I was wondering if anyone had this book and what they
thought of it. I am trying to track down a copy through a
local book store, but before I pay the price to find it
(because it's out of print) I want to make sure that it's
something that I want.
 Some of the things I was wondering were:
what does it cover (ie: basic syntax and program functions
or does it get into detail about some of the more complex
math functions POV is capable of)?
 what version of POV was released when the book was
 published?

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Jason wrote:
> 
> I was wondering if anyone had this book and what they
> thought of it. I am trying to track down a copy through a
> local book store, but before I pay the price to find it
> (because it's out of print) I want to make sure that it's
> something that I want.
>  Some of the things I was wondering were:
> what does it cover (ie: basic syntax and program functions
> or does it get into detail about some of the more complex
> math functions POV is capable of)?
>  what version of POV was released when the book was
>  published?

It is a very good read because it gives you an insight as to how
the whole raytracing process works. It was however written for
POV-Ray v2.2 and as such has no information on the math functions
that were later introduced in v3.0.

You can read a little more about it here -

http://members.iquest.net/~cyoung/ray/

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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I think that every book written about povray will be hopelessly outdated
in no time at all.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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Nieminen Juha wrote:
> 
>   I think that every book written about povray will be hopelessly outdated
> in no time at all.

While true it is a good sign that POV-Ray is being developed faster
than the publishers and authors can keep up with :)

 If you can read Japanese there is a much more modern POV-Ray book
available published in July of last year. It appears there are two
versions available one for the linux platform and one for Windows-
but I am only guessing because the book covers are difficult to read.

http://www.win.ne.jp/~kom/povbook.html

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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The covers look good. ,c)
I think that a good technical writer (with a contract from one of the
large publishers) will have a good chance of selling a number of copies
of a povray book, were it published for example about now ;) (well, or
some time soon anyway...) covering version 3.1, with an appendix for the
megapatch (and probably Moray?).
Maybe even a "POV-Ray For Dummies" (those books - though I have never
bought or read one - sell like mad, and have been published about topics
much more marginal, and with a lesser userbase, than POV-Ray)...
As the saying goes: "In his life, a man should plant a tree, father a
child and write a book."
Isn't anyone of you POV gurus interested? :)

Johannes.

"Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:38BCF86E.D70FE674@pacbell.net...
>
>
> Nieminen Juha wrote:
> >
> >   I think that every book written about povray will be hopelessly
outdated
> > in no time at all.
>
> While true it is a good sign that POV-Ray is being developed faster
> than the publishers and authors can keep up with :)
>
>  If you can read Japanese there is a much more modern POV-Ray book
> available published in July of last year. It appears there are two
> versions available one for the linux platform and one for Windows-
> but I am only guessing because the book covers are difficult to read.
>
> http://www.win.ne.jp/~kom/povbook.html
>
> --
> Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing
Links:
> http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html
http://www.povray.org/links/

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Johannes Hubert wrote:
> 
> The covers look good. ,c)
> I think that a good technical writer (with a contract from one of the
> large publishers) will have a good chance of selling a number of copies
> of a povray book, were it published for example about now ;) (well, or
> some time soon anyway...) covering version 3.1, with an appendix for the
> megapatch (and probably Moray?).
> Maybe even a "POV-Ray For Dummies" (those books - though I have never
> bought or read one - sell like mad, and have been published about topics
> much more marginal, and with a lesser userbase, than POV-Ray)...
> As the saying goes: "In his life, a man should plant a tree, father a
> child and write a book."
> Isn't anyone of you POV gurus interested? :)
> 
> Johannes.

As many times as I have set out to write a simple POV-Ray tutorial and
failed to follow through I would say it's a good bet that I am not the
person to get one to a publishing house.

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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"Johannes Hubert" <jht### [at] nove-mailcom> wrote in message
news:38bd1661@news.povray.org...
| Maybe even a "POV-Ray For Dummies" (those books - though I have never
| bought or read one - sell like mad, and have been published about topics
| much more marginal, and with a lesser userbase, than POV-Ray)...
| As the saying goes: "In his life, a man should plant a tree, father a
| child and write a book."
| Isn't anyone of you POV gurus interested? :)

Trees and children yes, book no.
There are these SAMS books I've seen in a Books-a-Million store but not
elsewhere, that are help books on many different programs, operating systems,
and programming languages.  There's ones for Paint Shop Pro and Photo Shop, for
Windows and Linux, all kinds.  One for The GIMP is at:
http://www.briansbooks.com/catalog/books/0672315092
I couldn't get to the publishers site but it's www.sams.com

Bob

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Ken wrote:
> 
>  If you can read Japanese there is a much more modern POV-Ray book
> available published in July of last year. It appears there are two
> versions available one for the linux platform and one for Windows-
> but I am only guessing because the book covers are difficult to read.

And it seems that they are going to release a new one very soon
(in fact, it was due une febuary).  It also seems that the cover
will be using one of my images, but sheeeesh...

Fabien.
(and though I've seen many many japanese cartoons in my childhood,
I can't read a word of japanese =))

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Johannes Hubert <jht### [at] nove-mailcom> wrote in message
news:38bd1661@news.povray.org...
> Maybe even a "POV-Ray For Dummies" (those books - though I have never
> bought or read one - sell like mad, and have been published about topics
> much more marginal, and with a lesser userbase, than POV-Ray)...

Actually, they're not bad - at least the one I've got on Java taught me a
lot. I suspect that "Word for dummies" and its ilk might be a bit
over-simplified, but that the ones on program langs. are more effective.
Real dummies may use Word, but they don't program and the publishers no
doubt realise this.

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