[Radiance-general] General Questions: Math for Radiance; Estimated time to proficiency

[Germán Molina Larrain]

Hello,

I started just like you a few years ago... I also have a Thermodynamics
background that ad to be complemented with Radiance (lighting simulation)
knowledge.

In my experience (from learning and teaching), the first really frustrating
challenge people face is understanding that Radiance is not "a program" as
they are used to, but a "suite of program" that have to be used in "that
ugly, old-school and unpleasant terminal". Getting to understand the Unix
way might be hard.

However, if you already know Python, you are, probably, already with those
concepts. After understanding that, I found the tutorials available in the
Radiance-online website very useful for general matters. Also, for
understanding better the different programs and learning how to organize
your files, I found the tutorials on the Rendering With Radiance book very
good.

A third step, I would say, is to understand how Ray-tracing works. There
are a few good lectures on rendering and computer graphics on YouTube that
you can watch. They will guide you on some core concepts, I think. After
that, it may be useful to read a bit of how Radiance work itself. This can
be done through the Rendering With Radiance book and/or journal and
conference articles by Greg Ward.

Finally, to understand climate based daylight simulation methods (all first
3 steps were focused on how radiance did things), I would recommend to read
the advanced tutorials on the website (3-phase method, 5-phase method,
etc.) and maybe some journal articles on those topics. John Mardaljevic PhD
thesis is also a good asset, as well as some papers by Christoph Reinhart,
both developed methodologies for performing annual simulations using
Radiance. In this regard, I made a literature review on lighting and
thermal simulation methods for my M.Sc. thesis a while ago... after a while
I noticed there were things missing (i.e. John's 4-component method being
the most remarkable one), but it might help you.

I hope that helps... I learned using these sources, as well as this list,
which is full of very nice people who may help you a lot

Germán



2017-08-28 0:10 GMT-03:00 Randolph M. Fritz <rmfritz3 at gmail.com>:

> Glassner’s *Principles of Digital Image Synthesis*. (2 vols. San
> Francisco, CA: Morgann Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., 1995) is the
> reference I used, back when; anyone know if there has been a
> subsequent book which covers the same ground? The physics, I would
> say, is basically simple, *but* presents computational problems which
> remain difficult, even with modern computing hardware.
>
> For Radiance specifically, the mathematical specifics of the basic
> system are covered in *Rendering with Radiance* part III. Newer
> components are covered in various Radiance Workshop presentations.
>
> Randolph M. Fritz
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Radiance-general at radiance-online.org
> https://www.radiance-online.org/mailman/listinfo/radiance-general
>
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