I just played a bit with Aqsis and tested something RenderMan calls 
"Reference Geometry".
It's a bit like u/v mapping, but for 3d-textures:
If you've got a mesh that deforms (in an animation), u/v mapping would 
ensure that the texture stayes "attached" to the shape. But 
unfortunately using a 3D procedural texture will not work in POV-Ray, 
the texture would slide around on the geometry.
With RenderMan you can attach the texture to a deforming object in a way 
that the pattern will stick to the surface by defining an (undeformed) 
reference mesh used for texturing.

Theoretically it would be easy to do the same trick with a raytracer:
If you've got the u/v coordinates (e.g. on a bicubic patch or some sort 
of mesh) of the ray intersection, use them to compute the (3d) position 
on the reference patch/mesh and use that for texturing...

The quesition is: Can this be done in SDL?

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