On 27-5-2013 14:10, Shay wrote:
> "waggy" <hon### [at] handbasketorg> wrote in message
> news:web.519fe53e76c5c07f21be1230@news.povray.org...
>> Shay wrote:
>>> Many members of the POV community have a fascination and familiarity
>>> with
>>> Beginnings. They understand and are able to discuss nascent ideas and
>>> basic
>>> macros. Endings (completed images, Tor-level macros) aren't even fully
>>> appreciated because the path from Beginning to End cannot be seen. To
>>> each his
>>> own, but obviously this short-attention-span focus has a hard time
>>> maintaining a
>>> community.
>>
>> This is a fascinating observation.
>>
>> I had some experience with something like this regarding the f_mandelbulb
>> function I posted several years ago. There was some good discussion about
>> implementation (Beginnings), but almost no feedback from users. For
>> all I know,
>> no one but me has ever used either the SDL include file or the source
>> code
>> patches I posted. Although I have implemented some other weird variations
>> (quaternion and bicomplex versions) for my own amusement, I haven't
>> bothered to
>> post them for the apparent lack of interest. But back to the topic at
>> hand.
>
> That's near what I was getting at, but not exactly.
>
> Imagine if you painted a picture of a lion and showed it to an audience
> who not only have never seen a lion, but also have never tried painting
> a picture. You might get comments like "that oily, pigmented stuff is
> cool!" or "that's like when I painted my living room, except smaller and
> with more colors."
>
> Not that these comments aren't valid, but the audience is not challenged
> by your accomplishment and you are not challenged by your audience.
>
> Of course, when I came to POV-Ray as a beginner so many years ago, I
> judged images by the amount and quality of their photons and
> reflections. I admired most what came most easily. Now I'm weary of that
> comes easily. Now I spend weeks or months on every picture. Now I'm
> confined to the narrowest of cg niches (hand-coded mesh). And this is
> the expected progression of any artist.

Very true indeed. I also am spending more and more time and efforts on 
seemingly trivial details but which - in the end - turn out to be essential.

>
> It's long past time for me to stop completely or become a beginner again.
>
>>
>> Here's why I have never entered any of the ray tracing competitions,
>
> I'll point out that the tc-rtc is not a competition; it's a Ray-Tracing
> CHALLENGE. Also, fractals seem like a good fit for the round.

Exactly! And we shall see if we can smooth down the competition part a 
bit more.

Thomas

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