I'd like to be able to define Moray cylinders by their endpoints, and
the radius, like POV does.

Why? Consider wanting to connect the points 0,0,0 and 1,1,0 In moray, we
can create the cylinder, set the local coordinate rotation point to one
end, translate it so that that end rests on 0,0, rotate the cylinder by
45 degrees, then scale it by the root of 2 (using pythagoras, of
course). All well and good, only a little bit of math to be done.

What about connecting points 0,0,0 and 1,1,1? Now the rotation is a
little more complex (no big deal) and the scaling requires a bit more
math.

What about connecting points 1,2,8 and 3,8,13? Now, this gets much more
complicated. I know I can't tell offhand exactly what scaling and
rotation I would need...

I understand that this all can be done with math, but the purpose of
Moray is to get away from calculating, and simplify all matters. And
since this is how POV handles cylinders anyways, it would be almost
trivial to implement (or so I assume :)

Simon
http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet

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I believe this was suggested a while back, and after trying to make arches
and intersections and suchlike, I endorse this greatly.
While the coordinates in Moray are pretty nice, it would be even better to
also have an absolute mode- it would translate things absolutely, with
regard to 0,0,0...

Simon de Vet wrote:

> I'd like to be able to define Moray cylinders by their endpoints, and
> the radius

Well, I am pretty sure you can do radius- just make a cone, and select both
radii to be the same.

> , like POV does.
>
> Why? Consider wanting to connect the points 0,0,0 and 1,1,0 In moray, we
> can create the cylinder, set the local coordinate rotation point to one
> end, translate it so that that end rests on 0,0, rotate the cylinder by
> 45 degrees, then scale it by the root of 2 (using pythagoras, of
> course). All well and good, only a little bit of math to be done.
>
> What about connecting points 0,0,0 and 1,1,1? Now the rotation is a
> little more complex (no big deal) and the scaling requires a bit more
> math.
>
> What about connecting points 1,2,8 and 3,8,13? Now, this gets much more
> complicated. I know I can't tell offhand exactly what scaling and
> rotation I would need...
>
> I understand that this all can be done with math, but the purpose of
> Moray is to get away from calculating, and simplify all matters. And
> since this is how POV handles cylinders anyways, it would be almost
> trivial to implement (or so I assume :)
>
> Simon
> http://home.istar.ca/~sdevet



--
Only I can prevent narcissism!

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