Because you asked I'll answer that I do.
Time and again people wonder about all this about the kind of people using
POV-Ray Trace.
I have noticed a lot of the people are interested in programming which
simply makes sense if you think about it.  Those that program the program
and those that program IN the program.  Others that somehow claim to have no
abilities of any kind and yet still manage to render out a fine example of
ray tracing.  And so on and so forth.
As for myself, I was always interested in drawing, then the computer came
along (yes, I'm pre-PC age).  I never understood people using computers for
word processing as much as I can understand why for graphics related things.
Early on I was having fun with Basic and getting pixels to draw on the
monitor in simulated 3D ways.  That's what really got me going on the 3D CG
idea.
Also, like many others with limited budgets, I too found POV-Ray to be the
ultimate answer.  After a few encounters with other programs of course;
Generic CAD and 3D Design were two (years ago) of them.  POV-Ray has been
something I followed as it grew and it just fits me like a glove pretty
much.  GUI with the wireframes and all are not something I can handle with
much skill so it has been all the better to have been using POV-Ray.
I can only guess that there are a large number of people similar to me in
this respect.  Then there are those that can apparently control scene files
in a modeler and hand it over to POV-Ray to trace.
One of the most obvious things that holds me captive then is the code to
image concept.  But I believe "niche" would never be the word for it since
it's almost a cult following in many ways.  That could be said of many 3D
programs though.
Okay, so there is my answer in a giant nutshell.

Bob

Post a reply to this message