Halbert wrote:
> 
> >Shaders are compiled code, dynamically linked (like dll's) to
> >the rendering engine.  So, implementing shaders in POV-Ray wouldn't
> >be THAT hard (though not easy-easy), but using them would require
> >the ability to write C code.
> 
> Also, if you used the .dll approach, it would exclude most of the platforms
> that are supported by POV.
> HH

No, not per se. Most any of today's OSes have something like
dll available (MacOS <= 8 ?). All modern Unices have and
the referred isopatch shared lib ran very well on them.

Actually, the problem is rather: In order to compile shaders from
source to dll/shlib you would need some software that is
often part of development packages only. (Win out of the box
does NOT contain compilers, linkers, preprocessors and such.)
I.e. the average (Win) user would not be able to compile such
shaders. That's where bytecode comes in. Even then re-using
existing tools (cpp) would help a lot.

As to "shaders in pov": Implementation of bytecode interpreters
and source-to-bytecode compilers is one thing. The other thing
is providing everything a shader needs inside pov. Many
params needed by shaders are not available when a shader
is called in pov. Some are, but not in the right place
(i.e. are not passed down the call chain), some are not
existing at all. Not to talk about geometry-changing
displacement shaders.

-Hans-

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