Ken wrote in message <36CDA893.21865D9A@pacbell.net>...
/.../
>branches. By constraining the child to one branch and adding control
>to the angle of the spawn it offered some good control over the shape
>of the hair.

    I'm not sure I understand, but this sounds a lot like the method I use.
Hairs are created with a separate macro which creates a segmented "worm" out
of cones. It is very controllable - start/end thickness, start/end segment
length, initial orientation, bend, rigidity, randomness etc... I even added
branching once - obviously I wasn't using the macro for hairs then :)

>One problem that remains, and a big one at that, is the
>distributions of the object(s) over a non uniform topography or surface.
>You seem to have figured that part out but requires a patch or two
>to make that work.
>
    That's my main problem, too. Especially getting an even coverage with
few
hairs. Right now, if I want even coverage, I have to use a very high
sampling rate, which inevitably results in a very large number of hairs. To
reduce this number, I would have to implement some kind of a sorting
function. Anybody willing to make a kd-tree or octree in POV code? Not me.
    As for the parse time, I'll revamp the sampling function. This _should_
reduce parse time dramatically. Also, the example uses several features that
are generally unnecessary. For example, each hair has an individual color
gradient that goes from brown at the bottom to white at the top. Did you
notice? Anybody...?

>  Chris Colefax is also working on this issue and he has informed me that
>he is very close to having it finished and ready for release to the public.


This will also be an include file/macro, yes? If so, does it work in
official POV, too? And how?
I think I'll continue my effort despite this daunting competition. It's just
plain fun.

Margus

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