In article <3e67c326@news.povray.org>,
 Andreas Kreisig <and### [at] gmxde> wrote:

> In my opinion POV-Ray needs more features regarding textures similar to 
> other 3D applications like alpha maps, specularity maps (!!) or image based 
> displacement mapping.

Alpha maps...I've long wanted transparency separated from color. Making 
transparency controllable by a pattern or function would be incredibly 
powerful.

Specularity maps: better to make all finish values controllable as I 
mentioned for transparency, or add a finish_map feature. I think there 
are patches out there for this, I don't know how complete they are or 
how well it works.

Displacement mapping: this has been discussed a *lot* on these groups. 
It would require automatic tessellation of all objects, and is generally 
a huge amount of work before you even get to the displacement features. 
I've done a little work on it, so have a few other people.


> The textures in POV-Rays include files are powerfull but in most 
> cases not very realistic.

Most of them were written long ago, before there was even radiosity. A 
new set of includes using macros and the more modern texture features 
could be far more powerful and realistic.


> Or you have not enough control about 
> them, e.g. if you need rust or specularity only on special areas. In this 
> cases you actually need an image map so that you can define these areas 
> exactly.

This is something you generally need to make custom textures for.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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