[Radiance-general] Rendering translucent materials

[Roland Fleming]

Hi ---

I am interested in rendering translucent materials such as wax, milk and
fruit, in a physically realistic manner.  There is currently no way of
representing such materials in Radiance.  However, as I'm sure many of you
are aware, Henrik Wann Jensen has developed a technique, called
photon-mapping, which makes it possible to represent sub-surface scatter
(and other effects such as caustics and "bleed") efficiently.  For those of
you who haven't seen the stunning results, I recommend a quick look at
http://www.cgarchitect.com/upclose/article1_HWJ.asp.

Translucency is a really important property of many real-world materials
and adds considerable realism to scenes.  Here are my questions: Is there
any way that we can implement photon-mapping within Radiance?  Is there any
alternative method that can be implemented in Radiance which permits
parametric control over sub-surface scatter, and produces physically
realistic results?  Is anyone interested in collaborating in implementing
these techniques?  Jensen has a book on the topic
(http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1568811470/cgarchitect-20/002-4144829-47
30441) and has given a number of tutorials at SIGGRAPH on the technique.
But I'm not a graphics specialist, so I can't implement this on my own.
Any ideas?

Cheers,
Roland