On 30/09/14 19:44, clipka wrote:
> 
> I guess that in this case Turing is actually the one to turn to: I
> suspect that the problem of figuring out the time it takes to render a
> POV-Ray scene is in the same ballpark as the halting problem.
> 

That was my first instinct. However I considered that Knuth might be
more readable (and he gives examples)

> 
> What Knuth might(*) tell you is the efficiency of the various
> optimizations implemented in POV-Ray, and also guesstimates for
> comparatively simple scenes; but the more complex a scene gets, the more
> complex the formula for estimating the runtime will get, and the more
> the error margins will add up, to the point where you have an answer
> that consists of error margins only. (An answer like "1 hour, give or
> take 5 days" doesn't really help, does it ;-))

Oh, I don't know :-) For some reports we read about here, that seems
fairly precise.

> 
> (*) Actually, the old-school analysis of execution time is pretty
> outdated anyway, 

Yeah, but so am I - I'm still getting to grips with broadband :-D

John
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children

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