Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:

>   If people want some type of behavior from povray, shouldn't that behavior
> be officially supported in some way, rather than people being forced to do
> it via a deprecated method which is officially frowned upon?
>

Well-said, and I've lately been having the same thoughts. What bothers me isn't
so much the 'new' gamma handling (which I admit I haven't played around with
yet, because I'm still having great fun with v3.6.1--and assumed_gamma 2.2), but
rather the 'dogmatic' (and somewhat condescending) tone of some of the comments
here and elsewhere, concerning the 'right' or 'wrong' way of dealing with gamma.

I think it's presumptuous to assume that I (and undoubtedly others) who use this
2.2 method are simply 'not getting it' or that we're 'abusing' gamma for
artistic purposes simply out of ignorance (or whatever.) Personally, I give this
topic *much* thought--always comparing what I see in real-life to what I see (or
think I should see) on a computer screen and in images that I make. It's an
on-going process for me--and I'm still open to 'correcting' my behavior...but in
the final analysis, it's my *eyes* that I trust, not technical jargon or dogma.
It's one thing to *suggest* to us that we should ween ourselves away from gamma
2.2, for legitimate technical reasons; but it's quite another to *impose* it
upon us, especially when accompanied by an annoying 'I'm right, you're wrong'
attitude. If using anything other than assumed_gamma 1.0 is considered 'abuse
for purely artistic reasons', I say "Guilty as charged!" Happily so.

Yet I readily admit that the updated wiki section on gamma is a wonder to
behold--it's a fantastic resource that really makes me *think* about the issue.
And I may yet see the light ;-)  *IF* my eyes can convince me.

As to the issue of deprecating assumed_gamma 2.2: Given(?) that it's considered
an 'artistic deviation' by some here, then let us have free reign to use it as
such! I would recommend *removing* the deprecated status (with a warning caveat
of some kind, if necessary.) I really see no harm in this philosophy; POV-Ray is
a *great* artistic tool, a 'Swiss army knife' for scene design and rendering.
Why 'deprecate' a still-useful part of the knife? Not every artist works the
same way with the same tools.

Ken

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