> 
>         I've been busy with the noise function this last weekend (the one in
> texture.c, not the isosurface function) and I got some interresting
> results I thought I'd share my progress:
> 
> * I found a slight optimization that allows it to compute faster;
> * I rewrote it from scratch and got a new version that's even faster for
> very similar results (but the results are different, so if you spent a
> lot of tim placing your building just right in your ridged mf landscape
> you won't want to use this one). The drawback is that it uses more
> memory (Not so much of a problem with modern computers as it was when
> the original was written);
> * then I lost all the speed I had gained and then some by fixing the
> range problem (very big or very negative numbers give bad result) that
> occurs both with the original and my  implementation.
> 
Speeding up noise is Good Thing(TM). Lots of textures use it and its
speedup will make scene rendering faster as well. I've thought about
trying this myself, but I haven't had time or good profiler to do it.
What is this range problem, which loses this speed-up? Can't you avoid
it? 
Very big numbers? Very negative numbers? Do You mean input vector
values? Can't you subtract some negative value to push it on positive
side as it is in POV-Ray code? And then take module from this? Does this
really slow down Noise function? Or do You mean something else?

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