As it seems, POV can write *every* file format it can read (and more)... except
that one file format which was specifically *designed* for POV: DF3.

You just can't write that format with POV. No way. You need a 3rd party tool to
create such files.

That sucks.

I therefore propose to extend the #write mechanism to allow for writing binary
data.

Well, actually I did already implement a patch, so it's more like a request for
a "go/no-go" from the POV team to go ahead and integrate it into official POV.

The mechanism is simple: The statement

    #write (fOut, someVal, int16 fooBar, otherVal)

will write fooBar in binary 16-bit unsigned integer format.

That means, if it is a float, the value is rounded to the nearest integer
(values outside the valid unsigned 16-bit integer range are "clipped" to 0 or
65535, respectively), and written to the file in 16-bit binary format
(big-endian, i.e. matching the df3 format byte ordering).

If fooBar is a vector, all components are written in this manner.

A sequence of values can be written in binary format using either of the
following syntax:

    #write (fOut, int16 a, int16 b, int16 c, int16 d)
    #write (fOut, int16 a b c d)

(Note the absence of commata in the second variant)

Well, that's it. Equipped with this tool, creating DF3 files still remains some
bit of work, but now at least it's possible, and actually not too complicated.

So far I have only implemented 16-bit because for now my main goal is creating
DF3 files, which have 16-bit values in the header and come in a 16-bit voxel
flavor (among other). However, adding support for 8-bit data isn't too
difficult either.

Anyone else who thinks this would be a neat idea?

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