I think the discussion was not helpful. There are a some things which can be
optimized without any quality lost. The general things are platform
independent, the processor independent things can be put in separate source
files. PovRay would check the processor and the supported instructions (MMX,
3D!Now, SSE etc.) and the required instructions are not available PovRay
shows a message and show you where you can get the right version for your
processor. Here are a short list of things which can be optimized :

single precision which can be optimized using 3D!Now or SSE

1) Lightning
2) Mesh

general things which can be optimized

1) loops
2) float divisions (replace mutiple divisions with one division and
multiplications)
3) if then / ? :
4) integer multiplications and divisions (replace them with shift or
additions)
5) multiple integer calculations

integer arithmetic which can be otimized using MMX

1) every time multiple integers are calculate

other things which can be optimized using 3D!Now, MMX, SSE etc.

1) mathematical functions, e.g. sin, cos, tan, exp, sqr, sqrt, division etc.
2) ? :

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