Hi,

I realize that I haven't *lurked* the appropriate amount of time,
but I was really surprised that POV doesn't seem to have the
ability to output some sort of triangle mesh output (or does it?).

Years ago I used PolyRay and it did this (of course!?).

I was hoping that I could use POV to develop some sort of scene
that I could then import (Load()) into Directx (or is that a dirty word).

I guess I expected at least a 3DS sort of thing since it seems that
POV at some point obviously knows the coordinates of the object.

Perhaps someone could point to the proper place in the source
where this might happen?

Still looking....

Scott

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can't do it at this time.  objects need to be tesselated which turns
them into triangle meshes.  there are a ton of objects polyray could
never make, but even the simple ones don't have the tesselation code
written into the pov program yet.  many people have asked for the
ability to output, but as the pov team decides what features to
implement, we can only hope and not bother them to the point of
annoyance.  

Scott Jewell wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I realize that I haven't *lurked* the appropriate amount of time,
> but I was really surprised that POV doesn't seem to have the
> ability to output some sort of triangle mesh output (or does it?).
> 
> Years ago I used PolyRay and it did this (of course!?).
> 
> I was hoping that I could use POV to develop some sort of scene
> that I could then import (Load()) into Directx (or is that a dirty word).
> 
> I guess I expected at least a 3DS sort of thing since it seems that
> POV at some point obviously knows the coordinates of the object.
> 
> Perhaps someone could point to the proper place in the source
> where this might happen?
> 
> Still looking....
> 
> Scott

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ryan constantine wrote:

> ...many people have asked for the
> ability to output, but as the pov team decides what features to
> implement, we can only hope and not bother them to the point of
> annoyance.

I am fairly certain that if someone were to submit a working patch
that added this functionality they would seriously consider addding
it to the official version :)

-- 
Ken Tyler - 1400+ POV-Ray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Scott Jewell wrote in part:
> ... I was really surprised that POV doesn't seem to have the
> ability to output some sort of triangle mesh output (or does it?). ...
> I guess I expected at least a 3DS sort of thing since it seems that
> POV at some point obviously knows the coordinates of the object.

Well, sorta; some points on the object's surface are directly measured,
when a ray intersects it.  But that information does not translate
directly to a mesh, because there's no topology in it.  

You could use a program similar to PoV-Ray to parse an object's
description and make a list of intersection points (or interior points)
to whatever resolution you specify; but the resemblance to PoV-Ray ends
there.  You'd then need to determine how these points connect to form
triangles.  There's apparently a good algorithm for that, but still it's
bound to make mistakes with an object like
http://ogre.nu/images/spider.jpg -- some gaps will be counted as bridges
and vice versa.

-- 
Anton Sherwood  --  br0### [at] p0b0xcom  --  http://ogre.nu/

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Anton Sherwood wrote:

> You could use a program similar to PoV-Ray to parse an object's
> description and make a list of intersection points (or interior points)
> to whatever resolution you specify; but the resemblance to PoV-Ray ends
> there.

There is a macro that does something like this - TriScan - (link Ken??)

Bye
Pabs

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Scott Jewell <jew### [at] quikcom> wrote:
: I realize that I haven't *lurked* the appropriate amount of time,
: but I was really surprised that POV doesn't seem to have the
: ability to output some sort of triangle mesh output (or does it?).

  Why are you surprised?

  Firstly, povray is not a converter program made to export to other formats.
Povray is a renderer engine (not a modeller, not a format converter).

  Secondly, povray can handle infinite surfaces and other surfaces impossible
or extremely hard to tesselate.

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

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Pabs wrote:

> There is a macro that does something like this - TriScan - (link Ken??)

http://www.silvertome.com/packages/triscan.html

-- 
Ken Tyler - 1400+ POV-Ray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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> Pabs wrote:
> > There is a macro that does something like this - TriScan - (link Ken??)

Ken wrote:
> http://www.silvertome.com/packages/triscan.html

Wow.  That's me put in my place.  And I have a use for it, too.

-- 
Anton Sherwood  --  br0### [at] p0b0xcom  --  http://ogre.nu/

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