>> 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.  

	Go easy on Ken.  He might not be familiar with OpenGL,
	he might not even be a programmer, but he is quite a
	enthusiastic and productive POV-ray kind of a guy,
	and very helpful to have around.

	OpenGL is a well-established standard, and given that
	Microsoft have spent 4 years trying to kill it, it
	is here to stay.  It is safe to regard OpenGL as about
	as portable a realtime 3D rendering API as you're 
	going to get.  Microsoft failed in their attempt to
	"invent 3D graphics" in the way they are seen to have
	invented graphical user interfaces.  OpenGL means
	that you can write modelling software that will work
	across different platforms.  Microsoft doesn't like 
	it of course - look at the way they perverted Java.

	I think that the "front-end" GUI could use a rethink
	in terms of making better use of the quality settings
	and user interface to refine the scene.  I find that
	the current setup is more convenient than the command
	line, but well short of what's possible.  For example,
	I'd like to have common options available as drop-down
	lists on the toolbar, so I can switch resolution and
	quality without having to nagivate the whole list of
	canned combinations.  Also, I'd like to select an area
	of the viewport to be recalculated at better quality and/or
	resolution.  I particularly dislike having to edit the INI
	file, to customise my setting for possibly only one
	render.

	And, (while I'm being wishful) I'd like to have a history
	so that I can check for side effects, or simply reflect
	on whether the image is progressing the way I'd imagined
	it should.

	These ideas do not involve huge amounts of development,
	maintenance, or bug-fixing.  They are simply making
	better use of the current infrastructure.

	It's not the tesselation of primitive that is the
	challenge for OpenGL rendering, it's the CSG and
	flexibility of POV texturing that would be a big
	challenge to achieve.  I've worked for 4 years 
	commercially on a solid modelling engine, and there
	is no way that I'd tackle one as a hobby.  :-)
	Raytracing is not polygon-oriented, and trying to
	have the best of both severely complicates things.
	If someone decides that "super-quartic-hemispherical-
	hybrid-nurbs-bezier-patches" make a very useful modelling
	primitive, they would also have to ponder the implications
	of having to tesselate it, and worry about the volumetric
	represetation.
	
> 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, keep in mind that the POV-ray "mentality"
	is intentionally different to modellers or 
	beasts like 3D Studio.  I have the distinct
	impression that the POV team intentionally target
	a very specific scope of functionality in order
	to keep the software reasonably small and keeping
	the team small, friendly and familiar.  Compare
	POV-ray development to say, KDE or Gnome.  KDE is
	an exciting development effort, but very chaotic.
	I think that in the long term, POV-ray will be
	overtaken by a larger-scale, more open development
	model - but I doubt that the POV team will be too
	upset - they are not trying to kill microsoft, or
	become the next media darling, or foster a huge
	following of novice users.  
	
	But then, I really don't know much - treat this
	as pure speculation.  

	And, as a final thought - it is much easier to 
	toss ideas around as being desirable, feasible,
	or the way to go, but something else entirely
	to do the work yourself, or convince someone 
	on the POV team of your dream.  Everyone wants
	to dream their own dream, and that's especially
	how it should be if people arn't getting paid.

	I mean this from both sides of the coin - 
	people like you and me that say "hey, I know something
	about software/graphics/whatever, and POV really
	lacks xyz...." and others that react against
	"changing the paradigm for no good reason".
	POV is free in the "free beer" sense, but not
	in the "hey guys, do this" sense.  It's their
	baby, and they prefer to pleasently surprise us
	from time to time. 

--
Nigel Stewart (nig### [at] nigelscom)
Research Student, Software Developer, Tokyo Dweller
"The Australian Government wants to read your email."

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