news:404bbcb8$1@news.povray.org...

> How is it that case 1 gets a performance/memory gain and case 2 doesn't?
> Especially since, as I found out recently, every intersection of a mesh
> element spawns a texture calculation anyway, up to a limit of 100.

This is something that should be asked to programmers... There's a thread
somewhere about this issue, and IIRC someone from the POV-Team agreed that
the other primitives should be instanciated as well. There's also the issue
that it's not possible to instanciate a mesh independently of the textures.

> I take it that real-time 3D painting obviates the need for uv coordinate
> unwrapping by hand?

Real-time 3D painting and automatic unwrapping are two different features.
In 3D painting, one paints the model through a 3D interactive view, just
like one would do in real life. UV Mapper Pro lets you switch between the 3D
view and the 2D painting program but it's not quite the same.
Automatic unwrapping tries to guess the best possible uv layout for a given
model in order to avoid distortions. It's still a tough job anyway. To be
fair, I still have to learn Bodypaint so I'm not completely aware yet of
what it can or cannot do, and how difficult it is...

G.
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