Suddenly I wondered, why is black the default pigment? Wouldn't white 
make more sense?

.. and also suddenly I realize somebody will see this wondering as racism :)

Anyway, off to POV-Raying again.

cu!
-- 
ZK

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Zeger Knaepen <zeg### [at] povplacecom> wrote:
> Suddenly I wondered, why is black the default pigment? Wouldn't white 
> make more sense?

  Because black is the lack of any color, which makes sense as a default.
(Also, if you think about it in term of numbers, zero makes sense as a
default.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 13/01/2011 20:57, Warp wrote:
> Zeger Knaepen<zeg### [at] povplacecom>  wrote:
>> Suddenly I wondered, why is black the default pigment? Wouldn't white
>> make more sense?
>
>    Because black is the lack of any color, which makes sense as a default.
> (Also, if you think about it in term of numbers, zero makes sense as a
> default.)

I guess so, but still, one would expect the default texture to be 
usefull, no? I mean, if I'm just modelling stuff, without yet worrying 
about the texturing, I use a simple white pigment.

It's of course a minor job to create my own default texture, but I 
wonder if anyone (except maybe in a "short code contest") ever uses the 
current, black, default texture. And if noone does, doesn't that mean 
that noone really agrees with black being the right choice for a default 
texture?

Oh, well, doesn't really matter actually, it was just some random 
wondering :)

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On 1/13/2011 2:17 PM, Zeger Knaepen wrote:
> Suddenly I wondered, why is black the default pigment? Wouldn't white
> make more sense?

Put

#default { pigment { rgb 1 } }

at the beginning of your scenes, and you'll have what you want.

Regards,
John
(who uses a value of .75 instead of 1 for this)

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On 5/02/2011 23:16, John VanSickle wrote:
> #default { pigment { rgb 1 } }
>
> at the beginning of your scenes, and you'll have what you want.

I know that, and that's what I do.  My question wasn't how to do that, 
but why I should do that.

Or rather: why the default texture is actually unusable in 99% of the 
cases, whereas it would be very useful for almost any test rendering if 
the default pigment was white.

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On 06/02/2011 10:47 AM, Zeger Knaepen wrote:
>
> Or rather: why the default texture is actually unusable in 99% of the
> cases, whereas it would be very useful for almost any test rendering if
> the default pigment was white.

Personally I think red is a good default colour. It shows where I have 
forgotten to texture an object. I suppose rgb <1,0,0.5> would be better 
for that.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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Am 06.02.2011 13:07, schrieb Stephen:
> On 06/02/2011 10:47 AM, Zeger Knaepen wrote:
>>
>> Or rather: why the default texture is actually unusable in 99% of the
>> cases, whereas it would be very useful for almost any test rendering if
>> the default pigment was white.
>
> Personally I think red is a good default colour. It shows where I have
> forgotten to texture an object. I suppose rgb <1,0,0.5> would be better
> for that.

There. That's the reason why it is like it is: There are multiple 
pigments that would make sense. But of all conceivable colors, there is 
one that is special - the one and only which preserves backward 
compatibility: Good old pitch black.

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> On 5/02/2011 23:16, John VanSickle wrote:
>> #default { pigment { rgb 1 } }
>>
>> at the beginning of your scenes, and you'll have what you want.
>
> I know that, and that's what I do. My question wasn't how to do that,
> but why I should do that.
>
> Or rather: why the default texture is actually unusable in 99% of the
> cases, whereas it would be very useful for almost any test rendering if
> the default pigment was white.

The problem here, is that ANY default pigment would be 
unusable/useless/anoying for many peoples.
In my case: There are cases when white is a good choice, other when pure 
red or green are more usefull, and usualy, pure black is perfect.

That olds true for the default pigment, finish and background.

Even for the same person, a default can be optimum in one case and next 
to unusable in another.

So, that's why there is a #default{...} directive and several background 
features.



Alain

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