I'm considering taking a whack at converting from POV SDL to other formats
suitable for real-time browsing (e.g. VRML).  I know this is an old issue, I
know it's hard, the idea just appeals to me.  I'm also worried about the
legality of it based on my reading of the license.  I don't want to beat a
dead horse or annoy anyone but I'd like to get some feedback if I can.

I've put up a page on my site describing what I'm thinking of doing:

    http://www.Doorways.org/Doorways/Nexus/POV-conv.html

I'll monitor this newsgroup or you can reply to my email.

Thanks for your time,
Marc M. Adkins
POV### [at] Doorwaysorg

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"Marc M. Adkins" wrote:
> 
> I'm considering taking a whack at converting from POV SDL to other formats
> suitable for real-time browsing (e.g. VRML).  I know this is an old issue, I
> know it's hard, the idea just appeals to me.  I'm also worried about the
> legality of it based on my reading of the license.  I don't want to beat a
> dead horse or annoy anyone but I'd like to get some feedback if I can.

There is no licence problem at all concerning the POV-SDL format, as the
licence clearly mentions other programs are free to read or write POV-SDL
files.

Using the POV-Ray source code in other programs is clearly forbidden on
the other hand.  If you want to take advantage of the POV-Ray parser for
reading POV files into your conversion program you can only do this by
writing an unofficial version of POV-Ray and complying with the
restrictions for such versions made by the licence.  If you want a
separate program you have to code your own parser and must not use code
from POV-Ray.

I personally believe this is an extremely difficult task no matter if done
as a POV-Ray patch or a separate program.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, IsoWood include,                 
TransSkin and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/  
Last updated 05 May. 2002 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

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> If you want to take advantage of the POV-Ray parser for
> reading POV files into your conversion program you can only do this by
> writing an unofficial version of POV-Ray and complying with the
> restrictions for such versions made by the licence.

Absolutely.  I would be adding functionality to POV-Ray in an "unofficial
patched version."  I would not remove any code or functionality in the
process.  I have no commercial aspirations whatsoever.  I want this in
support of my hobby web site, which already advertised POV-Ray.

I'm only concerned that the very act of generating secondary graphical data
files from POV-Ray violates the license restrictions on additional APIs.  I
figure to generate ASCII data files in XML format, not APIs, not
ActiveX/COM, not DLLs.  I don't think that this is a violation...

> I personally believe this is an extremely difficult task no matter if done
> as a POV-Ray patch or a separate program.

You betcha.  I figure I'm too ignorant of the issues to be properly scared.
I'm assuming that I'll hack on it for a while, learn a bunch of stuff I
don't know, and give up.  Then again, I can be pretty stubborn at times.

I just want to make sure that IF I get something working I can use it and
(if anyone else cares) redistribute it as an unofficial patched version
according to the license.

Thanks for your comments,
Marc M. Adkins
POV### [at] Doorwaysorg

Post a reply to this message

> If you want to take advantage of the POV-Ray parser for
> reading POV files into your conversion program you can only do this by
> writing an unofficial version of POV-Ray and complying with the
> restrictions for such versions made by the licence.

Absolutely.  I would be adding functionality to POV-Ray in an "unofficial
patched version."  I would not remove any code or functionality in the
process.  I have no commercial aspirations whatsoever.  I want this in
support of my hobby web site, which already advertised POV-Ray.

I'm only concerned that the very act of generating secondary graphical data
files from POV-Ray violates the license restrictions on additional APIs.  I
figure to generate ASCII data files in XML format, not APIs, not
ActiveX/COM, not DLLs.  I don't think that this is a violation...

> I personally believe this is an extremely difficult task no matter if done
> as a POV-Ray patch or a separate program.

You betcha.  I figure I'm too ignorant of the issues to be properly scared.
I'm assuming that I'll hack on it for a while, learn a bunch of stuff I
don't know, and give up.  Then again, I can be pretty stubborn at times.

I just want to make sure that IF I get something working I can use it and
(if anyone else cares) redistribute it as an unofficial patched version
according to the license.

Thanks for your comments,
Marc M. Adkins
POV### [at] Doorwaysorg

Post a reply to this message

"Marc M. Adkins" <POV### [at] Doorwaysorg> wrote:
> I'm only concerned that the very act of
> generating secondary graphical data files from
> POV-Ray violates the license restrictions on
> additional APIs.  I figure to generate ASCII
> data files in XML format, not APIs, not ActiveX/COM,
> not DLLs.  I don't think that this is a violation...

I am not a lawyer, but I think it's perfectly OK to go ahead.

> You betcha.  I figure I'm too ignorant of the issues
> to be properly scared.

Being scared is never good - go ahead!

I read somewhere that the POV-Ray team plans a complete rewrite for version
4.0 - this will probably take some time, but you should be careful not to
integrate your code too closely with the current POV-Ray codebase...

If you want to steal ideas or know-how from VOP...
[
VOP is my own POV-SDL-OpenGL-Previewer - you already have seen it (thanks
for the link!), but most others haven't ;-) :
http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/imawww/thaller/wolfgang/vop-intro.html
]
... feel free to do so. As you probably don't want to learn the strange
programming language that I am using, I'm also available to provide
information in English :-)

I wish you good luck!

Cheers,

Wolfgang Thaller

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