Fa3ien <fab### [at] yourshoesskynetbe> wrote:

> Doing things without 3rd party apps is not a matter of looking smart.
> It's a matter of convenience when it can be done.
>
> Let's stay with the example of subdivision surfaces (or any other
> automated process for meshes).
>
> I model something in Wings3D.  Then I export it to POV-Ray.  Suddenly,
> I think, oh, I would need one more subdivision level for my object
> to look smooth !  If it's done within POV-Ray, there's just a parameter
> to change.  If not (as currently), I have to go back to Wings, do the
> subdivision, and re-export !

I think your vertex displacement example makes more sense. It's pretty
obvious in Wings (or any other tool where you have interactive realtime
preview capabilities) how smooth a mesh is (or isn't) after a subdivision.
The main advantage of render-time subdivision is reduced use of disk space
and less parsing.

To provide a counter-example, how about mesh decimation? It's easy to
imagine a mesh where the decimation works well on one part of the mesh but
doesn't do so well in a section of it. It could take many re-renders in POV
(involving a complete adjust-parse-render cycle, nothing like realtime)
before I find parameters for which the decimated mesh looks good. This is
already enough of a pain with renderer-specific features it can't really be
avoided for, like radiosity. When I have access to tools with realtime
preview capability for meshes, it makes much less sense to involve POV for
many mesh operations, in my view.

Making waves on the surface of a mesh ocean during an animation? Thumbs up
to this idea. For *all* mesh manipulation, given the external tool's much
faster preview, POV's attachment to triangles rather than quads, and the
fact that once it goes in to SDL (even future SDL) it's never coming out
again? I don't see the advantage.

Tom

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