On 18-8-2017 18:59, Bald Eagle wrote:
> "Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> 
>> I would like to imagine that NASA has created a LARGE full 3-D globe of Mars-- a
>> real-life globe-- carved from the planetary data. That would be something to
>> see!
> 
> Well, I would say that is all of the data is available, and since
> planet-building seems to be a long-standing interest of Povvers, that maybe such
> a thing would make a nice, long-term group project.
> 
> I'm sure we could learn a lot and discover more things about what POV-Ray can &
> can't do, and it would make a pretty nice PR piece.
> "Hobbyists model ALL of Mars in POV-Ray, a free raytracer with a 25-year
> history..."
> 
> It would be a really good test bed for view frustum and back-face culling, all
> sorts of mesh-related work, and probably media for the atmosphere.
> 
> 

Well, as far as Earth is concerned, Christoph Hormann did this: 
http://earth.imagico.de/view.php?site=oman1

However, the question might be asked about the above: is it really 
worthwhile to model a whole planet as a mesh? From a distance, elevation 
features get lost and can better be replaced by appropriate image_maps 
and bump_maps (NASA provides those too!); for a close view, mesh tiles 
like those NASA produces for Mars are much better suited.

-- 
Thomas

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