Sometimes people tell me things like "why do you use POV-Ray when there
are a lot better programs which are also easier to use, like 3D-Studio, etc?",
or "I don't like the output quality of POV-Ray compared to other programs"
and so on.
  Putting aside the question of piracy (those people usually use themselves
pirated renderers), it's clear that they don't understand the difference
between POV-Ray and the so-called "professional" renderers. And I'm not
talking exclusively about price here.
  Reading this history it's quite clear that POV-Ray is and has always been
just a hobby which some people have made in their spare time. The spirit of
this hobby is quite clearly such that it doesn't even try to compete with
"professional" renderers, but just develop a raytracer for fun and see what
can be done. The spirit has never been to try to make a better renderer than
other renderers (like seems to be so common nowadays, when someone makes
his/her own renderer), but it's just a hobby and that's it. It has never
been a question of competition or anything.
  Taking into account this, the quality of the result is amazing. In
experienced hands POV-Ray can create images that have "professional" quality,
and sometimes it can even make better images than a high-end high-cost
"professional" program.

  The people who undervalue POV-Ray when compared to other renderers don't
clearly understand what's going on. It's not a competition, it's a hobby.

-- 
#macro N(D,I)#if(I<6)cylinder{M()#local D[I]=div(D[I],104);M().5,2pigment{
rgb M()}}N(D,(D[I]>99?I:I+1))#end#end#macro M()<mod(D[I],13)-6,mod(div(D[I
],13),8)-3,10>#end blob{N(array[6]{11117333955,
7382340,3358,3900569407,970,4254934330},0)}//                     - Warp -

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ingo wrote:

> in news:3B751AB5.8A862CF3@simberon.com David Buck wrote:
>
> > http://www.simberon.com/pov_history.htm
>
>  can we use this in the POV_Ray documentation?

Yes, you may use it, but I would like to be able to review the copy that
you include.  I may want to dig up some additional details, correct dates,
etc.  If you're including it in the POV_Ray documentation, I would like it
to be a bit more accurate. (but for heaven's sake, don't hold up the
release on my account :-)

David Buck

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in news:3B754773.58589D90@simberon.com David Buck wrote:

>>  can we use this in the POV_Ray documentation?
> 
> Yes, you may use it, but I would like to be able to review the copy
> that you include.

I'll do so.

Ingo

-- 
Photography: http://members.home.nl/ingoogni/
Pov-Ray    : http://members.home.nl/seed7/

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"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:3b7541e0@news.povray.org...
>   Sometimes people tell me things like "why do you use POV-Ray when there
> are a lot better programs which are also easier to use, like 3D-Studio,
etc?"
---snip---
>   Taking into account this, the quality of the result is amazing. In
> experienced hands POV-Ray can create images that have "professional"
quality,
> and sometimes it can even make better images than a high-end high-cost
> "professional" program.
---snip---
>   The people who undervalue POV-Ray when compared to other renderers don't
> clearly understand what's going on. It's not a competition, it's a hobby.

My sentiments exactly.

Of the very scant few "other" ray tracers (3D Design Plus, Polyray,
trueSpace, BMRT... in that order) I've used before POV-Ray Tracer, for me,
has never been set aside since the day I downloaded it.
Half the fun is seeing what other people are doing with it.  I try not to
think of POV-Ray having devoted followers like a cult or something, probably
because I just use it for lack of anything else worthwhile I've come across
(read that as usable) and so believe that's possibly true of others too.
I mean, it's not as though I completely shut myself out from the rest of the
ray tracers in the past.  I must admit though that I'm a bit afraid of
finding another POV-Ray that could replace it.  Whether that's a
subconscious denial of better programs is for the psychiatrists to analyze.
:-)

Bob H.

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Wow! The Buckmeister speaks!!!

He Lives!!!

Reaction:
1. Cool
2. Jasper seems excited, but it is difficult to gauge.
3. Bob. I think he wants to go outside.

Cat's, it's cool for rats.

'Tanks' for the wonderful info.

a fan,

Peter,
war### [at] hotmailcom

David Buck wrote in message <3B751AB5.8A862CF3@simberon.com>...
>Paragon wrote:
>
>> Where can I learn about the history of POV-Ray?  Here is this great
freeware
>> raytracer, and it's origin on how it came about seems nowhere to be
found...
>
>I wrote up a long article to answer your question, but I'm having trouble
>posting it here.  I put it on my web site at
>http://www.simberon.com/pov_history.htm.
>
>David Buck
>
>

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