Thanks for keeping me aware about progress in graphics card, but don't hope any miracle in the coming versions, because I don't think Global Illumination can be supported easily from Java 3D.
Nevertheless, I recently learnt about shaders and shadow mapping technics and hope to try it sooner or later in Sweet Home 3D since Java 3D supports shaders. Meanwhile I might improve light effects in the 3D view as the following images show but I'm not sure this option really worth it.
In current version, lights placed in the home have no effect in the 3D view:
In this image computed with subpartSizeUnderLight property set to 20 cm, lights added to the home replace default lights in the room where they are placed:
Compared to the following Global Illumination rendering, there's still no shadow, no mirror effect, and lights are limited to their room and level:
When you see how poor the 2nd rendering is compared to Global Illumination, I wonder if offering an option to activate lights to end users is such a good idea.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D creator
