Christoph Hormann wrote:
> 
> matt giwer wrote:
> >
> >         I haven't been reading here in months so perhaps I am being repetative.
> >
> >         How about a type that is not image related?
> >
> >         It would be specified simply by
> >
> >         height_field {
> >                 RAW { length, width, point 1, point 2, ...}
> >         }
> >
> 
> Looks nearly identical to a pgm file, but what format did you intend for the
> "point1, ..." ? 

	Whatever makes the POV team programmers happy. Any user who can write a
program to create the file can do any scaling required. I'd guess 0-255
would be the least effort since that is most commonly what it being
extracted from image files. 64k would be desirable but since this is for
visualization not measurement I don't see a pressing need for it. 

> IMO, the advantage of Image files for this purpose is mainly the small filesize
> and fast parsing due to binary format, and the possibility to edit them in
> regular image manipulation programs.

	It could also be an external data file RAW "filename.ext" 

> Your idea is surely quite interesting for small heightfields, but in most cases
> I would prefer an image file format.  You can always use pgm, if you want an
> ascii file.

	What I find I have to do is the intermediary step of creating the image
file for POV so that POV can take the same numbers right back out of it. 

	As for size, in my first attempt at this, it is 257x257 + 60 for the
TARGA format. The time is trivial on a PII/300. 

-- 
"I'm going to find that damned butterfly and kill it." 
Attributed to a Florida resident after hurricane Andrew.
	--	The Iron Webmaster, 50

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