In article <web.47bdcc0fef771f4c5116a38d0@news.povray.org>, 
peter@**nospam**hertel.no says...
> > to render every time to see what the changes you make are going to look
> > like is a serious pain
> > I have something I want to
> > do and need a simple, clear, and easily tweakable method to match
> > existing textures, without having to use something that generates a
> > tillable image, instead of a native texture. Nothing "recent" seems to
> > do this.
> 
> > you can tweak settings and see what will happen *before* having to
> > render some complex scene to see the result.
> 
> > Sure, if you are used to doing it the hard way, and you have a clear
> > idea what effects you will get, it works OK to throw 3-4 things
> > together, render, then tweak. Its useless if you only have the vaguest
> > clue what you are trying for
> 
> To avoid rendering a complex scene just to test a texture, what about mak
ing a
> simple texture test scene in POV-Ray SDL? The incdemo files bundled with
> POV-Ray illustrates this in a much better way, even with animation.
> 
> But perhaps this small example is something you could use? It allows for 
testing
> of to different variables at the same time. Render the scene, pick the va
lues
> you like and insert them in the code. Then continue with two other variab
les.
> This should help you to narrow down the effect you like in a rather short
 time.
> As your experience increases you will need fewer and fewer tries to get w
hat you
> want ;)
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> -Peter
> 
> // +h1000 +w1000 +a0.3
> 
> camera{
>         orthographic
>         location z*-10 look_at 0 angle 60
>         right x up y
> }
> 
> light_source{<5,5,-20>,1}
> 
> #local Space = 0.1;
> 
> #local X = 0;
> #while (X <= 1)
>         #local Y = 0;
>         #while (Y <= 1)
>                 #local Location = <-5+X*10,-5+Y*10,0>;
> 
>                 sphere{0,Space*4
>                         texture{
>                                 pigment {rgb 1}
>                                 finish {phong X}
>                                 normal{granite Y}
>                                 }
>                 translate Location
>                 }
> 
>                 text{ttf "arial.ttf"
>                         concat("X: ",str(X,3,1), " Y: ",str(Y,3,1)) 1,0
>                         pigment {rgb y*1}
>                         scale Space translate Location-Space*<3,5,0>
>                 }
>         #local Y = Y+Space;
>         #end
> #local X = X+Space;
> #end
> 
Umm, because that still means I have to hit render? lol

Mind, its not a bad idea and certainly one I hadn't considered. Now, 
there are 1-2 on the utility page for POVRay that *do* this, but they do 
so in a way that isn't transferable to POVRay code. In other words, they 
do so by generating an image, not a texture SDL.

Lets put it this way. Open PSP X or Photoshop, go to something like (in 
PSP) Effects->Distortion->Warp, then **see** it actually doing it in the 
preview. This is quite different than manually changing lines of code, 
or even tweaking a setting as in Moray, TXMag, or others, then having to 
hit "run" (or preview, which is fundamentally the same thing). Its also 
nicer than your solution even, since once you think you have one thing 
right, you can just move on to tweak the other variables. Yours.. You 
have to plug in the ones you had right, then run it again, with 
different variances. Kind of annoying, even if it is feasible.

Ok, being a bit nit picky maybe, but seriously, this is one of those 
things that most frontends for other engines "will" do. That you can't 
even find a stand alone utility to do it for POVRay is imho, not a good 
thing when you want people to consider using it, instead of one of those 
fancy smancy ones that *do*. And, sometimes it just nice to be able to 
do that, especially when you don't want to spend a lot of time fiddling, 
even if you know how to do it the hard way. ;)

-- 
void main () {

    if version = "Vista" {
      call slow_by_half();
      call DRM_everything();
    }
    call functional_code();
  }
  else
    call crash_windows();
}

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