physics say that it should leave the surface at the exact same
angle it came in. This is similar to the way a billiard ball bounces off a bumper of a pool table. This perfect
reflection is called specular reflection. However only very smooth polished surfaces reflect light in this
way. Most of the time, light reflects and is scattered in all directions by the roughness of the surface. This
scattering is called diffuse reflection because the light diffuses or spreads in a variety of directions. It
accounts for the majority of the reflected light we see.
The keyword diffuse is used in a finish statement to control how much of the light coming
directly from any light sources is reflected via diffuse reflection. For example
finish { diffuse 0.7 }
means that 70% of the light seen comes from direct illumination from light sources. The default value is diffuse
0.6 .
The amount of direct light that diffuses from an object depends upon the angle at which it hits the surface. When
light hits at a shallow angle it illuminates less. When it is directly above a surface it illuminates more. The brilliance
keyword can be used in a finish statement to vary the way light falls off depending upon the angle of
incidence. This controls the tightness of the basic diffuse illumination on objects and slightly adjusts the
appearance of surface shininess. Objects may appear more metallic by increasing their brilliance. The default value is
1.0. Higher values from 5.0 to about 10.0 cause the light to fall off less at medium to low angles. There are no
limits to the brilliance value. Experiment to see what works best for a particular situation. This is best used in
concert with highlighting.
Very rough surfaces, such as concrete or sand, exhibit a dark graininess in their apparent color. This is caused by
the shadows of the pits or holes in the surface. The crand keyword can be added to a finish
to cause a minor random darkening in the diffuse reflection of direct illumination. Typical values range from crand
0.01 to crand 0.5 or higher. The default value is 0. For example:
finish { crand 0.05 }
This feature is carried over from the earliest versions of POV-Ray and is considered obsolete. This is because the
grain or noise introduced by this feature is applied on a pixel-by-pixel basis. This means that it will look the same
on far away objects as on close objects. The effect also looks different depending upon the resolution you are using
for the rendering.
Note: this should not be used when rendering animations. This is the one of a few
truly random features in POV-Ray and will produce an annoying flicker of flying pixels on any textures animated with a crand
value. For these reasons it is not a very accurate way to model the rough surface effect.
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