In article <3C5613BD.4B8FA532@aol.com>, Dave Dunn <poi### [at] aolcom> 
wrote:

> Is this some "insider" joke?

No.


> Let's take a look at what the "possibly not
> useful" features are that didn't make it into the 3.5 self-incrementing
> Beta (all of which work just fine thank you):

They don't. Most of them are incomplete, redundant, or simply get in the 
way of future plans.


> MegaPOV 0.7
> Reflection blur - I've seen enough workarounds in these groups to know this
> is needed.

The "workarounds" are better: faster and more flexible. The patch was a 
slow and incomplete hack. If this is ever implemented in an official 
version, it will probably be much more flexible.


> Motion blur - okay, flawed, but certainly useful; I use it often.

Useful, but as you said, flawed, so it didn't get into 3.5.


> Blinn microfacets - superior to specular highlights in every way.

Not that superior, and there were reasons not to add it. The POV-Team 
has mentioned they are considering a more general way of specifying this 
sort of thing, though it won't reach POV 3.5.


> Heightfield_height_at (no way trace works better on hfs, sorry).

Sorry, the trace() function works better, in every single case. The 
hf_height_at feature was only useful when trace() hadn't been added, now 
it is a useless redundancy which probably won't make it into the next 
MegaPOV.


> Text object enhancements (why use a macro when you can just use this?).

Because the macro will work on any object. If you decide you want a 
union of a text object and a cylinder as an underline, you can do so 
with no extra coding.


> Glows (Ahem, Chris, didn't you write this one? ; } ).

I converted the patch from POV AFX and heavily modified it. It is simply 
not ready for an official release.


> POVMan
> ClothSim (How is 3.5 better than this?)
> Renderman-like Shaders (See falling star animations at p.b.a)

Not at all close to ready for the official version.


> MegaPOV Plus
> Particle_system (I know the author is around somewhere).

Again, nowhere near ready for 3.5. I'm actually waiting for 3.5 to be 
released so I can finish this and the glow patch.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <chr### [at] maccom>
POV-Ray TAG e-mail: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
TAG web site: http://tag.povray.org/

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