Lasers...

[galinette]

I'm struggling trying to simulate a laser beam in Indigo. I would like a thin beam to see precisely the SSS behavior of my materials, and to compare the rendered pictures with real photos. However, I tried many different possibilities to make the beam (mirror, lens, hole, even a portal), this conceptually works, but render time is astronomical when I collimate the beam to the SSS material, the beam being already complex indirect light...

The add of that kind of light source (I'm sure it's possible to say to a light emitting surface to emit only towards its normal) in Indigo would make that kind of picture possible, useful to calibrate SSS materials.

Etienne

[dougal2]

This effect has been emulated in various ways before
- long, narrow ray boxes
- custom IES profiles
to name but 2.

However, the method of constructing the light source still does not solve the problem that its extremely difficult to sample the light adequately when rendering!

[fused]

yes, a custom IES profile should do the trick

[galinette]

Holy sh.... ! I just discovered the IES feature. Thanks guys!