> I am new to povray and have been trying to render a surface without much
> success, the surface could not be mathematically represented (will at 
> least not
> in one piece) as a function, but I do have the x, y, and z data. How do I 
> go
> about rendering this in povray? Joining up bicubic patch objects should 
> work
> but I do have a large number of points, the mesh grid is a square one if 
> that
> helps. To give an example, say the following is a portion of the surface I 
> want
> to render (a saddle point of Z=sin(X*Y). Could anyone point to to the 
> right
> direction or give me some sample code to study?

#version 3.6;

#include "colors.inc"
#include "finish.inc"

global_settings {
  assumed_gamma 1.0
}

// --- camera, lights & 
background ------------------------------------------
camera {
   location  <0.0, 0.5, -4.0>
   direction 1.5*z
   right     x*image_width/image_height
   look_at   <0.0, 0.0,  0.0>
}
sky_sphere {
  pigment {
    gradient y
    color_map {
       [0.0 Red]
       [0.5 Red]
       [0.5 White]
       [1.0 White]
    }
    scale 0.05
  }
}
light_source {
  <-30, 30, -30>
  color rgb <1, 1, 1>
}

// ---  
macros ---------------------------------------------------------------
#declare XYZdata = array [49]
   {<-1.5,-1.5, 0.7781>,<-1,-1.5, 0.9975>,<-0.5,-1.5, 0.6816>,<0,-1.5, 0>,
    <0.5,-1.5, -0.6816>, <1.0,-1.5,-0.9975>,<1.5,-1.5, -0.7781>,
    <-1.5,-1.0, 0.9975>,<-1,-1.0, 0.8415>,<-0.5,-1.0, 0.4794>,<0,-1.0, 0>,
    <0.5,-1.0, -0.4794>, <1.0,-1.0,-0.8415>,<1.5,-1.0, -0.9975>,
    <-1.5,-0.5, 0.6816>,<-1,-0.5, 0.4794>,<-0.5,-0.5, 0.2474>,<0,-0.5, 0>,
    <0.5,-0.5, -0.2474>, <1.0,-0.5,-0.4794>,<1.5,-0.5, -0.6816>,
    <-1.5,0,0>,<-1,0,0>,<-0.5,0,0>,<0,0,0>,<0.5,0,0>, <1.0,0,0>,<1.5,0,0>,
    <-1.5,0.5,-0.6816>,<-1,0.5,-0.4794>,<-0.5,0.5,-0.2474>,<0,0.5, 0>,
    <0.5,0.5,0.2474>, <1.0,0.5,0.4794>,<1.5,0.5,0.6816>,
    <-1.5,1,-0.9975>,<-1,1,-0.8415>,<-0.5,1,-0.4794>,<0,1,0>,<0.5,1,0.4794>,
    <1.0,1, 0.8415>,<1.5,1,  0.9975>,
    <-1.5,1.5,-0.7781>,<-1,1.5,-0.9975>,<-0.5,1.5,-0.6816>,<0,1.5, 0>,
    <0.5,1.5,0.6816>, <1.0,1.5, 0.9975>,<1.5,1.5,0.7781>};

#macro point_cloud(A, r)
   #local _pce = dimension_size(A,1);
   #local c = 0;
   #while (c<_pce)
      sphere{A[c],r}
      #local c=c+1;
   #end
#end

// ---  
scene ----------------------------------------------------------------

union {
   point_cloud(XYZdata,0.05)
   texture {pigment {White} finish {Dull}}
   scale 0.5
}

parametric {
   function { u },        // x-axis
   function { v },        // y-axis
   function { sin(u*v) }  // z-axis
   <-1.5,-1.5>, <1.5,1.5> // <u1,v1>, <u2,v2> limits
   contained_by { box { -1.5, 1.5 } }
   accuracy 0.005
   precompute 15 x,y,z
   texture {pigment {Blue}}
   scale 0.5
}

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