On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 14:26:08 +0000, s1631001 wrote:

>> Do you know #include and #declare directive?
> I know I could just #declare a value for the golden ratio, (as I often
> do), but then we could do that for pi as well surely; we don't really
> _need_ them built-in, it's just handy.

But pi is a lot more useful than the so-called golden ratio.  Though the
golden ratio does appear a lot in nature, anyone who believes the old 
saw about it being more visually pleasing is fooling themselves.  The 
reality is that "visually pleasing" is much more complex than a simple
number; it has to do with the whole gestalt of the image.  In extreme
cases, whether an image is visually pleasing or not might depend on how
it is displayed (what other images are nearby, the shape of the window 
or the frame you're viewing it in, etc.)  Studies have been done where
the participants were asked to identify the rectangle that was most 
jarring or most visually pleasing from various arrangements of the same
rectangles.  Most people choose the one that's most different from its
neighbors, and they don't consistently choose the same one on different
trials.

> 5> animation variables "current_frame", "initial_frame", "total_frames"
> I am SO tired of having to redo an animation render because I #declared
> the wrong value for final_frame (usually because I test-render at a
> lower framecount)

Using these could make it really hard to render just part of a sequence.

> 6> The ability to tell POV-Ray when we only want an include file to be
> parsed once, instead of having to use special handling systems (check
> the very top and bottom of any standard include for example). Possible
> syntax:

Thus putting the decision of whether a file is "once" or not on the head
of the user instead of on the head of the one guy who really understands
what would happen if it's included multiple times.  No, I think the way
it's done now is best.

-- 
plane{-z,-3normal{crackle scale.2#local a=5;#while(a)warp{repeat x flip x}rotate
z*60#local a=a-1;#end translate-9*x}pigment{rgb 1}}light_source{-9red 1rotate 60
*z}light_source{-9rgb y rotate-z*60}light_source{9-z*18rgb z}text{ttf"arial.ttf"
"RP".01,0translate-<.6,.4,.02>pigment{bozo}}light_source{-z*3rgb-.2}//Ron Parker

Post a reply to this message