[Radiance-general] pmap & photon ports

[Lars O. Grobe]

Hi,

I am having a question regarding pmap again. On p. 9 the manual says:

"The incident flux from distant sources is evaluated at each port
and the sources are checked for occlusion. However, no interreflection 
calculation
is made; ports differ from illums in this respect. Photons are scattered 
by the port
upon emission as if they had passed through it."

The general approach rendering a typical architectural scene would be to 
use surfaces at the windows as photon ports. To account for any kind of 
shading devices, I would have to place the photon port surface outside 
these devices.

Still, almost every architectural simulation includes obstruction from 
nearby building, trees etc. Now, as far as I understand the manual, 
these obstructions would only influence my scene following a visibility 
test (so either blocking light or not), but e.g. the surface 
characteristics of geometry such as reflectance would be neglected. Is 
this the case?

Thank you, CU Lars.