Faking volumetric lights

[jsh3d]

Is there any way to fake volumetric spotlights in XSI. I have a scene that I want to make that would have a lot of volumetric spotlights in it (about 16), and it would be way to slow using real volumetric lights. They don't need to be animated, they just have too look like fog within a volume.

Thanks
-JSH3D

[pnoizat2]

is it for animation or still frame?
if just still (and within reason animation) you can just do what most games do, an alpha channeled (white to black gradient) plane or cone...... you could just map on the light colour, or render anoher pass with flares (wholesome understated flares) on the lights then use the first pass to mask the unwanted parts of the flare.

dodgy but could be fine..
Te Anau

[atyss]

One thing you can also do is to render a pass with volumes lights only. Maybe not as fast as planes with gradient falloffs, but you can make a test. Or you can even create a pass for every volume lights.
I always do my volume lights in separate renderings.

Hope this helps
Salutations - Cheers
Bernard Lebel

[jsh3d]

Thanks for the responce. It can't be a cone or a plane with a texture on it because it is going to be animated. The camera will need to go through the lights. Is there any way to do this with the other volumetric shaders, like fast volume effects? I have tried to use them, but haven't had much success.

-JSH3D