In article <3bc31497@news.povray.org> , "Hugo" <hua### [at] post3teledk> wrote:

> I don't know how to solve that.. But sometimes it would also be great to
> convert ISO's to bitmaps so they can be used as heightfields.. I read the
> documentation for POV 3.5 and I only see the possibility of making 255
> slices of an isosurface

What you are looking for is the "function" image type.  It turns out that
for some reason it is missing in
<http://www.povray.org/working-docs/id000164.html#6_5_1_5> so no wonder you
didn't find it.

It basically will work like this in a hfield, but to be more precise it will
work everywhere where a image file is allowed:

    height_field
    {
        function 100, 100 { x + y }
    }

Note that the hfield will be of 16 bit precision.  If you want it to look
less smooth, you have to modify the function, i.e.

    height_field
    {
        function 100, 100 { floor((x + y) * 10) / 10 }
    }

will give you a less smooth hfield surface with more visible steps.  Note
that this is more useful for a more complicated function.  This one is so
simple you will hardly see a difference.

    Thorsten

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