The Ellis Family <cel### [at] voyageurca> wrote...

> #2. Lightflow is vastly superior to PovRay in certain areas (just look
> at Lightflow's surface engine), and I think PovRay would definately
> benefit from a merger of some sort.

That is an interesting idea, though I'm not sure if the author of Lightflow
would feel the same way.  If I understand correctly, Lightflow Tech is a
for-profit company, and therefore the technology in the Lightflow engine is
probably intended to be kept within the company.  If Mr. Pantaleoni would
like to share his knowledge with us, I for one would be interested.

> Don't get me wrong, I like PovRay, but I sense a growing lack of
> interest amongst members of the PovTeam (of coarse, I could be way off
> on this).

Back a few years ago, the team appeared to experience burnout (I say this
from what I observed from the outside at that time), which was in-part
caused by some rude actions on the part of the internet community.  Since
then, the attitudes within the team have changed, and there is now a true
desire to see POV grow and mature.

> Also, PovRay *needs* an accessible api (I realize that this
> would be difficult to implement in a portable way)

The current philosophy of POV is to transfer all scene data to the rendering
engine via the scene definition language.  There are both pros and cons to
this approach.  You will need to back up your claim (and address a number of
important issues) before you can convince everyone that POV *needs* an
accessible API.

Important issues:
1) cross-platform compatibility
2) consistent scene descriptions (more than one file format would be bad)
3) ease-of-use - POV is designed first for artists, then for programmers

> And, most importantly, there needs to be
> more interaction between the PovTeam and the Pov community.

We are addressing this issue through the POV Technical Assistance Group
(TAG).

> Every 2 or
> 3 weeks, the PovTeam could report on the progress of the next release
> (is this too much to ask?).

This may be possible, but we wish to avoid vaporware.  Also, because our
Real Lives get in the way of POV development, we don't want to promise a
release on a certain date and then not be able to fulfil that.  Such action
could cause us to get more rude responses from the internet community (not
necessarily those who read these groups), which could cause the POV-Team to
feel discouraged again.  And I think we all agree that such a thing would be
bad.

-Nathan Kopp

I speak for myself and not for the POV-Team.

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