On 6-11-2011 12:21, gregjohn wrote:
> "gregjohn"<pte### [at] yahoocom>  wrote:
>> Povray: what's it good for?
>>
>
> Thanks for all the discussion.  But pretty much everyone is touting the beauty
> of povray in "the way *I* use it". But no one really answered the question as to
> the guy from the audience.  If you model something in 3DS or Blender, what is
> the specific benefit of porting to povray?  "Best Renderer Evah!!!!!" is
> probably the gist of the answer: I want details.

That was not the question as you originally posted it. You can not blame 
us for answering the question you asked.

With respect to this new question: I think there is a mixed benefit/pay. 
Renderers might have functions tied in that are not easily ported to POV 
like e.g. hair. So if you use that sort of thing you should not port. 
OTOH even if I create a scene entirely in Blender I still port it to POV 
because I have more (and more intuitive) control over the final result, 
because of the way it handles cameras, textures and lighting. And for 
some reason I like the result better. Though Blender's renderer improved 
quite a lot over the last years. POV improved also but not as spectacular.

My answer to the question as you pose it now will probably be that in 
the majority of cases it is not a benefit to go from a mesh created in a 
modeller to POV. It is also a silly question. You already have beaten 
the solution in one particular (triangulated) shape and then go to a 
program where you might have have modelled them better and then ask: how 
can this program improve what I did wrong?

BTW that I think that there is not much point in porting a mesh to POV 
just to render it, in no way means that I think POV is outdated and has 
no role to play.
Two examples from other fields might illustrate that.
- Once there was something called BattleChess on the PC. The reason that 
it existed was because there was this other machine called an Amiga. 
Although it was technically possible to create the game on the PC, it 
needed the specific hardware and way of thinking on the Amiga to make 
people realize that.
- In the toolbox of a good programmer in the 80's were lex and yacc. 
They seem to be almost forgotten in this point and click WYSIWIG days of 
visual interfaces. Still, it makes sense to design a language for a 
specific field*. Simply because it allows you to focus on the things 
that are relevant.

Tools shape the way you think and solve problems. Using POV will improve 
your modelling even when using other programs.

*) at least until the time when the visual interfaces have made most 
people functionally illiterate.

-- 
Tools shape the way you think and solve problems. Using POV will improve 
your modelling even when using other programs.

Post a reply to this message