.\" RCSid "$Id: mkillum.1,v 1.6 2007/09/04 17:36:40 greg Exp $"
.TH MKILLUM 1 10/6/95 RADIANCE
.SH NAME
mkillum - compute illum sources for a RADIANCE scene
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mkillum
[
.B "\-n nprocs"
][
.B "rtrace options"
]
.B octree
.B "[ \< file .. ]"
.br
.B "mkillum [ rtrace options ] \-defaults"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Mkillum
takes a prepared RADIANCE scene description and an octree and computes
light source distributions for each surface, replacing them with
secondary sources whose contributions can be computed more efficiently by
.I rpict(1)
and
.I rvu(1).
This type of optimization is most useful for windows and skylights which
represent concentrated sources of indirect illumination.
.I Mkillum
is not appropriate for very large sources or sources with highly
directional distributions.
These are best handled respectively by the ambient calculation
and the secondary source types in RADIANCE.
.PP
If the
.I \-n
option is specified with a value greater than 1, multiple
.I rtrace(1)
processes will be used to accelerate computation on a shared
memory machine.
Note that there is no benefit to using more processes
than there are local CPUs available to do the work.
.PP
Remaining arguments to
.I mkillum
are passed directly to
.I rtrace(1),
which is used to compute the light distributions for the input surfaces.
These surfaces can be any combination of polygons, spheres and rings.
Other surfaces may be included, but
.I mkillum
cannot compute their distributions.
.PP
By default,
.I mkillum
reads from its standard input and writes to its standard output.
It is possible to specify multiple input files in a somewhat
unconventional fashion by placing a lesser-than symbol ('<') before
the file names.
(Note that this character must be escaped from most shells.)
This is necessary so
.I mkillum
can tell where the arguments to
.I rtrace(1)
end and its own input files begin.
.SH VARIABLES
.I Mkillum
has a number of parameters that can be changed by
comments in the input file of the form:
.nf

	#@mkillum variable=value option switch{+|-} ..

.fi
String or integer variables are separated from their values by the
equals sign ('=').
Options appear by themselves.
Switches are followed either by a
plus sign to turn them on or a minus sign to turn them off.
.PP
Parameters are usually changed many times within the
same input file to tailor the calculation, specify different
labels and so on.
The parameters and their meanings are described below.
.TP 10n
.BI o =string
Set the output file to
.I string.
All subsequent scene data will be sent to this file.
If this appears in the first comment in the input, nothing will be
sent to the standard output.
Note that this is not recommended when running
.I mkillum
from
.I rad(1),
which expects the output to be on the standard output.
.TP
.BI m =string
Set the material identifier to
.I string.
This name will be used not only as the new surface modifier, but it
will also be used to name the distribution pattern and the data files.
The distribution name will be
.I string
plus the suffix ".dist".
The data file will be named
.I string
plus possibly an integer plus a ".dat" suffix.
The integer is used to avoid accidently writing over an existing
file.
If overwriting the file is desired, use the
.I f
variable below.
.TP
.BI f =string
Set the data file name to
.I string.
The next data file will be given this name plus a ".dat" suffix.
Subsequent files will be named
.I string
plus an integer plus the ".dat" suffix.
An existing file with the same name will be clobbered.
This variable may be unset by leaving off the value.
(See also the
.I m
variable above.)
.TP
.BR a
Produce secondary sources for all of the surfaces in the input.
This is the default.
.TP
.BI e =string
Produce secondary sources for all surfaces except those modified by
.I string.
Surfaces modified by
.I string
will be passed to the output unchanged.
.TP
.BI i =string
Only produce secondary sources for surfaces modified by
.I string.
.TP
.BR n
Do not produce any secondary sources.
All input will be passed to the output unaffected.
.TP
.BI b =real
Do not produce a secondary source for a surface if its average
brightness (radiance) is less than the value
.I real.
.TP
.BI c ={d|a|n}
Use color information according to the given character.
If the character is
.I d,
then color information will be used in three separate data files and
the distribution will be fully characterized in terms of color.
If the character is
.I a,
then only the average color is computed and the distribution will
not contain color information.
If the character is
.I n,
even the average distribution color will be thrown away,
producing secondary sources that are completely uncolored.
This may be desirable from a color-balancing point of view.
.TP
.BI d =integer
Set the number of direction samples per projected steradian to
.I integer.
The number of directions stored in the associated data file will be
approximately this number multiplied by pi for polygons and rings, and
by 4pi for spheres.
If
.I integer
is zero, then a diffuse source is assumed and no distribution is
created.
.TP
.BI s =integer
Set the number of ray samples per direction to
.I integer.
This variable affects the accuracy of the distribution value for
each direction as well as the computation time for
.I mkillum.
.TP
.BR l{+|-}
Switch between light sources and illum sources.
If this switch is enabled
.I (l+),
.I mkillum
will use the material type "light" to represent surfaces.
If disabled
.I (l-),
.I mkillum
will use the material type "illum" with the input surface modifier
as its alternate material.
The default is
.I l-.
.SH EXAMPLES
The following command generates illum's corresponding to geometry
in the files "it1.rad" and "it2.rad":
.IP "" .3i
mkillum \-ab 2 \-ad 1024 \-av .1 .1 .1 basic.oct "<" it1.rad it2.rad > illums.rad
.PP
The output file "illums.rad" would then be combined with the original
scene geometry to create a more easily rendered composite.
.SH AUTHOR
Greg Ward
.SH ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Work on this program was initiated and sponsored by the LESO
group at EPFL in Switzerland.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
oconv(1), rad(1), rpict(1), rtrace(1), rvu(1)