Light & Engineering Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 22-29, 2015 Svetotekhnika No. 4, 2015, pp. 41-46 VISUALIZATION AS ALTERNATIVE TO TESTS ON LIGHTING UNDER REAL CONDITIONS Rafał Krupiński Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Lighting Division E-mail: rafal.krupinski@ien.pw.edu.pl ABSTRACT This paper presents a lighting simulation method development that has taken place over more than a decade since these techniques started functioning. <...> Although it has taken so much time, the photo-realistic computer visualization of lighting is still not so commonly applied. <...> Design offi ces, especially as far as the architectural structure fl oodlighting is concerned, still prefer traditional methods based on the tests with the use of a real lighting equipment in the real conditions. <...> The paper compares these two methods, showing their advantages and disadvantages with an example of complex fl oodlighting project. <...> Keywords: illumination, fl oodlighting, lighting technology, computer graphics INTRODUCTION A lighting visualization is a computer graphics presentation of the lighting design image with the use of colour and luminance on the computer screen or another medium. <...> The currently produced computer monitors can reproduce luminance values of around a few hundred cd/m2, whereas the average luminances obtained in the fl oodlighting designs are between ten and twenty cd/m2. <...> Of course, apart from some exceptions, such as interior and street lighting, where we can face the images of luminaires whose luminance values considerably exceed this range. 22 In such cases the luminance evaluation could be made based on a similar principle as it is tried with the interior [1, 2] or street lighting [3]. <...> However, in general, it can be said that the lighting technology is the area where computer simulations can be recognised as real rendering of the lighting state [4], and thus, it can be called photorealistic. <...> Lighting simulations in computer graphics have been known and performed for more than a decade. <...> They are still being improved with new methods and functions enabling creating geometrical models which basis they are created. <...> Also, better and faster lighting calculation algorithms have appeared. <...> When 3D visualization began functioning <...>