A recurring issue with microstructure studies is specimen lighting. In particular,microscope lighting must be deployed in such a way as to highlight biologicalelements without enhancing caustic effects and diffraction. We describe herean analysis of the potential of diffractive optic approaches for addressing thislighting issue. First, an extensive study is undertaken concerning asymptoticequations in order to identify the most promising algorithm for 3Dmicrostructure analysis. Ultimately, models based on virtual light rays arediscarded in favor of a model that considers the joint computation of phase andirradiance. This paper maintains the essential goal of the study concerningbiological microstructures but offers several supplementary notes oncomputational details which provide perspectives on analyses of thearrangements of numerous objects in biological tissues.