Nicolas Alvarez <nic### [at] gmailisthebestcom> wrote:

> > (along with the "magical commercial plug-in
> > for lazy GUI users" that creates fabulous pics out of the box just by
> > pressing a key...).
>
> Everybody I know who has Bryce has made images by putting a primitive
> with one of the thousands of pre-made textures, or using the "water and
> island wizard" or whatever...

I think the attitude Gilles is complaining of is better expressed as the
idea that commercial apps have a "Make Art" button. I don't think it was
ever a particularly useful insight that commercial apps would have tools
not found in a free app like POVRay, but we are not in the 90s any more and
these days, nobody has any excuse at all - there are plenty of free apps out
there with extremely strong tools similar to those in commercial apps.

People using exclusively POVRay now are doing so by choice, not because of
poverty, and for anyone to complain that other tools make some things
easier would be verging on the ridiculous. Although I haven't seen anyone
mention the Magic Plugin syndrome or a make art button for a while now :)

In Bryce's case it was designed as a landscape tool aimed at home users
IIRC, so I think it's pretty clear why it has wizards for common tasks. I
think they released some recent versions of Bryce free of charge as well,
so again there's nothing I can see that's worth complaining about. I too
wonder how many of the wizard-produced images actually have any
individuality, and I also note that POVRay comes with a substantial library
of predefined textures, scenes and primitives, even if some of them are
getting on a bit these days. And is rather faster, if I remember rightly.

Tom

Post a reply to this message