A luminaire featuring a light diffusing housing assembly with a batwing style catadioptric lens element with properties capable of producing a more uniform field of illumination in concert with a secondary diffusing lens element and optional internal light reflecting elements to maximize light output from a point light source including an LED, or a plurality of individual point light sources including an LED strip or LED array and other source of linear chromatic light or linear illumination sources including a light bar, fluorescent lamp, compressed-gas discharge tube and the like.