Batronyx wrote:
> 
> "Tor Olav Kristensen" <tor### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
> 
> > I am afraid that the images made with Softy 3d are meshes,
> > not iso-surfaces.
> 
> ... he says -- as if I didn't know.

Sorry. 

I have just had a second look at it. And now I noticed
something that I did not notice last time I looked:

All the shapes are made of spheres and a kind of sphere
sweeps, all blobbed together.

You may be right: Maybe something similar could be done
with POV-Ray's iso-surfaces. Now somebody have to find
a "blobbable" function of e.g. a cubic spline sphere
sweep (or something similar).


> The ability to vary the mesh resolution is
> nice too. Of course, that wasn't the point.
> 
> >
> > And doing some of the shapes shown at Softy 3D's gallery
> > page with iso-surfaces requires a LOT of thinking.
> 
> A utility would be helpful here. In fact, one just exactly like
> Softy3D with isosurface syntax output instead, would be useful. It's a shame
> that Softy3D costs so much.
> 
> That was the point: Softy3D results at POV prices. :)

How much does it cost ?


> > But one thing that would be nice is if we had a utility
> > for converting a POV iso-surface to a mesh.
> 
> They would certainly render faster as meshes. However, if you leave them as
> iso-surfaces, you can use displacement maps to make the finer details really
> stand out. It would take a lot of triangles to capture that level of detail.
> It's is the same song with a new verse: memory vs. speed.
> 
> > I have never looked into a problem of this kind before,
> > so I don't know how difficult that would be.
> 
> Warp has looked into it. As recently as Dec. 24, he favored the marching
> triangles algorithm. ("Re: isosurface -> mesh?" p.g)

Yes I have just looked at it.
It is a pity that there is a bug though.


> In the long run, I suppose you are right though; it probably really isn't worth
> the effort to duplicate Softy3D functionality. Sure there is the "Gee whiz"
> factor, but how practical is it?
> It was just an idea.

But Softy3D is not scriptable, is it ?

Maybe some (like me) prefer a text interface to modelling.

That would be a good enough reason to implement something
like this with POV-macros.


Tor Olav

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