news:40b719ac$1@news.povray.org...
> Don't be confused by the x*image_width/image_height.  It simply is a short
> form of writing a vector with the x-component having the value
> image_width/image_height.  That plague with x*image_width/image_height
> started with 3.5 as some users put it in every scene, which is not the
> intended use.  It only makes sense if you plan to render a scene at a
fixed
> aspect ratio regardless of the image aspect ratio (that is, if different
> resolutions of an image when rendered are not expected to be
proportional).

Uh? I'm not sure I understand why this is a "plague"... The stretch/squeeze
issue is such a common headache for newcomers that it made its way into FAQ
9.1.2.4, which is the primary source of the image_width/image_height trick.
Hey, for a couple of years in the pre-internet days (no peer support then) I
rotated all my vertical scenes to render then at 800*600, so I'm talking
about "real" headaches... As far as I'm concerned, automatic aspect ratio
should have been the default setting (instead of 4/3) because it's extremely
practical and something less to worry about. The FAQ says that the current
behaviour is necessary because of the possibility of non-square pixels, but
only gives the old Windows startup screen as an example. Are there other
common circumstances (video output?) where having square pixels by default
would be problem?

G.

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