Tim Nikias v2.0 wrote:
>You might want to take a look at "Mechsim".
>Creating an inbuilt physical simulation algorithm
>with other techniques than that seems to me
>quite impossible.
>
>The problem with scripting them into the core
>of POV-Ray is that most of the time, several
>approaches exist, and they might be quiet
>contradictory in setting them up. AFAIK,
>POV-Ray 4 should have better support
>for plug-ins.

Mechsim is certainly a great piece of code,
and I have had a brief look at it, although
I haven't used it in any of my own projects
as of yet. But what I have in mind goes far
beyond just basic mechanics simulation. For
instance, consider the differece in lights
and rendering between POV-Ray and Radiance:
whereas POV simply uses a color float to
specify the intensity and hue of a light
source, Radiance takes a different approach,
specifying the lights in a more scientific
way. I imagine that such an approach could
be taken a lot further, though. For instance:
working with solid volumes (in the simulation,
of course - it would be pointless in the actual
rendering) rather than surface-based objects
with insides and outsides; specifying materials
in terms of elements and their characteristics,
such as density, surface properties and so on,
thus incorporating pigment, normal and media
statements into a single grammar based in
chemistry and - ultimately, but still far out
of reach - particle physics; define groups of
objects as "organisms", interacting according
to kinematics, evolutionary algorithms, etc.

Even if it was possible, it probably wouldn't
be worthwile to incorporating such a diverse
set of functions into the core of POV-Ray, and
better support for plugins is always a good
thing, of course. But adapting the program to
scientific definitions and terminology in more
respects than just the optical is a prerequisite
for making the plugin system coherent from a
conceptual viewpoint.

(You should consider all of this as musings
of a speculative mind with heavy utopian
leanings, thinking beyond all restraints of
actual computing power - I run POV on a puny
32 Mb RAM! My interest lies primarily in the
discussion: the potential of simulation, not
the actual state of affairs.)

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