



> I'm not so convinced that the optimal configuration is symmetric.



It would be neat to find a candidate which was not symmetric. One of the candidates above has only a mirror symmetry.



> Why would you put 5 lamps in a room?



The variables for basic light calculations involve the area of the room and the amount of light in each lamp, with no consideration for symmetry. The desired light density depends on the activities taking place (which can take the form of building codes) and personal taste.



> Odd that you are looking for "even" lighting, but then use goal functions that don't take into account bright spots. If this is for actual use (I.e. Human eye) wouldn't you want to minimize the standard deviation or perhaps the magnitude of the gradient (I.e. No rapid changes in brightness)?



Vitaliy considered a total variance measure in one of his posts. The reason why I preferred the minimal light level is that this replaces the measurement of (maximum light - minimum light) which won't work here because the light levels have vertical asymptotes at the point sized lamps (see the last plot in my most recent post for a 1D picture). My bias here is not caring too much about bright spots because those areas will have enough light, and especially ignoring the vertical asymptotes.



Ok, what did I get out of this? Vitaliy wrote an easy to use tool and Ed explained it was better to rely on human skill, which justifies just fiddling around with Vitaliy's tool. With that it takes only a few minutes to find the candidates mentioned above. Perhaps I should answer some of the questions from that Reddit thread and summarize what I learned from this Community discussion.> I'm not so convinced that the optimal configuration is symmetric.It would be neat to find a candidate which was not symmetric. One of the candidates above has only a mirror symmetry.> Why would you put 5 lamps in a room?The variables for basic light calculations involve the area of the room and the amount of light in each lamp, with no consideration for symmetry. The desired light density depends on the activities taking place (which can take the form of building codes) and personal taste.> Odd that you are looking for "even" lighting, but then use goal functions that don't take into account bright spots. If this is for actual use (I.e. Human eye) wouldn't you want to minimize the standard deviation or perhaps the magnitude of the gradient (I.e. No rapid changes in brightness)?Vitaliy considered a total variance measure in one of his posts. The reason why I preferred the minimal light level is that this replaces the measurement of (maximum light - minimum light) which won't work here because the light levels have vertical asymptotes at the point sized lamps (see the last plot in my most recent post for a 1D picture). My bias here is not caring too much about bright spots because those areas will have enough light, and especially ignoring the vertical asymptotes.Ok, what did I get out of this? Vitaliy wrote an easy to use tool and Ed explained it was better to rely on human skill, which justifies just fiddling around with Vitaliy's tool. With that it takes only a few minutes to find the candidates mentioned above.