This looks like it's more logical than the present syntax.  How about making
it the syntax for POV 4.0, which will be a total rewrite?
Brendan

Fabien Mosen wrote:

> I recently had some toughts about POV-Ray's texturing system, and tried
> to point out some incoherences and suggest some remedies.  Please note
> that I'm not whining, or requesting anything.  These are just toughts
> for a possible future.  Read it, keep it, throw it, as you feel.
> Here's the first of these toughts.
>
> FINISH - Change in material structure
> -------------------------------------
>  What's wrong with "finish"* ?  "finish" is at the same hierarchic level
> as
> "pigment" and "normal", though it works very differently.  "pigment" and
> "normal" require a pattern and a map, while "finish" just has some
> keywords.
>  Of course, "finish" could get some "finish_map", but since, anyway, a
> pattern isn't *required*, it's still incoherent with "pigment" and
> "normal".
>  So, my idea is to put "finish" at the same level as "texture", and
> create
> a "surface" entity to group both.  Also, this require that, inside the
> "finish" statement, finish properties are also grouped into separate
> entities.  Given the recent growth of the "finish" content (thanks to
> MegaPOV), having all the keywords 'thrown' in a single statement became
> annoying.  This would, of course, allow the declaration of the finish
> items : finish {reflection {Mirror1} highlights {VeryShiny} ..}
>
> (*note to Warp : I didn't say 'What's wrong with Finnish ?' ;-))
>
> Here is the proposed material structure :
>
> material {
>           surface {
>                    [pattern - surface_map]
>                    texture {
>                             [pattern - texture_map]
>                             pigment {..}
>                             normal {..}
>                            }
>                    finish {
>                            [pattern - finish_map]
>                            reflection {type .. min .. max .. exponent
> ..}
>                            highlights {phong .. specular .. blinn ..}
>                            iridescence {irid .. thickness ..}
>                            light {ambient..  brilliance ..}
>                           }
>                   }
>
>           interior {
>                    refraction {..}
>                    media {..}
>                    }
>          }

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