scott wrote:
>> Cascades sounds interesting. I'd certainly like to watch it. However, 
>> it requires a more expensive GPU and a more expensive OS before it 
>> will even consider running, so that's kind of the end of that.
> 
> You can watch it on YouTube, you might even be able to find a higher 
> resolution version somewhere on the net.
> 
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=_tDK2hfxiw0

Mmm, OK. Well obviously I can't do that from work, but when I get home 
tonight...

>> Yes. And that is why POV-Ray can do things that a GPU can't. POV-Ray 
>> isn't *trying* to be real-time. ;-)
> 
> So POV should strive to use more recent algorithms then, not just stick 
> with ones that were around 20 year ago.

Netwon's laws of motion have been around for a tad longer than 20 years, 
and people still use 'em. ;-)

FWIW, I think it would certainly be interesting to have unbaised 
rendering as an option on POV-Ray. But the amount of work required is, 
realistically, prohibitive. You'd have to basically rewrite the whole 
program. And I don't see that happening any time soon...

>> I could add things like isosurfaces to the list.
> 
> You do realise that the big rock in the Cascades demo is an isosurface?

Really? I thought it was just a tellesated triangle mesh based on an 
isosurface? (Remember, I haven't actually been able to watch the demo yet.)

>> (Have you ever seen a game where the water *actually ripples* rather 
>> than just surface normal tricks?)
> 
> Yes, Crysis for one, plus there's some flight sim which is regularly 
> cited in papers about this.

...starting to see why Crysis is so hard to run... ;-)

OOC... Clearly Crysis has some pretty serious graphics. But is it *fun* 
to play?

>> Just don't try to tell me a GPU can do everything POV-Ray can. ;-)
> 
> I'm not, I'm just saying that it can do *most* of what POV can, in a 
> fraction of the time.

Well OK then. That I can live with...

> And when people do start to use POV for 
> animations, they chop out all the graphical goodies anyway to make it 
> render in less than a year...

LOL! Every pover knows it's true... ;-)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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