Anh -
Thanks so much for your prompt and detailed reply. Frankly, I am amazed at how realistic your render proved using just those light sources. I am going to revisit some of my earlier scenes and strip them down to emulated fixtures only. (I'd been using 'atmospheric' lights to supplement emulated fixtures, which may have unnecessarily complicated things.)
I'm also going to try your trick of placing small sources outside the fixtures rather than inside. I'm sure Emmanuel will respond in more detail, but there are ways to place sources inside of fixtures and ways to modify objects to include transparent or translucent textures. Unfortunately, neither can be done from within the program; instead, both require manual editing of object definition files.
For instance, to place a light source inside a fixture, you first have to create and save a library of fixture models using the Furniture Library Editor. You then edit fils within the saved library to define the desired light source and place it physically within the model. After making whatever changes and additions are required, you import the library of fixture models, now containing light sources, into your project. Needless to say, it's not a casual undertaking!
You can find detailed information on the process in OK Hoff's excellent guide to editing SVG and other furniture properties.
Similarly, to modify textures used in an object, you have a couple choices. If you simply want to replace one known texture with another, you can use the 'Materials' option on the furniture properties window. That way you could replace, say, an opaque white fixture lens with one made from clear or tinted glass. (If you don't already have a translucent texture in your library, you can create a partially transparent PNG of the appropriate color and import it; it can then be applied to the object, again using 'materials.')
If you need to tweak texture properties in a way not supported natively by SH3D -- for instance, to modify the opacity or index of refraction -- you can do so by exporting the object in OBJ format (which will also cause an accompanying MTL texture-definition file to be exported), edit the MTL file, and import the modified OBJ/MTL definition into your project. You can find information on the process in this thread and information on the format and syntax of the MTL file here. Note that only a few MTL variables are supported -- namely those identified in this piece of source code, lines 1667 through 1758.
(Emmanuel : Any chance of getting map_d added to the next release? That would allow for support of frosted glass textures. I thought I'd managed to jury-rig a workaround using map_Kd and some cleaver-ish PNGs, but I discovered it works only under limited conditions. I keep telling myself I'm going to build myself a custom version with map_d support -- but then I think, "who am I kidding?")
Again, not all that intuitive a method for tweaking textures -- and, based upon your results, one that may not be all that necessary in most instances. Again, thanks for your detailed response -- I'm off to emulate your techniques in my current project!
Maz
