there are two books i want to get about photorealism in 3d that got
really good reviews.  both are platform and application independant.  i
can't recall the exact titles off the top of my head, but i believe the
first was simply, "3d photorealism" and the second was "advanced 3d
photorealism" both by the same guy.
  i think the main thing one needs for photrealism is composition.  for
example, my house is by no means messy, but at the same time, i haven't
placed my coffee table exactly perpedicular to the walls.  it's off a
little due to human error and the fact it gets bumped around sometimes. 
pictures aren't hung on the walls exactly straight, table arrangements
aren't exactly centered, magazines aren't stacked perfectly, there is
fabric on various items that doesn't lay uniformly (hard to do in pov),
and there is simply a lot of stuff and modelling them all would be hard
to do.  even hardback books don't stand completely upright unless they
are squeezed in tight.  starting to see what i mean?  in fact, i think
this is the area that povers need to work on the most.
  the next main thing is textures.  this is very difficult to do in
pov.  i'm not sure why.  i mean, other packages come with all kinds of
nifty textures that are perfect to use 'off the shelf', but povers have
a heck of a time (myself included) finding textures that are even close
to the right thing.  and i'm not sure if that is a fault of the user, or
of the application.  but it seems to me that it shouldn't take hours or
days to find one texture good enough to be photorealistic (like battle
damage on a spaceship).  the best solution i have seen in pictures is
the use of image maps.  gilles' and h.e.day's best pics use them a lot. 
this gives the user control over exactly how something looks, but it
requires the person to be proficient in a paint program.  it also (in my
opinion) precludes the option of making a group of the same object, each
with a unique look (like the battle damage i'm still looking for).  it
may be that pov simply needs to find out how other apps do their 3d
textures and see if any can be incorporated into pov.
  i think someone mentioned modelling as another point, but that seems
pretty obvious and it is the easiest thing to work on and finish to
satisfaction.
  your pic looks good.  maybe what you could have used is something
behind the picture, but in front of the light to cast soft shadows, or
use a table instead of a plane, or choose a background color more the
color of a neutral wall color.  or you could have put it on a pedestal
or in a wall niche like in a museum; something to give it a location and
not mak it look like it is just a piece of glass on some eternal plane. 
hope some of this helps and good luck.

daishi wrote:
> 
> anyone have any tips/pointers/urls/include files or anything to help with
> photorealistic rendering in pov-ray? I can't seem to get my images to that
> level of quality, the best I have done so far is (
> http://daishi.50megs.com/glass_thingie.html )
> 
> which took 85+ hours to render on my PIII733 (most likely cause of all the
> tiny groves and high AA I had to use to get rid of the 'jaggies' )
> 
> thanx in advance

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