On Tue, 29 Jun 1999 21:16:41 +0100, Alain CULOS <ZAl### [at] bigfootcom>
wrote:

>Of course it can be a headache maintaining such a version and getting
>complaints from reckless users, but with proper warnings (in the message
>windows when the option is selected for instance as well as in the docs
>and whereever the mention of JPEG is made), well with proper disclaimers
>it should diminish negative feedback.

  Hi, Al. The worst-case scenario of a long render time combined with an
inferior JPEG quality setting is very likely to occur, IMO. Here's why -
some JPEG artifacts may be difficult to see at lower test resolutions but
show up in the final render resolution, and there is not one overall ideal
setting for JPEG quality that will work for all scenes. I foresee having a
bottle of Extra-Strength Tylenol handy.

  Documentation is only as good as the time put into reading the thing. Yes,
it'll reduce the complaints of poor output quality but won't eliminate it.
In the past, I have fielded a question posted by novices. What they said
was, "I have just downloaded POV-Ray. How do I make a 3d image?" This is not
to say that they are not intelligent people but perhaps it illustrates their
inexperience with computer software in general.

>JPEG has positive points as well as negative points, why ignore
>the positive ?

  I like JPEG. I use JPEG. A lot. But, for me personally, I prefer to output
.png (PiNG) and then use my third-party software to convert the image to
JPEG. I am free to experiment with the quality settings, as well as compare
the JPEG output of Paint Shop Pro to CompuPic, in the search for the best
result. It takes a matter of seconds (not hours or days) to convert a 1024w
by 768h .png to JPEG of any quality, so I can check out a dozen image
conversions very fast. However, if one chooses the wrong JPEG quality
setting for (unofficial) POV-Ray output, there's not much they can do. You
can't take an inferior image and make it better. For some people, we are
talking anywhere from a few hours to a few days of rendering time that would
be wasted.

  In no way should my opinion be construed as a put-down to the author of
the unofficial compile, nor of the JPEG file format. I simply have
reservations about incorporating JPEG output (input is another matter) in
the official POV-Ray.

respectfully,
-- 
Alan
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