Nieminen Juha wrote:
> 
> Claude Mench <c.m### [at] adilinstrumentscom> wrote:
>...
> :         - Can we expect an preview mode using OpenGL (I'm
> :           aware that the tessalation of all objects existing
> :           in pov will be difficult, and infinity ojects also...)
> 
>   You answered your own question. Converting all the primitives to
> triangles is not a trivial task and probably not worth the efforts.
>   And even when OpenGL is a standard, it's not part of the ANSI C++ standard.
> Adding support for it would make povray platform-dependant.

What a bizzare answer.  The OpenGL API doesn't have anything to do with
the ANSI C++ standard.  If you want to call OpenGL functions from your
C++ code, you will find it quite easy to do.  Also, as far as being
cross platform, if you don't have drivers provided with your system you
can always use Mesa (yes, even on Macs, DOS, ...).

As far as tesselating all prims, it may be tedious but certainly not
impossible.  Other renderers manage to do it.  Given the number of times
this question comes up, it is certainly worth consideration. 
Personally, I think the preview thing belongs in a modeller rather than
a back-end renderer like POV-Ray, but it's not out of the question.

Xander

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