Although this is in the 3.5 docs, it doesn't really have anything to do with
3.5, hence the post here...

In the VFAQ there is a section about rendering speeds of merge vs. union.

Whilst the information is correct (and interesting), it seems overly concerned
with the technical side of the problem, rather than the reality.

In reality, the choice between merge and union is basically one of effect, not
speed.

If you want visible inner surfaces you use union, if you don't, you use merge.
The choice isn't dictated by "which is faster", but "what effect do I want".

Therefore, the only exception to this is if your csg object is non-transparent,
when you should always use union, since this is the only time when the results
will be identical (and union is invariably faster).

--
#macro G(D,E,F)#local I=array[3]{D,E,F}#local B=0;triangle{#while(
B<3)#while(I[B])A[mod(I[B],10)]+#local I[B]=div(I[B],10);#end<-5,-
2,9>#local B=B+1;#end}#end #local A=array[7]{x,x*2,x*4,y,y*2,y*4,z
}light_source{-x*6-z*9,1}mesh{G(105,10,146)G(105,246,10)G(105,56,
146)G(105,1256,246)G(1256,126,220)G(22156,2216,201)pigment{rgb 1}}//TM

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