I have an interest in this as I am currently working on a
postscript-2-spline converter. It is indeed pretty odd that there would be
so many spline types when one can do everything. The bezier_spline is the
closest to the graphics industry standard and even this one is implemented
oddly with the control coordinates backward from industry standards.

I have made a very brief cursory scan of the POV source code and have
formed no opinion at all from what I've seen. It would be most enlightening
to hear from the programmers that implemented this feature and get their
thinking on why things were done the way they are.

Perhaps the POV development team would be willing to look at the
possibility of implementing an industry-wide standard spline type to make
POV-Ray more compatible with the larger world of computer graphics.

steve

TonyB wrote:

> I was wondering why splines, within POV, are not all interchangeable and
> applicable everywhere. Are not all splines the same basic thing? Lemme
> see if I recall the different types in existance. There are Linear,
> Quadratic, Cubic, Bezier, Catmull-Rom, B, NURB, Hermite, etc., etc.
> Could all these different types be added to POV in such a way that they
> could be used everywhere? For example, that I could use a bezier spline
> in a sphere_sweep, or a catmull-rom spline in a prism? And the spline
> keyword in the SuperPatch, couldn't it be made to accept all splines?
> Thanks in advance.
>
> [Note: POV designates official and superpatch versions]
>
> --
> Anthony L. Bennett
> http://welcome.to/TonyB

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