"Ross" <rli### [at] everestkcnet> wrote in message 
news:421e54f5$1@news.povray.org...
<snip>
> While i think you have a right to be upset at the judges bias towards
> non-mesh models, i think it's a bit overly dramatic. Still, I was sort of
> surprised by their bluntness in this area.
>
> I was going to say, "Look at 'Victoria's World'. It uses non-pov things
> pretty extensively and got 3rd place", then i noticed this comment 
> basically
> saying, "It would never win because it used so many things not directly 
> made
> in POV." So i guess, the more I talk, the more i'm siding with you.
>
> [quote]
> The detail level is extremely high and there is good use made of POV-Ray's
> features, but the predominant use of external models (e.g. Victoria, the
> Dosch houses, Chris Colefax's Lens Effects include, Gilles Tran's 
> MakeGrass)
> prevented it from making it further in my mind.
> [quote]
>

Yeah, I noticed that too.  That made me uncomfortable mostly because I felt 
like it was saying, "Had you re-invented the wheel, you would have gone 
farther."  I understand the point being made, but I felt that it was worded 
poorly.
Also, despite the judge's comments, "Victoria's World" did get a 
well-deserved 3rd place.

From one of Gilles' posts:
"Most judges won't be familiar with POV-Ray but the judges who know it will
able to add some balance to the discussions so that POV-Ray specific
features can be properly judged. However, the goal is still to make great
pictures, which means that quality remains central. As a judge, I would not
give extra points to a bad model because it's done in SDL. I would only
reward good models, whatever the tool used."

I really don't think that there was a lot of "SDL" bias, though.  Jaime's 
picture used several Wings models.  Much of Chris Holtorff's scene was done 
in Rhino.  I could list many others.  But making a 3rd party model the main 
focus of an image is not as impressive as what Rene Bui did with Wings.  Had 
that been a Poser model, the image would certainly have scored lower. 
Nevertheless, had it been a badly made model (which it wasn't!), it would 
have placed lower.

-- 
Jeremy
www.beantoad.com