scott wrote:

> In your mind it seems everything is *way* simpler than it actually is in 
> real life.  You think that an engine can be modelled by a few CSG 
> operations, or a phone base or computer monitor.  Sure, you can get some 
> very crude 3D model that way, but it will look awful.
> 
> Real life doens't have perfectly sharp edges or perfectly straight 
> cylinders, real life has rounds on every single edge and lots of curved 
> surfaces.  If you don't get the rounds and curved surfaces it is going 
> to look rubbish in any render.
> 
> Here's a real life engine for you (I assume you meant car engine):
> 
> http://www.ausmotive.com/images/BMW-335-engine-01.jpg
> 
> Are you really telling me you could get a half-way realistic SDL version 
> of that in a reasonable time?

If you want to model every individual surface and line right down to the 
engine number stamped on the side, surely it's going to take a ludicrous 
amount of time no matter what tool you use.

I think if you sat down and spent enough time on it, it's quite 
plausible you could eventually model something like this. The pipework 
would be somewhat tricky, and it's not fantastically easy to model an 
intricate object with a single photo from just one angle, but I think it 
should be doable.

Of course, almost *anything* is possible given a mathematically 
unbounded amount of time, so maybe the interesting question is how long 
it would take with a simple mesh modeller?

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