In article 
<Pin### [at] belialrenonvus>, 
<cre### [at] belialrenonvus> wrote:

> On Fri, 3 Mar 2000, Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> 
> > Take the dive! Go for mega 0.4........
> 
> MegaPOV? heard of it....whats it's features?

There are too many to list here, but the biggest and most important 
ones(in my opinion, anyway) are:

Isosurfaces, which are shapes defined by an arbitrary equation.

Photon mapping, which simulates the way light bounces around the scene 
through refraction and reflection. This allows you to have real caustics 
and lenses which actually focus light.

Radiosity improvements. Many of the bugs and restrictions of the 
official version's radiosity have been removed, and the result is 
faster, better quality, and easier to use radiosity.

Media sampling methods. There are two additional ways of sampling media. 
These can give better results with fewer samples, which means better 
media with much faster rendering.

There is a (complete?) list here: http://nathan.kopp.com/patched.htm

-- 
Chris Huff
e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/

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Chris Huff wrote:

> Isosurfaces, which are shapes defined by an arbitrary equation.

What happens if you feed it specific equations ?

<g>

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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In article <38C16C53.6D8A84BF@pacbell.net>, lin### [at] povrayorg 
wrote:

> Chris Huff wrote:
> 
> > Isosurfaces, which are shapes defined by an arbitrary equation.
> 
> What happens if you feed it specific equations ?

It will render the shape that that equation produces.
What I meant was that you didn't have to give it values for a specific 
type of equation, like a the poly object requires. You can use nearly 
any equation. As a bonus, you often get faster rendering than with 
objects like superellipsoid or poly.

-- 
Chris Huff
e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/

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On Sat, 4 Mar 2000, Bob Hughes wrote:

> ftp://ftp.povray.org/pub/povray/Unofficial/MegaPOV/htmldocs.zip
> 
> That html file (~200KB) can give you about the best idea of what all is there,
> otherwise you will no doubt get a scattered representation if people say what is
> in it.
> 
> Bob

Hrmmmm ok......(fires up ftp)
thanx
 :)


 
> <cre### [at] belialrenonvus> wrote in message
> news:Pin### [at] belialrenonvus...
> |
> |
> | On Fri, 3 Mar 2000, Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> |
> | > Take the dive! Go for mega 0.4........
> |
> | MegaPOV? heard of it....whats it's features?
> |
> | >
> | > cre### [at] belialrenonvus wrote:
> | >
> | > > Cool :) It looks like a great place to learn new stuff about
> | > > POVRAY.......pondering wether I should upgrade from 3.1e to 3.1g
> | >
> | >
> | >
> | >
> | >
> |
> 
> 
> 
>

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On Sat, 4 Mar 2000, Chris Huff wrote:

> In article 
> <Pin### [at] belialrenonvus>, 
> <cre### [at] belialrenonvus> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 3 Mar 2000, Greg M. Johnson wrote:
> > 
> > > Take the dive! Go for mega 0.4........
> > 
> > MegaPOV? heard of it....whats it's features?
> 
> There are too many to list here, but the biggest and most important 
> ones(in my opinion, anyway) are:
> 
> Isosurfaces, which are shapes defined by an arbitrary equation.

Ummmm ok :) 

 
> Photon mapping, which simulates the way light bounces around the scene 
> through refraction and reflection. This allows you to have real caustics 
> and lenses which actually focus light.

Now THIS is cool stuff!!


> Radiosity improvements. Many of the bugs and restrictions of the 
> official version's radiosity have been removed, and the result is 
> faster, better quality, and easier to use radiosity.

nifty!


> Media sampling methods. There are two additional ways of sampling media. 
> These can give better results with fewer samples, which means better 
> media with much faster rendering.

I've heard about media but to my (semi?:) eternal shame I haven't even
read POVrays docs on media yet...I know it can do cool stuff...


> There is a (complete?) list here: http://nathan.kopp.com/patched.htm

Isn't that the guy who wrote those lens flare plugins for Moray (I d/l it
to try it (Moray that is :)...now I use it for it's awesome texture
editor....well material editor I should say......man POVRAY sure gives me
heck when I try and combine my inc file with borrowered materials from
Moray and textures from the textures.inc file :)
            

> -- 
> Chris Huff
> e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
> Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/
> 
>

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In article 
<Pin### [at] belialrenonvus>, 
<cre### [at] belialrenonvus> wrote:

> > Isosurfaces, which are shapes defined by an arbitrary equation.
> 
> Ummmm ok :) 

I did a bad job of explaining that, sorry. The isosurface object takes 
an equation and a threshold value, and creates the surface from all the 
points where the equation is equal to the threshold. The surface of the 
shape is like a skin stretched over the areas of higher density(or lower 
density, depending on how you set it up). As an example, the equation 
for a unit sphere is "sqrt(sqr(x) + sqr(y) + sqr(z)) - 1". So an 
isosurface sphere would be:
isosurface {
    function {sqrt(sqr(x) + sqr(y) + sqr(z)) - 1}
    threshold 0 // This tells it to place the surface at points
                // where the value of the equation is 0
}


> I've heard about media but to my (semi?:) eternal shame I haven't even
> read POVrays docs on media yet...I know it can do cool stuff...

It is basically a way of simulating atmospheric effects like smoke, 
steam, fire, fog...(there is a separate "fog" feature, but it behaves 
differently. For example, it doesn't interact with lights, and shadows 
don't show in it.)


> Isn't that the guy who wrote those lens flare plugins for Moray (I d/l it
> to try it (Moray that is :)...now I use it for it's awesome texture
> editor....well material editor I should say......man POVRAY sure gives me
> heck when I try and combine my inc file with borrowered materials from
> Moray and textures from the textures.inc file :)

Nathan Kopp? He is the one managing MegaPOV. He is also the one who 
wrote the improvements to the radiosity, the third media sampling 
method, and the photon mapping feature. :-)

I'm not sure about Moray plugins(I don't use Moray, I don't even use the 
same platform), but he has done lens flare include files...

-- 
Chris Huff
e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/

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On Sat, 4 Mar 2000, Chris Huff wrote:

> In article 
> <Pin### [at] belialrenonvus>, 
> <cre### [at] belialrenonvus> wrote:
> 
> > > Isosurfaces, which are shapes defined by an arbitrary equation.
> > 
> > Ummmm ok :) 
> 
> I did a bad job of explaining that, sorry. The isosurface object takes 
> an equation and a threshold value, and creates the surface from all the 
> points where the equation is equal to the threshold. The surface of the 
> shape is like a skin stretched over the areas of higher density(or lower 
> density, depending on how you set it up). As an example, the equation 
> for a unit sphere is "sqrt(sqr(x) + sqr(y) + sqr(z)) - 1". So an 
> isosurface sphere would be:
> isosurface {
>     function {sqrt(sqr(x) + sqr(y) + sqr(z)) - 1}
>     threshold 0 // This tells it to place the surface at points
>                 // where the value of the equation is 0
> }
> 

Ahhh ok......


> 
> > I've heard about media but to my (semi?:) eternal shame I haven't even
> > read POVrays docs on media yet...I know it can do cool stuff...
> 
> It is basically a way of simulating atmospheric effects like smoke, 
> steam, fire, fog...(there is a separate "fog" feature, but it behaves 
> differently. For example, it doesn't interact with lights, and shadows 
> don't show in it.)

Hrmmm I definatly will have to check that stuff out....d/l Mega POV btw,
NEAT lens effects! I think I'll install POVRAY in another directory and
place MegaPOV there...this way I can have two set if include files..but
this is VERY cool I wonder if that new version of POVRAY I've heard Ken
whisper about :) (3.5) will have photon mapping?


> 
> > Isn't that the guy who wrote those lens flare plugins for Moray (I d/l it
> > to try it (Moray that is :)...now I use it for it's awesome texture
> > editor....well material editor I should say......man POVRAY sure gives me
> > heck when I try and combine my inc file with borrowered materials from
> > Moray and textures from the textures.inc file :)
> 
> Nathan Kopp? He is the one managing MegaPOV. He is also the one who 
> wrote the improvements to the radiosity, the third media sampling 
> method, and the photon mapping feature. :-)
> 
> I'm not sure about Moray plugins(I don't use Moray, I don't even use the 
> same platform), but he has done lens flare include files...

Yeah.....well I seem to recall a plugin called Nathan Kopp plugins....but
I don't use Moray a whole lot except for well.....textures

> 
> -- 
> Chris Huff
> e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
> Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/
> 
>

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cre### [at] belialrenonvus wrote:

> Hrmmm I definatly will have to check that stuff out....d/l Mega POV btw,
> NEAT lens effects! I think I'll install POVRAY in another directory and
> place MegaPOV there...this way I can have two set if include files..but
> this is VERY cool I wonder if that new version of POVRAY I've heard Ken
> whisper about :) (3.5) will have photon mapping?

Let's just say that many of the features available in MegaPov will also
be in POV-Ray v3.5. The POV-Team however never discloses exactly what
will make the cut and what will not until it is actually released. I
strongly suspect that photon mapping will make the cut but that is my
own opinion and not that of the POV-Team.

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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On Sat, 4 Mar 2000, Ken wrote:

> 
> 
> cre### [at] belialrenonvus wrote:
> 
> > Hrmmm I definatly will have to check that stuff out....d/l Mega POV btw,
> > NEAT lens effects! I think I'll install POVRAY in another directory and
> > place MegaPOV there...this way I can have two set if include files..but
> > this is VERY cool I wonder if that new version of POVRAY I've heard Ken
> > whisper about :) (3.5) will have photon mapping?
> 
> Let's just say that many of the features available in MegaPov will also
> be in POV-Ray v3.5. The POV-Team however never discloses exactly what
> will make the cut and what will not until it is actually released. I
> strongly suspect that photon mapping will make the cut but that is my
> own opinion and not that of the POV-Team.

Understood :)

 
> -- 
> Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
> http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/
> 
>

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THat is like trying to buy something specific in a general store.

Ken wrote:
> 
> Chris Huff wrote:
> 
> > Isosurfaces, which are shapes defined by an arbitrary equation.
> 
> What happens if you feed it specific equations ?
> 
> <g>
> 
> --
> Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
> http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

-- 
Mr. Art

"Often the appearance of reality is more important 
than the reality of the appearance."
Bill DeWitt 2000

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