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View Full Version : Anything out there that generates footcandle maps accurately like LightScape?

vislaw
10-06-2004, 02:49 AM
One of the features I used a lot in forensic lighting studies was the capability of LightScape to generate illumination maps color-coded to footcandles. It was a great way to demonstrate illumination levels for forensic cases and, I assume as well, in architectural or scientific work. Because LightScape allowed you to create calibrated luminaires and also allowed you to import manufacturer's photometric data it was accurate and customizable. To my knowledge, that part of the program was never imported into Max or Vis.

I'm not aware of anything by way of a plug-in or feature in a CAD application that would handle this. Surely there is something that I'm not aware of???

Thanks.

Mark
BillSpradlin
10-06-2004, 04:36 AM
The closest thing that I'm aware of that you can use to actual physical lighting is in mental ray with IES Illumdat(sp) light profiles. You can use light profiles specified by light manufacturers for their lights as a light profile for illumination in mental ray. I'm not sure if Max 6 provides this feature or not, but I do know it to be possible with stand alone mental ray and Maya's mental ray implementation.
shehbahn
10-06-2004, 05:40 AM
the light profile file format isn't overly complicated and there's probably a free documentation out there somewhere. shouldn't be too complicated to get those as a plug-in, but getting the light transport simulation right is a much bigger problem, even with MR.
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