Fa3ien wrote:
> 
> Imagine you have a mesh which requires subdivision, and are
> making an animation.  If POV-Ray performs the subdivision,
> various instances of the mesh could be subdivised at different
> levels, according the distance from the camera

Best example I've seen yet, and a very compelling, but I'm not sold. 
This simplification would require more than just distance to the camera, 
angle of incidence would also have to be considered. The system would 
need to be fairly complex to produce a decent result, and characters, 
landscape, and teapots would all require different rules. One person 
might someday do this if the SDL were extended enough.

But how many people are we excluding by obfuscating the SDL?

When much of the code in p.text.s-f looks like this:
MacroName (*Param1, %Param2%$, ....)
new users will not be willing to commit to learning POV's (among free 
renderers) "Killer App" (scripting interface).

"Scripting" may mean something different to programmers. but it means 
something particular to me - something distinct from "Programming." I 
think POV is best served by a "Scripting Interface."

I've said several times that if it's necessary for shaders, it needs to 
be included. Modeling *will* be done 99% with outside apps, no matter 
what is included in the SDL. A lot lost for very little gained IMO. If a 
non-user read this thread, he might conclude that there are scores of 
people hand-coding complex scenes in POV or MEL[1], just champing at the 
bit waiting for the ability to make even more complex scenes this way - 
this is NOT the case.

  -Shay

[1] Maya scripting interface

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