Nathan Kopp wrote:
> 
> Got a question for you all:
> 
> Does anybody use the advanced features of MegaPov's slope-dependent pattern?
> Anything that can be done with the advanced features can be replicated using
> a combination of the simple slope pattern, gradient, and color_maps, using
> pigment_pattern to combine everything.  Personally, I think the advanced
> features are quite confusing and difficult to use.
> 
> Therefore, I'm thinking about removing them from future versions of MegaPov
> (and probably POV 3.5, also) and keeping only the simple form of slope (
> "slope <vector>" ), but I didn't want to do that if enough people thought
> they were very useful.
> 

No, please keep them!

As the megapov docu says (and it's quite good to understand in that
section) there are three different types, the first two quite easy to
understand, i use both quite often.  The 'snowman' picture i posted some
time ago to p.b.i. uses 'slope z, z' for the terrain and 'slope z+y' for
the tree.  

The third type is a bit more difficult, i also used it in the past, but
it's not so intuitive to use.  But it also seems to be more difficult to
be replicated with more complicated pigments as you suggested.  

I already thought about writing a slope pattern tutorial in the past.  If
you decide to keep it, i could give it a try, otherwise there is not much
need :-)

Something different: i often like to have a slope pattern not for objects
but for patterns themselves or pigments, like:

pigment {
  slope y {
    [pattern]
  }
  color_map { ... }
}

This would be quite useful for isosurface functions for example.  I have
no idea right now if that's easy to implement, just an idea.

Christoph

-- 
Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde>
IsoWood include, radiosity tutorial, TransSkin and other 
things on: http://www.schunter.etc.tu-bs.de/~chris/

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