I think that the competition that is here today was around years ago. The
fact that there is more competition just means the market is healthy, not
unhealthy. 3DStudio was the commercial program of choice when we first
published our POV Ray book and there where others like it. That did not stop
people from buying the book. The reason that POV Ray can't be compared to
these other products is that its free, it has a huge following of users that
are available to help in all kinds of ways, it has a huge number of macros,
utilities, materials, tutorials, and other items that make it a great place
to learn about the subject of CG. Sure people will graduate to commercial
products, but that does not take away from the idea that there is a market
for this product. Indeed if you think about it, the real competition to any
commercial POV Ray venture is the built in documentation that comes with POV
Ray.

"Dearmad" <dea### [at] applesnakenet> wrote in message
news:3C4### [at] applesnakenet...
> Ken wrote:
>
> >
> > Mitchell Waite wrote:
> >
> >
> >>My only competition at this time is my own book which is out of print.
> >>
> >
> <snip>
>
>
> It also isn't true because the market has changed drastically in
> 5 years... POV isn't the only thing out there anymore, and the
> public's recognition of names such as: 3ds max, lightwave,
> renderman, etc. is a lot greater than before.  The
> movie-interest, special effects, animation approach is really
> common out there now.
>
> True your only competition *in the POV market* would be the POV
> team's book, but exactly what is the size of the market you are
> actually entering?  I think you're no longer in the general CG
> market anymore. If someone asked me 5 years ago what to do to get
> into CGI and animation- I would have said, "POV!" because if you
> knew POV you could adapt to anything out there rapidly.  but I
> wouldn't say that anymore.  If someone's serious about commercial
> CG why would they waste their time with POV?  And even hobbyists
> now seem to think "why not play with what the professionals use?"
>   Many off the shelf apps are making our television and films
> nowadays, POV is (for the most part) not one of those apps.  Even
> in schools it's pretty absent...
>
> my <2 cents.
>
>
> -peter
> --
> Current obsession: "Ballet pour ma fille."
> http://www.applesnake.net
>

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