"David Buck" <dav### [at] simberoncom> wrote in message 
news:47a7404c$1@news.povray.org...
> One question that will likely come up in the FLOSS interview on Wednesday 
> is how POV-Ray renders clouds. I have an answer from when I used to write 
> cloud textures years ago - procedural textures with shades of gray and 
> transparency and a gradient sphere.
>
> Is there a better more modern way to create spectacular clouds?  Many of 
> the clouds I'm seeing seem to go beyond the simple texturing technique I 
> used to use.

I tend to use my own fastclouds macro, which uses a texturing technique that 
is slightly more complicated than the with povray included cloud-textures.

some examples:
http://www.povplace.com/gallery/Experiments/newfastclouds.jpg
http://www.povplace.com/gallery/Experiments/flares_test1.jpg

It's not as goodlooking, or as flexible as volumetric clouds, even stacked 
planes look better (or stacked spheres, as I used here: 
http://www.povplace.com/gallery/IRTC/zee.jpg ), but it renders a LOT faster 
:)

cu!
-- 
#macro G(b,e)b+(e-b)*C/50#end#macro _(b,e,k,l)#local C=0;#while(C<50)
sphere{G(b,e)+3*z.1pigment{rgb G(k,l)}finish{ambient 1}}#local C=C+1;
#end#end _(y-x,y,x,x+y)_(y,-x-y,x+y,y)_(-x-y,-y,y,y+z)_(-y,y,y+z,x+y)
_(0x+y.5+y/2x)_(0x-y.5+y/2x)            // ZK http://www.povplace.com

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