Cool! Now my photon mapping image works again :)
  And the source code compiled without problems (after converting CR/LF's).
Very good.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

Post a reply to this message

In article <3936DD51.984F52EA@pacbell.net>, Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet>
wrote:

> Nathan Kopp wrote:
> > 
> > Tony[B] <ben### [at] panamac-comnet> wrote...
> > > Unisys idiots. They're diggin' their own grave. No problem. We'll just use
> > > PNG then.
> > 
> > I'm glad you feel that way and I hope the other users will also understand.
> > Removing GIF functionality was a difficult decision to make, be we ended up
> > deciding to play it safe and not risk any lawsuits.
> 
> Was this a POV-Team decision or simply that of a patch writer ?
> 
> I for one will greatly miss the gif format if it is lost in the
> official versions of the program.

Me too, I hope they'll keep it in the official versions...
  Anton

Post a reply to this message

Anton Raves wrote:

> Me too, I hope they'll keep it in the official versions...
>   Anton

It may not be such a problem, since everything that can be done in POV with a GIF
looks like it can be done with a PNG file, including the possibility of filtering a
colour on the basis of its index number in the palette. The main immediate problem
could be the lack of (or poor) support of  the various PNG flavours (the palette
version and the alpha-channel version) by some common freeware, shareware and
low-cost image processors.

G.

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> 
>   And btw (to someone posting about gimp), gimp supports png. I don't see
> the problem.

My problem is that I have been (so far) unable to use images made from
the Gimp as heightfield unless I used grayscaled GIFs.  


-- 
Francois Labreque | The surest sign of the existence of extra-
     flabreq      | terrestrial intelligence is that they never
        @         | bothered to come down here and visit us!
  attglobal.net                                  - Calvin

Post a reply to this message

Bob Hughes wrote in message <393786d4@news.povray.org>...
>I also have to mention that someone I know of was using 16-bit Gif in
POV-Ray
>but I never have so I don't understand it's format.  Was from a Fractint
>output I believe, well actually I have no idea anymore.

That's the .pot format.  There are exactly two programs in the world that
support it: POV-Ray, and Fractint.

Mark

Post a reply to this message

Gilles Tran wrote:

> Anton Raves wrote:
>
> > Me too, I hope they'll keep it in the official versions...
> >   Anton
>
> It may not be such a problem, since everything that can be done in POV with a GIF
> looks like it can be done with a PNG file, including the possibility of filtering a
> colour on the basis of its index number in the palette. The main immediate problem
> could be the lack of (or poor) support of  the various PNG flavours (the palette
> version and the alpha-channel version) by some common freeware, shareware and
> low-cost image processors.

PNG DOES everything GIF does but for animated GIF's (which are supported by MNG).
Plus,
PNG does a lot more (just read the documentation about sophisticated image compression
preprocessing for one example).

PNG is supported by rel 4 browsers (IE4 supports it, there is just a problem: you can
add and IMG tag to a page but for unknown reasons drag-dropping the PNG file is not
supported, so many people think IE4 is not PNG aware).

GIMP works beautifully with PNGs.

Last but not least, PNG is supported by free and open source libraries (batteries not
included...)

Bye!!!

Post a reply to this message

Mark Wagner wrote:

> That's the .pot format.  There are exactly two programs in the world that
> support it: POV-Ray, and Fractint.

Make that at least three: I was able to convert a .pot file to PNG in
the GIMP.

-Mark Gordon

Post a reply to this message

In article <3938A752.3E308FEF@iol.it> , Alessandro Coppo <a.c### [at] iolit> 
wrote:

> PNG is supported by rel 4 browsers (IE4 supports it, there is just a problem:
> you can add and IMG tag to a page but for unknown reasons drag-dropping the
> PNG file is not supported, so many people think IE4 is not PNG aware).

This is only correct for IE 4 for Windows, IE 4 for Mac OS does not support
it at all (but IE 5 does).


     Thorsten

Post a reply to this message

> MegaPov 0.5a is now available for Windows and Mac (other versions will
> follow from other developers).

Woohoo! - thanks:)
The updated win32 3.1g interface is the icing on the cake:)

> PLEASE NOTE: GIF support has been removed due to the Unisys patent on LZW
> decompression.  Please view the link at the end of this message if you
want

This doesn't bother me at all, and serves them right that such a popular
graphics program (or at least a popular patch of one;) should drop their
format because of their ridiculous legal issues.


Matt

Post a reply to this message

The banner on top of that Unisys page is a gif image.  If Unisys has not
licensed itself, it will have to sue itself!  ;)
Brendan Ryan

Nathan Kopp wrote:

> MegaPov 0.5a is now available for Windows and Mac (other versions will
> follow from other developers).
>
> PLEASE NOTE: GIF support has been removed due to the Unisys patent on LZW
> decompression.  Please view the link at the end of this message if you want
> to read what Unisys has to say about licensing.
>
> The Windows version can be downloaded from:
> http://nathan.kopp.com/patched.htm
>
> The Macintosh version can be downloaded from:
> http://users.skynet.be/smellenbergh
>
> -Nathan
>
> === summary of changes ===
> * removed GIF support (potential legal issues regarding the Unisys patent)
> * fixed docs for pigment_pattern
> * fixed disc problems (removed fastdiscpatch)
> * fixed long filename support in the Windows version
> * fixed interface-related bugs (Windows version moved to 3.1g interface)
> * fixed bug with photons on average texture
> * fixed bug with media method 3 when samples = 1
> * fixed bug with parsing backwards compatibility and unofficial version
> number
> * added fastspherepatch
> * added fastpolypatch
> * fixed "bug" with mesh (MegaPov did not ignore degenerate triangles if uv
> mapping was used in the triangle)
> * fixed bug with ttf
> * fixed bug with csqr
>
> Here is the reason why GIF support has been removed:
> http://www.unisys.com/unisys/lzw/default.asp

Post a reply to this message