3D9C1FCA.489FCDA4@gmx.de...

> professional work (which has often a quite metal like appearance)

Real ocean waters can look very metallic under certain lighting conditions.
Water is a weird material indeed, I can't help noticing how solid it looks
every time I'm on a boat.

> real problem about water is the geometry, things like breaking waves,
> waterfalls, etc.  Here the available hard- and software of course plays a
> significant role.

Any water surface that it isn't 90% flat is hard in POV-Ray. Ripples are OK
but otherwise, it's more an artistic impression of water than anything else.
Every tried to make a gently rolling ocean water ? I remember trying to copy
some from photographs and never succeeded in getting both the geometry
(isosurfaces) and the texture right at the same time. The killer render
times didn't help for sure.

> You should really try out isosurfaces, controlling their shape in detail
> is indeed not that easy, but it all comes back to the speed problem in the
> end - if rendering was faster modelling would be easier.

A good solution I've been using is the function-based height field, because
one can use low-resolution versions during tests and tune it according to
distance and it renders much faster that regular isosurfaces. Regular isos
may be needed for close-up though, you cant' beat the detail.

G.


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