On Thu, 10 Aug 2000 14:41:12 -0700, Adam <bel### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

>   What kind of people use Povray? 

Basically all kinds of people -- students, parents, artists, engineer
programmers... I haven't noticed a trend in that regard.

>I keep hearing about this "certain niche," but more specifically... 

That niche is, IMHO, defined by a) the cost-quality ratio, b) the
approach, c) the quality of peer and developer support and d) the
challenge

>I don't see many female users for instance. 

It doesn't take many flowers to have a lovely garden.

>Also, the program doesn't seem to be well suited for
>Engineering, drafting, or even designing real-life objects. 

A lot of people model real-life objects in POV. I for one have
modelled some home appliances like a washer and a fridge, to name a
couple. I recall reading a post by a professional product designer who
used POV to model and render his designs (the post featured an
espresso machine IIRC).

>Now, I am well aware that the ray tracer is just made to create 
>images, but that's the problem. Other programs may offer tension or 
>elasticity analyses, or offer  to work with materials with actual 
>physical properties.

POV is not ProEngineer. If it were, I would have never used it because
of the price tag (compared to which Max 3.0 is given away for free).
On the other hand, there are some real-life engineering uses for it.
For example, my brother wrote a program for controlling a machine for
making Fresnel lens. I then used photon mapped caustics to test the
lens, saving thousands of dollars for real-life testing. (And I was
stupid enough not to claim a chunk of this saved money but that's
another story)

>   I haven't heard of any company using POV-ray to design their bikes or
>remote controls, like with Rhino. 

LOL my bike surely looks like it was modelled in Rhino, there's not an
inch of a straight line in it :)

But read above :)

>Povray is too difficult for, say, architecture, since walkthroughs 
>are a pain. 

For design, maybe, but have you thought about lighting? I have a
friend who is an undergraduate in Architecture and we will be doing a
project together, she will do the modelling in ArchiCAD (or AutoCAD)
and I will render it in MegaPOV with radiosity, caustics (for the
pool) and whatnot.

>The features include cylinders, not pipes; "clipped_by," not "window." 
>It seems that everything you do, has to be done from scratch unless 
>you look for include files. 

Well, the legs of my tables are cylinders, not pipes. And the
ventilation holes on my PC case are certainly not windows. What do you
think is better, providing an easy-to-use but limited specific
solution or a somewhat more complex yet much more powerful general
approach?

>Even for graphics, motion picture industries use expensive programs 
>like 3D Studio, and others simply use 2D programs like Photoshop.

Yes but they invest money to make big money. I am certain POV could
get to MAX's level if the POV Team were as big, as well paid and as
well supplied as the MAX development team. But then again, POV would
cost as much as MAX which I would not like at all.

The more you invest, the faster you will work. Commercial products
make the life of the artist easy, so an artist doesn't have to be a
techie, too, or learn programming or anything. I knew a girl who did
wonders in PaintBrush for Windows 3.1 (yeah, in 16 colors!) Imagine
what happened when she finally got Painter. 

>   So what does that leave us with? Artists who want total control over
>the scene? Computer programmers who simply want to challenge themselves?

One word: enthusiasts :)

>In other words, it seems to me that Povray has few practical
>applications, but is more of a hobby, or even a teaching device for
>understanding higher-level programs.

This is quite true, but bear in mind, 'few' is not 'none' :) . The
program is there and it's there for good, what you are able to do with
it is your own business. Some people use it to illustrate the books
they write. Others use it for modelling real-life objects and/or
scenes for one reason or the other. Then there are those who use it to
supplemnent the graphics work they do in professional packages. But
mostly, we're doing it for fun.


Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
Personal e-mail : pet### [at] usanet
TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

Post a reply to this message