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"scott" <sco### [at] laptop com> wrote in message
news:47219b09$1@news.povray.org...
> I wonder what it is that has kept potential developers away from helping
> with POV?
>
> There seem to have been whole renderers written in the time it takes from
> POV to go from 3.6 to 3.7 beta. Why is this?
Well, on the academic side, unbiased/physical rendering has become feasible.
Actually, there has been somewhat of a split, with the likes of Maxwell on
one side, likes of V-Ray on the other, and finally with Gelato on a league
of its own. Customers demand either extreme quality, or lightning speed
(well, both really, but we are still a few years off from that). POV-Ray's
model is aging, and is neither fast nor high quality, somewhat bloated
requiring too much fudging. SDL that is incompatible with anything else, and
closed source doesn't help matters either. B-rep modelling, whether mesh or
NURBS is also a must, neither animation nor manufacture is easy or natural
with implicit "modelling" as in SDL, which only made sense 20 years ago when
realtime b-rep modelling wasn't feasible on a budget.
Demand drives a product (even free ones), so that would explain POV-Ray's
falling behind the curve.
> I love the SDL in POV, and for me it makes certain tasks quicker than
using
> a modeller or CAD package.
With modern CAD and modelling applications supporting advanced scripting,
that's not quite true. And what is the criterion for speed anyway? Being
able to quickly place 1000 boxes or cylinders in two lines of code is
neither here nor there. Can you seriously outperform a NURBS modeller for
creating an industrial object like an electric shaver with smooth lines? Or
can you outdo likes of ZBrush or MudBox for a detailed character model, by
using CSG and isosurfaces? Pains me to say this, but POV is irrelevant for
modern tasks and occupies a niche market.
The saving grace would be if there were proper exporters/plug-ins for
popular modelling packages, supporting visual materials editors. Then, the
engine would be the focus and SDL a bonus, an option. But that's not going
to happen.
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