Christian Froeschlin <chr### [at] chrfrde> wrote:
> Anthony D. Baye wrote:
>
> > I also understand that there are macros that do this to some extent
> > or another
>
> I think there exist some iso_surface approximation macros, not
> sure about anything else. Of course, most primitives could also be
> expressed using an implicit function, and CSG can be implemented using
> min/max functions, so you could in theory generate iso_surface versions
> even for rather complex objects and use these as the basis for mesh
> generation.
>
> However, as far as I understand it these macros are very slow even for
> normal functions, let alone those representing a complex CSG object.
>

This is always going to be a problem with interpreted systems:  The macros don't
have any way to observe the calculations that the backend performs, so they have
to duplicate those calculations.  Not only does the program have to interpret
the instructions to perform the calculations, it has to perform the calculations
twice (or more than twice if you're calling several different macros)

If the baking functions had observer access to the results of the relevant
tracing calculations, the process would be much faster.

> > For the purposes of syntax, objects to be saved as 3d files would be
> > required to be surrounded by an object {} block.
>
> The main problem to be solved is most certainly not the syntax.

I understand that the syntax is not the main problem, and without any knowledge
of the code, I can't make any algorithmic suggestions (Although, I'm not sure I
could anyway).

Syntax may, in fact, be irrelevant, considering that there has been discussion
of completely redesigning the SDL for version 4.0

I also realize that the rewrite for version 4.0 takes precedence over addition
of new features, but I have often wished that I could use my povray models in
applications other than static art -- animations notwithstanding -- such as
video game engines.

I fully intend to explore the options myself, but I thought I'd float the idea
and see if it generated any ideas on how it might be done.

Even clues as to the relevant sections of the code would be useful.

Regards,

A.D.B.

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