Radiosity with Blender By Toussaint Frédéric

Conclusion

It is true that this kind of radiosity solution does not look very professional but it gives anyway great effects when used along with static pictures, and the look it gives to objects is very pleasant, indeed. When used with large scenes, however, things can get messy because you don't have the right to adjust poorly the parameters during the radiosity setting step, and you will have to be very patient during the calculation, which can last many hours. But when combined with Environment Maps on carefully chosen objects, the final result is very beautiful. This radiosity approach is to be tested and worked on, until we get a better way to do all of this.

Hereafter is a boat hull I made for a CD-ROM project depicting the french town Agde during Antiquity. The render used Radiosity, of course, and took 8 hours of calculation because of the 40 amphoras that are stored in the hold. I hope it won't sink ! :)

When working on large scenes, think about dispatching your objects through many layers because the number of polys could exhaust even your brand new graphic card. Think about isolating the light-independant areas of your scene in different layers and make the radiosity calculations on the fewer layers possible at a time. The render will get enhanced quality and rendering time.