Greetings POV-Users,


  As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )

The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
the POV-Ray home page.

For this reason we have five easy questions for you -

1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?


2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
    to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
    versions of POV-Ray ?


3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
    contribute to it ?


4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?


5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
    idea, who cares anyway ?


We are listening and would like everyone's input on this.

-- 
Your TAG dollars at work.

Post a reply to this message

"Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net...
>
> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
>

    I am afraid that I never would. I spent some time reading some textures
once, but I usually make them up as I go along. If there were enough to suit
my needs, it would take as long to sort through them as to make one from
scratch.

    But if someone wants to archive them I would be happy to cut and paste a
few hundred out of my files, but I imagine that they would not be as good as
ones someone might make for themselves...

    It would be like asking someone else to go pee for you, might save time
but is not nearly as satisfying...

Post a reply to this message

I totally forgot that page existed. 
Perhaps it should just be included on the IRTC disc(I still need to get
my copy so please excuse me if it's already included).

-- 
Phil
...coffee?...yes please! extra sugar,extra cream...Thank you.

Post a reply to this message

1) This could be useful for beginner. But not all the textures are 
   good.

2) Yes!! Povray is already very wonderful. But an interesting feature 
   of commercial software is that there many texture and object with 
   the software. I think that if everyone could give their best 
   texture and some object, this will really great for povray.

3) Of course.

4) If there are good one why not!

Fabian.

Ken wrote:
> 
> Greetings POV-Users,
> 
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
> 
> The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
> serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
> the POV-Ray home page.
> 
> For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
> 
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
> 
> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?
> 
> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?
> 
> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
> 
> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?
> 
> We are listening and would like everyone's input on this.
> 
> --
> Your TAG dollars at work.

Post a reply to this message

Ken asked:
> 
> 
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
> 

No. Why not? It's very time consuming to click through the textures.
It's difficult to find the one you are looking for.


> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?
> 

Together with a remaking of the webpage design it surely can. The
textures must be updated to be interesting! I would also recommend to
automate the creation of the webpages. A good example for this is the
IRTC submission. Perl scripts ...


> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?
> 

Sure.

> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
> 

Hard to say. I really like to create my own but to cut off time for an
IRTC submission it is really useful and I might use it like I do with
your kolors.inc. Burning an updated version on the IRTC CD-Rom might
also be a good idea.

> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?
> 

No.


Marc

-- 
Marc Schimmler

Post a reply to this message

Waiting for the 3rd Year IRTC cd-rom to arrive here; too late to get those
textures added if not already there I'd say, for this round anyhow.
I rarely use a pre-made texture unfortunately.  The problem is the masses of
them which would eventually have to be sifted through as was pointed out
already.  I can hardly look through what came with POV-Ray to begin with.
Although a collection of unique or great common textures would be a good
thing wouldn't it?  I can't speak for everyone else but there is a value to
such a resource.  Don't see how you'd ever go about selection appropriately
enough.  As with all other things there's personal viewpoint involved, "eye
of the beholder" you know.

Not really much help, I know.

Bob

Marc Schimmler <sch### [at] icauni-stuttgartde> wrote in message
news:384CB9AE.A5F2F0F9@ica.uni-stuttgart.de...
> Ken asked:
> >
> >
> > 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
> >
>
> No. Why not? It's very time consuming to click through the textures.
> It's difficult to find the one you are looking for.
>
>
> > 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people
contributed
> >     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the
latest
> >     versions of POV-Ray ?
> >
>
> Together with a remaking of the webpage design it surely can. The
> textures must be updated to be interesting! I would also recommend to
> automate the creation of the webpages. A good example for this is the
> IRTC submission. Perl scripts ...
>
>
> > 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
> >     contribute to it ?
> >
>
> Sure.
>
> > 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
> >
>
> Hard to say. I really like to create my own but to cut off time for an
> IRTC submission it is really useful and I might use it like I do with
> your kolors.inc. Burning an updated version on the IRTC CD-Rom might
> also be a good idea.
>
> > 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a
dumb
> >     idea, who cares anyway ?
> >
>
> No.
>
>
> Marc
>
> --
> Marc Schimmler

Post a reply to this message

Ken wrote:

>For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
>
>1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
No, not easy to find your way through. With a different layout, yes.

>2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>    to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>    versions of POV-Ray ?
Yes. (And even more if an isosurface pigments part would be added.)

>3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>    contribute to it ?
Yes.

>4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
Yes, for inspiration and as a starting point.

>5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>    idea, who cares anyway ?
No.

Ingo

-- 
Photography: http://members.home.nl/ingoogni/
Pov-Ray    : http://members.home.nl/seed7/

Post a reply to this message

1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?

Mostly.  I'd like to be able to just download a single texture rather than a
whole set.

2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
    to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
    versions of POV-Ray ?

Yes.


3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
    contribute to it ?

Possibly.

4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?

I have and do.

5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
    idea, who cares anyway ?

NO.

Regards,
Robert J Becraft
aka cas### [at] aolcom

Post a reply to this message

I didn't even know they existed!

I don't expect I will use them - but for a beginner they may well be useful.

I wonder if selected textures solicited from pov users work might be put up
as examples?

Mick

Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net...
>
>
> Greetings POV-Users,
>
>
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
>
> The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
> serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
> the POV-Ray home page.
>
> For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
>
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
>
>
> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?
>
>
> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?
>
>
> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
>
>
> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?
>
>
> We are listening and would like everyone's input on this.
>
> --
> Your TAG dollars at work.

Post a reply to this message

Bill DeWitt wrote:

> "Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
> news:384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net...
> >
> > 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
> >
>
>     I am afraid that I never would. I spent some time reading some textures
> once, but I usually make them up as I go along. If there were enough to suit
> my needs, it would take as long to sort through them as to make one from
> scratch.

I agree.. while I'm becomming a texture maniac lately (see my sowbug in
povray.binaries.images), I have never used a premade texture. I've never come
across one that's interested me.

If there is a popular trading post, I'd probably donate my favourites, though..

Post a reply to this message

Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:
>
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )

No, I didn't know.  After for looking for a few minutes, I finally found
it at the bottom of a page four layers deep.  Since it's hosted at the
official POV-Ray site, why not put a link to it from the "Resources"
page?


> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in its present form ?

It's not bad.  One problem is that the "information" and "instructions"
pages explicitly set the text to white, and provide a background image,
but don't provide a value for the background colour -- which, if you
browse with image-loading turned off and your browser defaults to a
white background, makes it kind of difficult to read the pages.

Having to wade through several different pages of sky textures (for
example) is a little annoying, though if I generally browsed with images
enabled, it'd probably be better than waiting for all of the thumbnails
to load.

It might be nice to have an alternate indexing method -- for example, a
page which lists all of the textures within the given category, provides
general information about them (such as brief description, average
colour, texture complexity, etc.), and includes a link which will
display the example image.

A keyword-search function might be helpful, too.


> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?

Of course.  But in that case, there'd definitely need to be a more
efficient way of indexing them -- unless people were really desperate,
they'd probably give up before getting through twenty or thirty pages of
the same kind of texture.  Also, in that case, it would be nice if more
categories were added, such as "fabrics", "organics", and so forth,
rather than lumping such things under "misc".


> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?

Sure.


> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?

Hmmm.  Maybe, maybe not.  One the one hand, I usually spend more time
tweaking my textures than I do modelling, because I want everything to
look exactly the way I envision it.  On the other hand, if there was a
large selection of various media effects available, I'd certainly use
them.  (I *still* can't figure out how to get media to do some of the
things I used to do with halos...)


> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?

Certainly not.  I wish I'd known of such a thing when I first got
started using POV-Ray.


-- 
Jeff Lee         shi### [at] gatenet         http://www.gate.net/~shipbrk/

Post a reply to this message

Though I remember the resource before it was hosted at povray.org, I don't
think I ever used it.  The problem with these textures is perhaps that many of
them are too simple (it may take more time to look for them or even to
remember them than to make them again), or that they are not such an
improvement on the textures found on the standard pov distribution (that I do
use because they provide some basics, like wood or glass). Also, I always
noticed that textures that look fun often have little practical use, apart
being fun.
However, I think that such a resource would be extremely valuable if the
textures were of the less-obvious kind, and of a more scene-oriented kind :
complex textures in the lines of Jeff Lee's brick pattern or SamuelT's peeling
paint isosurface texture, that would include the combination of normals,
warps, pigment maps and texture maps required to do some hard stuff. This
would make life easier for every user, from newbies who could learn from it to
"advanced" ones who could save time. What about a "skyscraper at night"
texture, for instance ? Or a "dirty wall with some irregular bricks showing
beneath the cracked paint and rusty spots" texture. Or "dull texture with very
small dents very far apart"... BTW, I find that textures are better to figure
when in context : glass textures should be shown on bottles or glasses, wood
textures on simple pieces of furniture, stones texture on stone-like blobs or
bezier patches, slope_dependent textures on height-fields and so on. Just an
idea, but I do appreciate seeing that in Bryce, for instance (at least for the
stone and terrain textures).
So the answers are :

> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?

No

> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?

Yes, but only if the textures are really good, useful, complex ones and not
other versions of the standard ones, which are already there.

> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?

Yes

> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?

Yes

> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?

No. I would actually advocate this type of resource for other stuff material,
like medias, objects, macros... (of course, we have already Uncle Ken's
links...).

G.

Post a reply to this message

>Mostly.  I'd like to be able to just download a single texture rather than
a
>whole set.


I wish it could work like Microsoft's ClipGallery Live, where you browse,
select the ones you like, and then download a package of just those cliparts
(textures in this case).

Post a reply to this message

In article <384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net>, Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet>
writes
>
>
>Greetings POV-Users,
>
>
>  As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
>povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
>
>The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
>serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
>the POV-Ray home page.
>
>For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
>
>1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?

I have to say that I have only looked at it a couple of times and have
never used anything from it.

>2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>    to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>    versions of POV-Ray ?

I think these would both be a great help.

>3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>    contribute to it ?

If I ever get good enough at doing textures and I think that they would
be worthwhile, then yes.

>4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?

Yes, I have not been very successful at writing textures so seeing
examples would help me learn.

>5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>    idea, who cares anyway ?

I do not think it is a dumb idea but it needs more support and to be
compatible with the newer versions.

>We are listening and would like everyone's input on this.
>

--__    __                                                           
 |  |  |  | ___  _    _  ___     
  \  \/  / |__ \| \/\/ ||__ \    Email: xam### [at] quayles1demoncouk  
   >    <  / _  |      |/ _  |     ICQ: 13313977
  /  /\  \| |_| | |\/| | |_| | Website: <Temporarily Removed>  
 |__|  |__|\__,_|_|  |_|\__,_|
           Hobbies: C programming, Raytracing, MUDding

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 06 Dec 1999 22:19:43 -0800, Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:


>  As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
>povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
>
>1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
No.  It is too time consuming to wade through a lot of images in the hope that there
might
be one that might suit your application after some modification.
>
>2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>    to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>    versions of POV-Ray ?
This would help, but the present format would still deter me from using it.  I prefer
something I can download and browse in my own time and at a sensible speed.  One way
might
be to have an index of categorised pages of 640x480 jpg's tiled with small samples of
numbered textures to get a rough idea.  Each jpg page would have an associated page of
textual description.  Then just a complete list of index numbers linked to the actual
textures.  
>
>3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>    contribute to it ?
If I came up with what I thought was an original and useful texture, sure.

>4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
If they suited the scene, certainly.
>
>5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>    idea, who cares anyway ?
No.
------------
dav### [at] cwcomnet
http://www.hamiltonite.mcmail.com
------------

Post a reply to this message

Ken wrote:
> 
> Greetings POV-Users,
> 
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
> 
> The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
> serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
> the POV-Ray home page.
> 
> For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
> 
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?

I've never used it.

> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people
>     contributed to it and the textures were updated to work correctly
>     with the latest versions of POV-Ray ?

It couldn't hurt.

> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you
>     help contribute to it ?

Perhaps.  There is rarely any demand for my textures.

> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?

I seem to be getting along fine without them...

> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a
>     dumb idea, who cares anyway ?

Do some publicizing to drum up interest.  If that doesn't work, then it
probably isn't a very useful thing.

Regards,
John
-- 
ICQ: 46085459

Post a reply to this message

1.) Not for me.

2.) Not necessarily. I find textures w/o context difficult to apply
(perhaps with the exception of technical aspects such as ior). 

3.) Likely, though I would like to see some contribution criteria.

4.) Depends. I like to brew-my-own, but for reference I might down load
a couple. 

5.) Not necessarily. A good concept, but needs rehashing.

Further suggestions include:

  a. give the textures context (e.g. an instance of application).

  b. give less emphesis to color_maps.

  c. give more emphesis to patterns, warps, turbulences, layered
textures, slope_maps.

  d. include media densities (e.g. cloud varieties).

Abe

Post a reply to this message

When I started POV a year ago (how time does fly when waiting
for something to render) I found the most common POV thing was
textures. And as a newbie I started collecting them. I never did
get around to erasing them. 

	At first I tried using what I found but always found myself
tweaking them. 

	At most how about a single (a few?) compressed file?

Post a reply to this message

Matt Giwer wrote:
> 
>         When I started POV a year ago (how time does fly when waiting
> for something to render) I found the most common POV thing was
> textures. And as a newbie I started collecting them. I never did
> get around to erasing them.
> 
>         At first I tried using what I found but always found myself
> tweaking them.
> 
>         At most how about a single (a few?) compressed file?

	And ... Texture View was the only thing I found useful as a
beginner and that had more than enough samples to show what was
going on with the syntax options.

-- 
http://www.giwersworld.org/artiii/

Oh my God! They've rendered Kenny!

How to profit from the end of civilization as know it available 
here soon.

Post a reply to this message

Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net...
>
>
> Greetings POV-Users,
>
>
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
>
> The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
> serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
> the POV-Ray home page.
>
> For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
>
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?

In a way, Yes
> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?
Yes

> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?
Yes, when I come around to making my own textures

> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
Yes


> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?

NO!

....... Note..........
If there was a good way to search for textures ot would be realy nice. A
place where I could write in key_words during the search for example if I
wanted a wood texture with a red touch in it typing "Red , Wood" would bring
up a list of woods that are redish....



> We are listening and would like everyone's input on this.
> Your TAG dollars at work.

Post a reply to this message

POV-Users,

 From your replies we have a pretty good indication of what you people think
about the current Texture Library. It appears just about everyone thinks that
it needs some serious work to become a viable resource and we will see what
we can do to rectify this situation. It may take us a while to get something
in place so please be patient with us.

--
POV-Ray Texture Assistance Group

Post a reply to this message

It's not good to miss checking this section of the newsgroups for a week, I
just found out :) On to the questions:

> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?

Dunno. Never seen it before. Will check it out.


> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?

Sure. It only makes sense to let everybody in on the texture-making, for
everyone is different, and many people might not like the existing ones.


> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?

Definitely, but would like to submit textures for a superpatch category, since
that is my patch of choice. I can't get over the versatility of the superpatch
to make new textures; I still haven't found a limit.


> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?

Probably not. I rarely actually finish my scenes; I'm more of a
feature-tester. I experiment with shapes and textures as one who looks at
flowers, or paintings: I learn from what I do, but never seem to do anything
constructive with my knowledge (except for the test scenes I post sometimes).
I would probably use the textures as inspiration for more textures, though.


> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?

According to the popular vote on this, I would have to say no.

--
Samuel Benge

E-Mail: STB### [at] aolcom

Visit the still unfinished isosurface tutorial: http://members.aol.com/stbenge

Post a reply to this message

I am too new at the job to have had time to seriously study the textures. If
they should go I would be too late, and since I have never tried to make one
myself, I should say: LET'S KEEP THEM FOR A WHILE. Do you hear me? Don't
listen to the experienced boys...
--
Regards,
Sander


Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> schreef in berichtnieuws
384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net...
>
>
> Greetings POV-Users,
>
>
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
>
> The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
> serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
> the POV-Ray home page.
>
> For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
>
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
>
>
> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?
>
>
> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?
>
>
> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
>
>
> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?
>
>
> We are listening and would like everyone's input on this.
>
> --
> Your TAG dollars at work.

Post a reply to this message

"Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net...
>
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
>

    I did but I'd forgotten about it and on revisting it I remember why...

>
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
>

    No, not, as other have already said, in its present form. This is
exactly the reason I never revisited it - it's far too hard and time
consuming to find anything useful.
    Also, like someone else said, I think it would be better if the textures
where placed in context - glass textures on bottles, wood textures on
tables, etc...

>
> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it

    Definatly. One thing that would be nice is if textures could be taken
from IRTC entries - so they could be shown along with a an example of them
in use.

> and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?
>

    For it to be of any use, yes. I think this kind of resource will be most
useful to newbies and having to update them just to use them is just going
to annoy a newbie.

>
> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?
>

    Possibly - if I felt any of my textures where up to scratch.

>
> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
>

    I might use them as a basis for textures in my own scene.

>
> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?
>

    No certainly not - it's a good idea badly executed (though I think a lot
of that is down to the limitations imposed by it being a web resource).

    Lastly, as someone else said, it would be good to see more complex
texture examples. Oh and less of the minor variation on a theme type
textures - once you've seen one "mid-brown with slightly darker brown bands"
wood texture you've seen them all.

--
Scott Hill. (sco### [at] innocentcom)
Software Engineer.
Author of Pandora's Box (coming to a web page soon(ish)).

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AC wrote:

> ....... Note..........
> If there was a good way to search for textures ot would be realy nice. A
> place where I could write in key_words during the search for example if I
> wanted a wood texture with a red touch in it typing "Red , Wood" would bring
> up a list of woods that are redish....

We are looking into adding a search engine for the texture library and hope
to have it on line when we open the new site.

 Thank you for your suggestion.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Simon de Vet wrote:

> If there is a popular trading post, I'd probably donate my favourites, though..

Your contributions will be most welcome when the new site is opened.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Phil Clute wrote:
> 
> I totally forgot that page existed.
> Perhaps it should just be included on the IRTC disc(I still need to get
> my copy so please excuse me if it's already included).

I will pass on your idea to Chris Cason though I cannot gaurantee that
he will do it. If you want all of the textures that are currently on
the site you can download them now in a single archive provided on the
site. There are close to 1600 declared pigments and textures in the
current collection.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Fabian Brau wrote:
> 
> 1) This could be useful for beginner.

  We are hoping that this new library will be useful for not only new
POV-Ray users but also act as an idea guide for expericenced users as
well. Textures are such a complex subject even experienced users seldom
use all of POV-Ray's potential when texturing their objects.

> But not all the textures are good.

We will probably have some form of acceptance policy for new textures.
We realize that anyone can make a simple texture so we want the ones
that are special or unique. How we will judge these is still open to
debate and we have not worked out the details yet.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Marc Schimmler wrote:
> 
> Ken asked: Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?

> No. Why not? It's very time consuming to click through the textures.

  We agree with this.

 We will likely remove many of the older textures and concentrate on
not having every possible texture that can be made. Instead we will
concentrate on the difficult, nifty, and the best of the best of the
best textures we can get.

> It's difficult to find the one you are looking for.

 We will also be adding navigation short cuts and a search engine to
facilitate speedier texture searches. We are painfully aware of how
difficult it is to find something useful in the library the way it
is currently formated.


> Together with a remaking of the webpage design it surely can. The
> textures must be updated to be interesting! I would also recommend to
> automate the creation of the webpages. A good example for this is the
> IRTC submission. Perl scripts ...

We are working on automating as much of the site as possible. There
are going to be some minor restrictions but we are working out the
details on that so I can't say more until we have figured out what
er are going to do.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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omniVERSE wrote:
> 
> Waiting for the 3rd Year IRTC cd-rom to arrive here; too late to get those
> textures added if not already there I'd say,

They will not be on your 3rd Year disk. I'll talk to Chris about
the 4th Year disk though :)

> Although a collection of unique or great common textures would be a good
> thing wouldn't it?

 We agree with this. We want to get rid of the simple textures like -

texture{pigment{red 1)}

and concentrate on those that are a little less obvious to the beginner
and even the advanced users out there.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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ingo wrote:

> Yes. (And even more if an isosurface pigments part would be added.)

We will be adding sections for special purpose or patch feature textures
including isosurface pigments. We will just have to be careful about
identifying them as such. We recognize the need to offer a resource that
will serve everyone in our community.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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> I wonder if selected textures solicited from pov users work might be put up
> as examples?

We haven't decided how the textures will be displayed yet but we are
hoping to give the people submitting the new texture a list of possible
objects to apply it to so that it will be properly displayed to the
object type it was intended for. A good radial texture for a sphere
would look bad on a plane and we want to avoid that scenario.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Robert J Becraft wrote:
> 
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
> 
> Mostly.  I'd like to be able to just download a single texture rather than a
> whole set.

I agree with this. The way the current library is set up you have to download
at a minimum of one .inc file that has several other textures that you may not
be interested in. We will try to fix it so you can preview and download just
the texture that interests you.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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TonyB wrote:
> 
> >Mostly.  I'd like to be able to just download a single texture rather than
> a
> >whole set.
> 
> I wish it could work like Microsoft's ClipGallery Live, where you browse,
> select the ones you like, and then download a package of just those cliparts
> (textures in this case).

We are thinking about adding a shopping basket type arrangement to the site.
Would this interest you ?

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Jeff Lee wrote:

> >   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> > povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
> 
> No, I didn't know.  After for looking for a few minutes, I finally found
> it at the bottom of a page four layers deep.  Since it's hosted at the
> official POV-Ray site, why not put a link to it from the "Resources"
> page?

Do not worry about site promotion. Once we have finished redesigning it
we plan a major advertising campaign to solicit texture submissions and
to aid in public awareness of it's existence. Once we are sure everyone
has heard about it we are hoping it will take on a life of it's own.
 
> > 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in its present form ?
> 
> It's not bad.  One problem is that the "information" and "instructions"
> pages explicitly set the text to white, and provide a background image,
> but don't provide a value for the background colour -- which, if you
> browse with image-loading turned off and your browser defaults to a
> white background, makes it kind of difficult to read the pages.

We want to redesign the site so that the background is neutral and
concentrate on exhibiting the textures in the collection. There is
a seperate group working on this issue but I do not know yet what
they have come up with in this regard.
 
> Having to wade through several different pages of sky textures (for
> example) is a little annoying, though if I generally browsed with images
> enabled, it'd probably be better than waiting for all of the thumbnails
> to load.

Currently there is just too much content at the site and we are going
to work on cutting the size down to a managable level.
 
> It might be nice to have an alternate indexing method
> A keyword-search function might be helpful, too.
> Of course.  But in that case, there'd definitely need to be a more
> efficient way of indexing them

As I have mentioned in other places in this thread we will be doing a lot
to help with site navigation and texture searching. 


>  On the other hand, if there was a large selection of various media
> effects available, I'd certainly use them.  (I *still* can't figure
> out how to get media to do some of the things I used to do with halos...)

I will pass this idea on to the TAG. Media is a tricky one because it
is difficult to apply to different objects and in different lighting
conditions. What it was designed for may not work when you apply it
to your own object or scene. The catch 22 here is that media in
containers require objects and we don't want this particular library
to become an object library.


  For those who might be interested we have begun talking amongst
ourselves about adding other resources like this one to povray.org.
We have not yet decided what we will offer or even obtained permission
from the POV-Team to offer any more than the texture library but we
will be working on it after the new texture library goes on line.

Some ideas I personaly have had are:

Texture    Library
Object     Library
Macro      Library
Isosurface Library
Turorial   Library
Document   Library

  We might offer these resources from a web page that we will call the
TAG home page. Then the seperate libraries will be accessed from there.
Again we have nothing concrete on this yet and even if we do add these
it will be in stages as we get time and permission to work on them.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Gilles Tran wrote:

> However, I think that such a resource would be extremely valuable if the
> textures were of the less-obvious kind, and of a more scene-oriented kind :
> complex textures in the lines of Jeff Lee's brick pattern or SamuelT's peeling
> paint isosurface texture, that would include the combination of normals,
> warps, pigment maps and texture maps required to do some hard stuff. This
> would make life easier for every user, from newbies who could learn from it to
> "advanced" ones who could save time. What about a "skyscraper at night"
> texture, for instance ? Or a "dirty wall with some irregular bricks showing
> beneath the cracked paint and rusty spots" texture. Or "dull texture with very
> small dents very far apart"... BTW, I find that textures are better to figure
> when in context : glass textures should be shown on bottles or glasses, wood
> textures on simple pieces of furniture, stones texture on stone-like blobs or
> bezier patches, slope_dependent textures on height-fields and so on. Just an
> idea, but I do appreciate seeing that in Bryce, for instance (at least for the
> stone and terrain textures).

I personaly agree with what you are saying and that is indeed what I think
the site should concentrate on.  How we will get people to contribute this
calibur of textures to the site remains to be seen but we can hope that
those that really know their stuff will take the time to contribute to
the collection.

Hint, hint....

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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David Wilkinson wrote:

> Each jpg page would have an associated page of textual description.

  This will be a manditory feature of the submission process. Each person
submitting a new texture to the collection must provide a breif desciption
of their texture.

P.S. I am not sure that we will offer the images available in a single
or multiple archive download. It would increase bandwidth and storage
resources that we may not have. I think viewing of textures will have
to remain an online activity but I can check into it.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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John VanSickle wrote:

> Do some publicizing to drum up interest.  If that doesn't work, then it
> probably isn't a very useful thing.

You can rest assured that by the time I am through with my publicity
campaign everyone will know about it :)

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Abe wrote:

> Further suggestions include:
> 
>   a. give the textures context (e.g. an instance of application).

We hope to.
 
>   b. give less emphesis to color_maps.

This is a difficult thing to do. Some textures would look like ____
if they were all neon pink :)

>   d. include media densities (e.g. cloud varieties).

The problem with media densities as I said in an earlier reply is that
they are heavily dependant on the objects they are applied to. Media
cloudscapes are really more of an object class item than a texture
class item.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !
Ken Tyler -  1200+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Matt Giwer wrote:

>         At most how about a single (a few?) compressed file?

You can get the contents of the current library in one zip archive.
We will likely be offering single texture downloads along with a
master archive download. It's to early in the development stages
right now to say exactly how it will be structured.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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"SamuelT." wrote:

> Definitely, but would like to submit textures for a superpatch category, since
> that is my patch of choice. I can't get over the versatility of the superpatch
> to make new textures; I still haven't found a limit.

It is in the works.

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Sander wrote:
> 
> I am too new at the job to have had time to seriously study the textures. If
> they should go I would be too late, and since I have never tried to make one
> myself, I should say: LET'S KEEP THEM FOR A WHILE. Do you hear me? Don't
> listen to the experienced boys...

It is likely that even if we discontinue many of the older textures we
will have them available for download as a single archive. Rene, the
originator of the site, plans on maintaing the Texture Library in it's
current form on his home page so it will not be dissapearing in the
immediate future anyway.

-- 
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Ken schrieb:
> 

> 
> We are looking into adding a search engine for the texture library and hope
> to have it on line when we open the new site.
> 
>....and several other postings to the same thread.


seems, a lot of work is to be done in this matter, but I wish to
encourage you to go on.
You're on a good way IMO.

ReVerSi

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Reinhard Rettelbach wrote:

> seems, a lot of work is to be done in this matter, but I wish to
> encourage you to go on.

I have a lot of energy for this project and I will continue pushing it
until it is completed. Sharing the load with 5 other people over the
internet kind of slows things down a bit but the group effort will pay
off in the long run (Now I know what a miracle POV-Ray itself is).

> You're on a good way IMO.

Thank you.

-- 
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"Ken" <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote :
>
> I have a lot of energy for this project
>

    Good thing! Just -responding- to all those posts would have -me- ready
for a nap! I look forward to seeing the results.

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Might try publicizing it more. This is the first I've heard of it.

Jon

Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:384CA6FF.C1237279@pacbell.net...
>
>
> Greetings POV-Users,
>
>
>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
>
> The Technical Assistance Group and the POV-Team are debating whether it is
> serving any useful purpose and if it is worth the space it is taking up on
> the POV-Ray home page.
>
> For this reason we have five easy questions for you -
>
> 1.) Do you think this a useful resource in it's present form ?
>
>
> 2.) Do you think it would be a better resource if more people contributed
>     to it and the textures were updated to work correctly with the latest
>     versions of POV-Ray ?
>
>
> 3.) If this became a active resource for POV-Ray textures would you help
>     contribute to it ?
>
>
> 4.) Would you use the textures from this site in your scenes ?
>
>
> 5.) Should we just get rid of it because it serves no purpose, it's a dumb
>     idea, who cares anyway ?
>
>
> We are listening and would like everyone's input on this.
>
> --
> Your TAG dollars at work.

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"Jon S. Berndt" wrote:
> 
> Might try publicizing it more. This is the first I've heard of it.

  Once we rewrite the site you will probably get tired of hearing
about it :)

-- 
Wishing you Seasons Greetings, A Merry Christmas, and A Happy New Year !

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Ken wrote:

>   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )

Y'all sure talk funny!  I mean, shoot, boy -- everybody else
in 3D graphics uses "texture" to mean an image texture map.
Except for us VRML folks who also have movie textures and a
queer duck called a pixel texture.

Which got me to thinking about Aaron Walsh who's working on a
Universal Media Element library for VRML: 
http://www.web3d.org/WorkingGroups/media/ -- which contains or
will contain a whole passel of the other kind of texture.  I
have no idea whether there's any possibility of synchronicity
there, but it might be worth thinking about.

I imagine a number of folks might like to contribute some of
of the heightfield images they've made over the years if
there were a central place to put them.

Just some random thoughts which involve no work at all for me
and lots of work for other people.
--
Bob Crispen
crispen at hiwaay dot net
What we're looking for: destinations.
What we end up getting: journeys.

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Bob Crispen wrote:
> 
> Ken wrote:
> 
> >   As many of you know there is a POV-Ray texture library hosted at
> > povray.org ( http://texlib.povray.org )
> 
> Y'all sure talk funny!  I mean, shoot, boy -- everybody else
> in 3D graphics uses "texture" to mean an image texture map.
> Except for us VRML folks who also have movie textures and a
> queer duck called a pixel texture.

Everyone but us, Ken Perlin, and Steven Worley. ;-)

-Mark Gordon

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On Fri, 17 Dec 1999 01:31:55 -0800, Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:

[snip]
>
>  For those who might be interested we have begun talking amongst
>ourselves about adding other resources like this one to povray.org.
>We have not yet decided what we will offer or even obtained permission
>from the POV-Team to offer any more than the texture library but we
>will be working on it after the new texture library goes on line.
>
>Some ideas I personaly have had are:
>
>Texture    Library
>Object     Library
>Macro      Library
>Isosurface Library
>Turorial   Library
>Document   Library
>
>  We might offer these resources from a web page that we will call the
>TAG home page. Then the seperate libraries will be accessed from there.
>Again we have nothing concrete on this yet and even if we do add these
>it will be in stages as we get time and permission to work on them.
>
Sounds good to me. Very good.

As for textures, I'd have to go with the majority views I've read so
far (need searching, more interesting textures, yadda yadda) and
confirm tha tI too am pretty dire at texture design. However, the one
texture I've made that I'm happy with (and any future ones) the group
is welcome to (it's a "vortex swirly thing" texture that changes with
the clock. Scaling and shape of "tube" it's applied to would
definately have a distinct affect on how well the texture "comes
out").


Cheers,

Cliff Bowman
Why not pay my 3D Dr Who site a visit at http://www.who3d.cwc.net/

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