Andrea Ryan wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> How can a image map be distorted so it will look right when it is mapped
> onto a sphere (like a map of the Earth)?  I am making macros for each
> planet and might write a program to build solar systems.
> Brendan Ryan

 Look up in the Pov docs under map_type. For spherical mapping you need
to use map_type 1. Default is map_type 0 which is planer mapping. It
should be noted that square images have some problem when mapping them
to a sphere especialy at the poles where you start to get "pinching".
I forgot the exact term for it but there are earth images and others
that are especialy designed for this type of application but I do not
know the proceedures for creating them.

 You might want to check out these links for other people's include files
and for planet image maps to give yourself a starting point:

Pov stuff:

http://home.global.co.za/~mvds/software.htm
http://www.digiquill.com/kwansys/povspace.html
http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~chris.dennis/povray.htm

Planetary and star maps:

http://samadhi.jpl.nasa.gov/maps/
http://home.HiWAAY.net/~nholmes/planets/
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/billa/twn/top.html
http://www.radcyberzine.com/xglobe/index.html#maps
ftp://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/adc/archives/catalogs/
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/postgrad/thomasc1/render/maps.htm




-- 
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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