Jaime Vives Piqueres wrote:

>  But if tomorrow someone writes a program to do that, the docs will be
> wrong!!!

That is a rather small concern, isn't it? There's links to PC converters, and
all of them might move to new websites tomorrow, or just get tired of
programming and close down their sites.

>
>  because if you can write a program, it is not a plataform specific feature,
> and then the documentation will be wrong stating it, isn't?

True. But I'm not very confident that I'm able to actually write one. I'm not a
programmer, and the only software I've created have been targeted to solve
rather unique needs unrelated to raytracing.

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> In all practical aspects, this feature seems platform specific. It would
have
> been nice to be able to use Poser figures, but hopefully there will be a
> solution for Mac users in version 4?

How can it be platform specific when the file format is a standard? As far
as I know Mesh 2 is simply another standard for writing triangle meshes. I'm
not very knowledgeable about this stuff but to me the reason for using such
a  mesh standard is that it is in a raw text format, all operating systems
support the editing and viewing of text files. Now if there was direct
support for Posers .obj file, which I take is a binary format, that would be
more platform specific. Please let me know if my understanding is flawed.

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Hello Thorsten,
Just the person I wanted to hear from! :-)
I can't thank you enough for all your work with the Mac version!
If there is anything I can do for you to show you my gratitude, just let me
know.

> There is nothing PC specific about it.  If someone would just take the time
> and write programs that can export to it on the Mac, there would be no
> problem using it.

Is there any chance of mentioning the need for a converter like this on the
mac.povray.org site? Hopefully, that will increase the odds that a developer
understand that there are a need for it.
As it is like now, one only finds out that no converters exist after several
hours of searching on Internet.

I could perhaps try myself, but as a non-programmer I'm not used to the
thinking required and I'm doubting that I would succeed without any
pseudo code to look at.

Perhaps one could get Joseph Strout to be interested to create a simple
converter as a tutorial for RealBasic?
He's the man behind modeller Meshwork, which exports to POV-ray
( http://codenautics.com/meshwork/ ), and since he became hired by
RealBasic, he has made several tutorial files that have used
POV-ray renderings ( http://www.strout.net/info/coding/rb/ ).
I guess that might increase the number of utilities for Mac users.
Especially now, as version 3.5 of RealBasic now have internal support
for 3D graphics.


> Oh, and of course it is always possible to code a mesh by
> hand ;-)

Oh, so you are also cutting and pasting between the formats?
Well, then I'm at least in good company! ;-)


>
> > Mac-specific things that I would like to see in the Mac version, like for
> > example the ability to use TrueType fonts (if it is technically possible).
>
> TrueType font has been improved a lot in 3.5.  Try to use some of the fonts
> you have installed.  For example open ":scenes:objects:ttf1.pov" and change
> the font used in there from "crystal.ttf" to "times.ttf" or just plain
> "times".  This should work at least with Mac OS 9 and later, but it may also
> work with Mac OS 8.x but I didn't test it there.  It will also most likely
> not work with all Mac fonts, but at least with most of the default ones.

WOW!  That is really good news! Thank you!
I'll try this immediately to see if I understood you correctly.
(I know that I'm starting to be annoying now, but... any chance that
Type1 fonts will be supported in the future?
As most of the things I do on the computer is aimed for print, I'm not
using TrueType a lot.)

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Thomas Lake wrote:

> > In all practical aspects, this feature seems platform specific.

> How can it be platform specific when the file format is a standard?

From a programmers perspective, it might not be platform specific.
But as a user... things are different. That's why I wrote "in all practical
aspects".

And I'm not sure that it is fair to call it a "standard". No Mesh2 file have
ever been
produced on a Mac.
If you give me a yes or no answer on the question "can you use UV mapped
models?",
then I know which platform you're on.

> Now if there was direct
> support for Posers .obj file, which I take is a binary format, that would be
> more platform specific. Please let me know if my understanding is flawed.

As a non-programmer, it is more likely that it is my understanding that is
flawed.
But, I can create a .obj file on the Mac. Also Dxf, 3dmf and a lot of other
formats.
But I can't create a Mesh2 file.

Understand me right. I'm not complaining about the Mesh2 format.
Nor the lack of converters.
I'm just commenting that the documentation seems to imply that
I can use it, when several hours of searching on the Internet reveals
that I can't.
Isn't it a good thing to save people from that kind of frustration?

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> I'm just commenting that the documentation seems to imply that
> I can use it, when several hours of searching on the Internet reveals
> that I can't.

  In 2 minutes of research I got this message from Joseph Strout:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/meshwork/message/443

  So, better than complaining here, I will be mailing Joshep to demonstrate
him that mesh2 actually works with UV mapping on POV 3.5, and surely you
will have support for it on the next version of Meshworks (which I see is
updated often).

> Isn't it a good thing to save people from that kind of frustration?

  That's not the purpose of the docs, sorry. The will be too long if so...
:)

  Jaime

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Jaime Vives Piqueres wrote:

> I will be mailing Joshep to demonstrate
> him that mesh2 actually works with UV mapping on POV 3.5, and surely you
> will have support for it on the next version of Meshworks

Thanks Jaime!

Then, hopefully, there will be a solution ready when the official release of
3.5 happens. Will there be a link to it from the documentation?

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Tom Stone wrote:

> Will there be a link to it from the documentation?

Probably not. There is no mention of 3DWin in the mesh2 documentation
either. The POV-Ray documentation is about POV-Ray, not about third
party applications.

-- 
Ken Tyler - POV-Ray Technical Assistance Group.

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Ken wrote:

> Tom Stone wrote:
>
> > Will there be a link to it from the documentation?
>
> Probably not. There is no mention of 3DWin in the mesh2 documentation
> either. The POV-Ray documentation is about POV-Ray, not about third
> party applications.

Then I've downloaded a very strange version, as I clearly can read:

"9.2.3 How can I convert my scenes from format X to POV-Ray format?
You can try WCTV2Pov and Crossroads3D by Keith Rule and 3DWin by Thomas
Baier. "

...with links to both of them. Then, since the documentation isn't
"about third party applications", will these references be removed?

I'm getting the feeling that everyone here would be happier if the Mac
users would shut up. Therefore, I'll contribute to a happier world.

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Tom Stone wrote:

> Then I've downloaded a very strange version, as I clearly can read:
> 
> "9.2.3 How can I convert my scenes from format X to POV-Ray format?
> You can try WCTV2Pov and Crossroads3D by Keith Rule and 3DWin by Thomas
> Baier. "

And that is an FAQ appendix and not technically part of the documentation.
Regardless, I doubt we will add anything about Meshworks in the VFAQ until
we have confirmation that this feature will be supported and is fully
functional. You are more likely to see a reference to it on the official
mac.povray.org site once it has been developed.

-- 
Ken Tyler - POV-Ray Technical Assistance Group

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Thorsten Froehlich <tho### [at] trfde> wrote:
: Oh, and of course it is always possible to code a mesh by hand ;-)

  See the SDL raytracer tutorial for an example of this...

-- 
#macro N(D,I)#if(I<6)cylinder{M()#local D[I]=div(D[I],104);M().5,2pigment{
rgb M()}}N(D,(D[I]>99?I:I+1))#end#end#macro M()<mod(D[I],13)-6,mod(div(D[I
],13),8)-3,10>#end blob{N(array[6]{11117333955,
7382340,3358,3900569407,970,4254934330},0)}//                     - Warp -

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