On Sun, 12 Mar 2000 12:02:32 -0500, Chris Huff
<chr### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

>In article <38CBC8F6.8B481E2A@pacbell.net>, lin### [at] povrayorg 
>wrote:
>
>> A thought... Some of these files query the user for parameters during
>> the program run time. If added to Pov it sure would reduce the number
>> of predeclared variables needed in the scene.
>
>Are you talking about some kind of "query_user()" function that would 
>pop up a dialog or a console input for the person rendering the file to 
>enter values? Something like:
>#declare Name = query_user("Please enter your name: ");
>
>I don't think that would be a good idea. What if it pops up after 15 
>minutes of parsing, and you left the computer going over the weekend 
>expecting to have an animation finished when you got back? 

Perhaps the parser could scan for such interactive features first, and
let the user know that they need to watch the screen to add input to
the scene data. If no interactive features were found in the scene
files, then the parser could even issue a statement to that effect,
and proceed to render the scene while you went out for the weekend.

>Besides, it could be a real pain to set those for every single little 
>test render.

It should also be possible to "remember" the values entered during the
last rendering of an interactive scene file, and use them for
"default" values when queried by the current interactive rendering.
Let's say you have ten seconds to change the default value, or the
scene continues parsing with the default value. Hitting the "return"
key would simply accept the default value as-is, and avoid the ten
second delay. In order to store the previous query values, POV's
text-file output capabilities can be put to use in a method similar to
Nathan's use of an external file for storing photon or radiosity data
for subsequent renders.

I think this would work okay. I have wanted such an interactive aspect
added to POV-Ray myself.

Later,
Glen Berry

Post a reply to this message