MeshLab can subdivide, cull, re-mesh etc.
(but it's not a modeler)
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

Wings3d can subdivide stuff.
http://www.wings3d.com/

And of course you'll need PoseRay
to import stuff.
http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/

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Thanks for all the advice! I'm leaning towards POV-Ray with Subdivision 
right now, mostly because the format conversions look like they'll be a 
bit of a pain otherwise. (Too bad there's no source available for 
PoseRay; it looks useful but I'd rather not fiddle with Wine at the moment.)

A few last questions for whoever might know: Is it likely that POV-Sub 
will make it into the official packages in the future? Also, what's with 
the three years without an update to the website/code? (That was what 
worried me in the first place.) And finally, if I have color set at each 
triangle in a mesh, would POV-Sub do something to interpolate them when 
subdividing? (Don't want to get my hopes up, but that would be pretty 
great.) Thanks again,

Jesse

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Jesse Connell wrote:
> (Too bad there's no source available for 
> PoseRay; it looks useful but I'd rather not fiddle with Wine at the 
> moment.)

I'd like to second that. :-)

-- 
William Tracy
afi### [at] gmailcom wtr### [at] calpolyedu

You know you've been raytracing too long when you know how far away a 
scene's light source is just by looking at the shadows.
Taps a.k.a. Tapio Vocadlo

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Jesse Connell <jes### [at] buedu> wrote:
> Also, I don't see any easy way to
> distribute a range of colors on the surface of the mesh to represent a
> variable (ie, pressure or velocity magnitude).

I've never tried it, but if you use a mesh2 object you can texture triangles
or even vertices individually. It looks like you need to put the textures
into a list and reference them by index but it can be done.

http://www.povray.org/documentation/view/3.6.1/293/

Bill

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Bill Pragnell <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> I've never tried it, but if you use a mesh2 object you can texture triangles
> or even vertices individually.

  Actually you can do that with a mesh too, but it becomes more verbose.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Ah, I hadn't notice the individual vertex possibility. That's definitely 
something I can use. Thanks!

Jesse

Warp wrote:
> Bill Pragnell <bil### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> I've never tried it, but if you use a mesh2 object you can texture triangles
>> or even vertices individually.
> 
>   Actually you can do that with a mesh too, but it becomes more verbose.
>

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Jesse Connell wrote:
...
> What (I think) I'd like to do is split the elements of my mesh into many
> more elements and smooth it out. I've found a few sets of macros and
> things for doing this, like the "New Surface Subdivision Suite" (
> http://www.geocities.com/evilsnack/nsss.htm ) and "POV-Ray with
> Subdivision". They all seem to be unmaintained, though, or at least very
> out of date.
...

Jesse,
Last time I tried the NSSS macros they worked very well, so I don't
think that the suite needs much maintenance at the moment.

Here's some images I rendered with NSSS (and some macros of my own):
http://home.online.no/~t-o-k/POV-Ray/Mesh-Moebius_Band.jpg
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.images/thread/%3C41450e47%40news.povray.org%3E/
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.images/thread/%3C4131f02f%40news.povray.org%3E/

-- 
Tor Olav
http://subcube.com

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Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:
> Jesse Connell wrote:
> ...
>> What (I think) I'd like to do is split the elements of my mesh into many
>> more elements and smooth it out. I've found a few sets of macros and
>> things for doing this, like the "New Surface Subdivision Suite" (
>> http://www.geocities.com/evilsnack/nsss.htm ) and "POV-Ray with
>> Subdivision". They all seem to be unmaintained, though, or at least very
>> out of date.
> ...
> 
> Jesse,
> Last time I tried the NSSS macros they worked very well, so I don't
> think that the suite needs much maintenance at the moment.
> 
> Here's some images I rendered with NSSS (and some macros of my own):
> http://home.online.no/~t-o-k/POV-Ray/Mesh-Moebius_Band.jpg
>
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.images/thread/%3C41450e47%40news.povray.org%3E/
>
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.images/thread/%3C4131f02f%40news.povray.org%3E/
> 

OK, thanks. I thought that might be the case. Glad to hear from someone 
who's used it. Like you say, it looks like it works pretty well!

Jesse

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Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:
> Jesse Connell wrote:
> ...
> 
>>What (I think) I'd like to do is split the elements of my mesh into many
>>more elements and smooth it out. I've found a few sets of macros and
>>things for doing this, like the "New Surface Subdivision Suite" (
>>http://www.geocities.com/evilsnack/nsss.htm ) and "POV-Ray with
>>Subdivision". They all seem to be unmaintained, though, or at least very
>>out of date.
> 
> Last time I tried the NSSS macros they worked very well, so I don't
> think that the suite needs much maintenance at the moment.

Maintenance happens when the maintainer is told there is a bug.  That 
hasn't happened in a while (almost three years), so there's been no need 
for updates.

At the moment I am upgrading my modeler to use polygons with more than 
four sides, and I'm rewriting my macro suite to go with it.  There will 
be an appropriate announcement when it's ready to be seen in public.

Regards,
John

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John VanSickle wrote:
> Tor Olav Kristensen wrote:
>> Jesse Connell wrote:
>> ...
>>
>>> What (I think) I'd like to do is split the elements of my mesh into many
>>> more elements and smooth it out. I've found a few sets of macros and
>>> things for doing this, like the "New Surface Subdivision Suite" (
>>> http://www.geocities.com/evilsnack/nsss.htm ) and "POV-Ray with
>>> Subdivision". They all seem to be unmaintained, though, or at least very
>>> out of date.
>>
>> Last time I tried the NSSS macros they worked very well, so I don't
>> think that the suite needs much maintenance at the moment.
> 
> Maintenance happens when the maintainer is told there is a bug.  That 
> hasn't happened in a while (almost three years), so there's been no need 
> for updates.
> 
> At the moment I am upgrading my modeler to use polygons with more than 
> four sides, and I'm rewriting my macro suite to go with it.  There will 
> be an appropriate announcement when it's ready to be seen in public.
> 
> Regards,
> John

I've ended up putting my meshes through the NSSS macros, and they're 
working great for me. Thanks for quelling my fears about maintenance; it 
looks like I spoke too soon in my first post.

Jesse

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