photometry query/excitement

[liamwilt]

lamp output in blender is quantified in units of "energy"; what photometric unit would best fit this general title? luminous intensity? luminous flux? luminous energy? i understand that the values will not be an identical match under any given blender circumstances, but, they must have based the concept of energy off of some understood physical/perceptual value.

any assistance would be appreciated!

[ldo]

This would vary depending on the renderer. So which renderer are you talking about?

If your answer is "Blender Internal", then don't expect any of its numbers to make any realistic physical sense at all.

[liamwilt]

i suppose i was referring to blender internal; i have not utilized a blender render external to the program itself.

i thought the developers of blender itself would have imbued actual physical values into their blender units at some point to provide a base understanding of what they were working with in relative physical space.

what sort of rendering mechanism might i be able to use to understand blender units (i.e. "energy") as physical values of candelas, luminance, reflectance, etc?