In article <39a64d17@news.povray.org>, "GrimDude" 
<vos### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

> Conservation of disk space, and ease of defining transparency. Simply 
> put, they are more efficient.

Well, I have plenty of disk space, so the first one isn't an issue for 
me...but how does it help in defining transparency? (note that I have 
never used a transparent image_map, and never bothered to figure out how 
they are done)


> Perhaps, I was thinking of Jupiter? One of the outer plants has had a 
> huge hurricane-like storm brewing for hundreds of years and appearing 
> as an 'eye' on the surface.

Yes, that would be Jupiter. :-)
Not impossible to do procedurally, but definitely harder than Saturn.


> I suspect that Saturn, or Jupiter are just as complex as Earth, close up.

Actually, the images I saw were from one of the space probe 
fly-by's...it looked like a light grayish-yellow ball with slight 
banding. Very simple texture, with little variation in color.
BTW, the images I looked at were from http://www.britannica.com/.
They are here:
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/multiple_images/0/0,5716,185791
000+ip,00.html
There are probably better ones out there, maybe at the NASA web site.


> Perhaps more so. Mars would be tamer. :)

Actually, I think Mars would be fourth, after Earth, Jupiter and Venus. 
Saturn would be one of the easiest...

-- 
Christopher James Huff
Personal: chr### [at] maccom, http://homepage.mac.com/chrishuff/
TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg, http://tag.povray.org/

<><

Post a reply to this message