Zaninetti, JacquesBoy, PierrePeroche, Bernard2015-02-162015-02-1619991467-8659https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8659.00335This paper proposes an adaptive method for taking both (diffuse or not) planar area light sources and daylight into account in a ray tracing environment which separates the calculation of direct and indirect illumination. In a given point, direct illumination due to a light source or to natural light is represented by a vector, the direction and magnitude of which being computed through an adaptive area approach, which is driven by the solid angle according to which a part of the source is seen from the current point. In the case of unoccluded diffuse polygonal sources, an analytical formula is used which gives an exact value for this vector.10.1111/1467-8659.00335139-150