New Rendering Engine

Roy is working on a new engine for nXt. This will be an additional option to Packet Mode and the Path Tracer.

We'll put in into IRender nXt as soon as it is ready.

Here are some early results with a new engine that automatically incorporates caustics into the calculation. Each of these ran for about 10 minutes on the 12-core machine.

This one show sunlight bouncing off of a faceted mirror ball and creating caustics on the walls and floor. With this engine, all of the direct lighting which enters the space through glass is considered a caustic-- so the patches of direct sunlight on the floor are also caustics. The direct skylight striking the table is also a caustic.

Marc Chaumier's model-- swimming pool caustics resolve quickly and automatically. Light on the pool sides is correct. Indirect lighting under the arcade is smooth.