I trying to create a fluorescent light for a kitchen scene. the four large cylinders are for checking shadows.

1.) initially i thought to use an environment light on a cylinder. but that takes way too long to render, and i was getting funny shadows. probably because i need to have more facets on the cylinder.

2.) i switched to anything glows, but on the wall, i get a small highlight as if the source were a bulb.

3.) also, fluorescents give off very soft shadows. and when i selected soft shadows with AG, i got no shadows.

4.) next i tried a tube light. again, a single point highlight. (i also tried this with soft shadows, but did not post the image. like the AG, it just turned shadows off.)

5.) when i placed a cylinder over it, the cylinder disrupted the light. the cylinder has a glow color and a transparency value of 100%. also, it was set to not cast shadows.

6.) to test that the ast shadowswas not working with the tube light, i moved the cylinder behind the light. voila! a cast shadow. and yet the properties box has ast shadowsdeselected.

7.) finally i tried a string of bulb lights (40 of them set at 5% brightness).

8.) the cylinder this time does not cast shadows. and the lighting effect looks much more like i desired. i used soft shadows to help blend the light. but there is still too much light on the wall at the end of the room. this would not happen with a real fluorescent, so i still have some problem solving to do.

9.) an enclosure around the lights to try to cut off some of the light hitting the far wall. i tried making two plates for the ends of the light that were about four times the size of the diameter of the tube. i set them to not be visible but to cast shadows. i placed them at the ends of the cylinder, but they did not seem to block the light from the bulbs.

these are the things that i have tried so far. if anyone has any suggestions, i would be greatly appreciative. i would like to stay away from environment lights if possible since my computer is super slow and i don have the patience to wait a half hour for a 320x240 test render.

thanks for your help.

-scott