TigerHawk wrote:
> 
> The downside of a bump_map is that it isn't real, it just looks real - and only if
> you are far away enough or at such an angle that it doesn't look fake. I think the
> mesh idea would give more controll, but, actually, thinking about it, a hightfield
> is not really a bad idea.

  I ran a test for mostly parse time and memory use. With 19,881 height
fields each with an image map the total parse time was 29 sec. and
consumed about 27 megs of memory. The same HF's with a simple pigment
parsed in the same amount of time and comsumed only 22 megs. In either
case the render time was not at all time consuming and was actually
surprisingly fast. The only time I imagine it would take a long time
to render is if you were doing a VERY high resolution leaf and you
were zoomed in tightly to get maximum detail. Otherwise distance has
a way of cancelling out the detail so it does not take as long to render.

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1100+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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