I agree with you 100%. OpenGL can help a lot when someone debugs a
geometrically complex scene (placements, geometry, sizes) when it is
not practical to use small previews. It may not help to test lights and
textures but anyway it will be _very_ useful piece of functionality.

My wish list for future versions of POV-Ray:

General: OpenGL preview and multiprocessor capabilities.
Windows-specific: (possibly) Direct3D preview, full MMX support.

Reasons: I see OpenGL and DirectX as the only reasonable way to support
platform-specific hardware- (and software-) assisted acceleration. All new
processors are MMX-capable and it is a crime not to use accelerating
facilities for computing power-hungry apps :-). Now when memory prices are
going down and Intel processors are dirt cheap, it is practical and
inexpensive
to have a dual processor computer under NT or whatever you like. There is
a number of multiprocessor UNIX computers out there. A lot of people buy
dual-processor motherboards counting on future upgrades by adding second
CPU. I believe it should be supported eventually.

Eugene

-- Eugene Lazutkin (eug### [at] ABCcarnac-graphicscom) hint: remove ABC

George Hunt wrote in message <346bf5b9.95268263@news.stmuc.com>...
>On Thu, 13 Nov 1997 11:47:12 -0800, "Ken Cecka" <cec### [at] televarmoc>
>wrote:
>
>>Since OpenGL is a rendering accelerator, not a ray-tracing accelerator, it
>>is only useful for preview mode in a modeler.  Pov on it's own isn't a
>>modeler, just a ray-tracing engine.  Several of the modelers currently
>>available for POV already use OpenGL for preview though.  Check out
sPatch,
>>Breeze, PovSB.  I think they all have OpenGL preview, and I'm sure there
are
>>others.
>>
>>Ken
>
>But Ken,
>    Many people (Dan Farmer for instance, one of the best and best
>known POV-Ray artists ever) don't use modellers at all (or very
>little)  They do in fact use POV-Ray test renders, and a bit of trial
>and error, to 'model' their scenes.  I would say that POV-Ray would be
>all the better if it DID have an option to represent the scene via an
>OpenGL preview.  Then, when you get things in the correct positions
>and get your CSG's etc. correct, you could switch back to a raytraced
>preview so that you can see how the more complex textures are doing.
>
>
>-----------
>George Hunt --- Raytracer Obsessivo
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/lightsword
>102### [at] compuservecom
>-----------

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