I'm fiddling with the POV-Ray source code and working on creating a 4D noise
generator (noise_generator 4). This should help a lot during animations
where you want to change a function that's based on noise but you can't
simply translate it along a 3D vector, since it wouldn't look quite right.
(Those who have tried animating textures probably know what I'm talking
about.)

The example I provided (attached) is on a sphere. The noise generation is
based on noise_generator 3, since that was the easiest to work with.
Unfortunately, it takes a little over twice as long to calculate, which is
still acceptable, but undesireable for animations. Win some, lose some.
*shrug*

At the moment, I'm using the syntax

 pigment {
  bozo
  color_map {[.1 rgb x][.9 rgb z]}

  noise_generator 4
  slice clock * 10 - 5 // amount through the 4th dimension

  scale .2
 }

but I'm probably going to work towards a syntax more like

noise_generator {
 4
 slice 10
}

and, eventually, i hope to add a "repeat" keyword so that it can be used for
cyclic animations.

 - Slime
[ http://www.slimeland.com/ ]

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Attachments:
Download 'noise4dtest.mpg' (168 KB)