Fabian Brau wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> someone can tell me the difference between image_pattern and
> material_map? What can image_pattern do that material_map cannot?
> A simple example would be cool :)
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Fabian.

That was the very first question asked in this group when it was new.
I know because I asked it :)

 The answer that Nathan gave me was -

This was made for Thomas Baier for use with 3DS to POV conversions.  Let's
say you have two textures, and you want to use a black and white image
to fade between the two textures.  Now lets say all you have to work with
is material_map.  That would be a lot of work.  If you only wanted to use
two textures (no fading between), that would be easy, but since material_map
uses indices and single textures, fading would be very difficult and you'd
have a lot of "average{ texture_map { [0.5 t1] [0.4 t2] }}" statements.
You could put it in a while loop, but that would still be a lot of extra
work.

Now, on the other hand, if you have image_pattern, you can use texture_map
instead of material_map, and just use the image as your image_pattern.
Simple.  Fast.  Saves memory (no need for 256 textures for those 256
shades of grey).

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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