[Radiance-general] RE: Difference...

[Rob Guglielmetti]

Bleicher, Thomas wrote:

> Francesco is offering Windows binaries here:
>  
> http://www.bozzograo.net/radiance/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=4 
> <http://www.bozzograo.net/radiance/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=4>
>  
> AFAIK they don't include any user interfaces (rvu, ximage). But you 
> can use them
> for rendering and convert the images to a Windows friendly format.
>  
> Rayfront (see www.schorsch.com <http://www.schorsch.com>) offers a 
> complete interface on Windows
> but uses an older version of Radiance (not that it'd make a big 
> difference in
> everyday use).


Hi Thomas,

Actually, the release notes for the last few releases are sprinkled with 
all kinds of improvements and bug fixes that make the newer binaries 
really desirable in my book.  So much so, that even though we use 
Rayfront here at my job, we pretty much only use it for geometry import 
and material application -- essentially, for scene generation.  After 
that, we use the latest binaries on Linux to actually create octrees and 
images*. 

A couple of things that I now take for granted with the newer binaries 
is the ability of oconv to generate octrees out of very complex geometry 
with far less "set overflow in addobject" errors, and the fixed rpict 
bug that caused half the image to be garbled in certain scenes with many 
light sources.  There were some fairly serious bugs fixed along the way 
too.  If there's any way that people can run the latest Radiance on 
Linux or OS X, (IOW, any 'real' operating system), I highly recommend 
they do so.  That said, I think it's great all the efforts made by 
Francesco and Schorsch and others in getting _something_ running on 
Windows.  I just believe that the latest-greatest-Radiance is worth the 
hassle of Linux (or the expense of OS X). 

*On an unrelated note, I think "octrees and images" is a good name for a 
band.  =8-)

- Rob