Rune wrote:
> 
> I have some general questions about compression.
> 
[snip]

These are two different things.
The mesh compressor is specifically optimized for meshes; I believe it does
things like store coplanar faces as one larger face and maybe keep a separate
list of faces and vertices so coincident vertices are not duplicated (all this
is just my guess, of course).
ZIP and similar compressors use a generic algorithm; it basically looks for
recurring "patterns" in the input file and replaces the duplicates with pointers
to a "library of phrases".
POV can (with appropriate macros) read PCM files directly. ZIP files must first
be unpacked. I suppose it might be possible to make POV unpack and read zipped
files internally; and it shouldn't create serious portability issues. Whether or
not it would be worth the effort, I don't know.
Anyway, if you really want the smallest possible file size, first pass the mesh
through the mesh compresson and then zip it - you'll have the best of both
worlds.

-- 
Margus Ramst

Personal e-mail: mar### [at] peakeduee
TAG (Team Assistance Group) e-mail: mar### [at] tagpovrayorg
Home page http://www.hot.ee/margusrt

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