"Sven Littkowski" <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote:
> I was reading all messages in this thread... Uhh! Yes, it is so true and for
> sure a great idea to boost the POV world!

glad to count with your support and enthusiasm, Sven.

> 1
> An item library at the regular POV-Ray website (as sub directory or as sub
> domain), sorted by categories and sub categories. Everyone can add items.

isn't it the same as:

http://objects.povworld.org/

?

Well, except that it would be sponsored and hosted in the povray main site,
for sure.  But there's more:  i'm sure many true gems are hiding in the
vast povray source-code newsgroups.  I believe it should prove to be a
solid starting point.  Taking the time to search through it and sort it out
code that could be reused and properly standardized would takes enourmous
effort for a single individual, but a task-force could do it.  If anyone is
willing to join me in their free-time, we could do this searching by slicing
tasks by time periods in the newsgroupds.

OTOH, many people would rightfully find much easier and more straightforward
-- and more fun indeed -- to simply begin new pov code from scratch rather
than searching old code, fiddling with it to adapt to whatever standards we
come up with and finally trying to get in touch with the original authors to
seek for permission to include in povray.

Anyway, i'd like to know which categories we should begin with so as to
label povray stuff.  My gut feeling is that there are 4 main categories of
users of povray:  1) the math-type who enjoys isosurfaces, fractals and
functions; 2) the artist, who models either in CSG or in polygonal meshes
exported from foreign tools and textures both procedurally and with
bitmaps; 3) the architectural, which just wants to quickly assemble
ready-made stuff and materials to quickly create interiors or buildings; 4)
the animator guy, who deals mostly with meshes and is just using povray as
backrenderer.  I think the pov stdlib should have objects/materials/setups
to satisfy the needs of these people.  Common everyday objects, common
camera and lighting setups pre-made and ready to use and of course, many
materials to get your hands dirty. :)

> I personally
> would vote for the more logical metric system.

me too, but conversion macros would go a long way preventing we drag into
useless unit-measure flamewars.

> Finally, each item should have on top the declarations for all
> textures and colors, and recommendations which other external texture files
> would be recommended. However, the item file should automatically use
> alternative textures if the recommended files cannot be found.
> In case it
> is a macro, an explaining text on the possible options (parameters) should
> be there, as well.

What you're describing is a hack for no proper module semantics and lack of
typing information for parameters.  But it's ok, C and Scheme are two
programming languages featuring such issues, respectively, and yet they do
just fine.  Still in the topic of "alternate textures", i think it'd be
nice if we got a Level-of-Detail parameter to creation macros, like 1 for
basic, 2 for medium, 3 for full so that we could get more detailed
textures/shapes for objects closer.  It could be a global parameter too, i
guess.

> Finally, an exact measurement in all three axises of that
> item is another important part of that file, too.

Previously, i posted this idea:  to have all objects centered at the origin
and with either width or height fitting exactly 1 pov unit.  That way,
scaling and translating it to fit a particular scene would be much easier.
OTOH, with a standardized measure unit in place, there would be no need for
objects to be 1 unit wide, they could get their own correct measures like
you say.

> 2
> A texture library at the regular POV-Ray website (as sub directory or as sub
> domain), sorted by categories and sub categories. Each texture needs to be
> dispalyed on a ball, a cube and maybe some other important shapes.

we could get a script to do just that and automatically generate such setup
scenes.  In fact, i believe povray already comes with such a script.

> 3
> Competitions or recommendations or introductions. That happens automatically
> each week with a randomly-selected item/texture, or by votes of users.

That's nice, indeed.  Many povray users are driven by the excitement of
contests and competitions.  It would be fine if the povray website
sponsered such a contest in order to attract users to contribute to an
ongoing effort to update the stdlib.  I'm sure it would draw interest.  Are
you listening, Chris? :)

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