If you read the upsurge of comments about POVCOMP 2004, a question was left
unanswered. Can you have a contest that uses POV, just POV, and ONLY POV?
Several comments by the artist in the contest admit using numerous software
packages. I believe POV-RAY will only be truely rung out during a POV only
contest. This should be an opportunity to gain significant feedback for the
advancement of POV-RAY.

Comments Please?

Post a reply to this message

swampie <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> If you read the upsurge of comments about POVCOMP 2004, a question was left
> unanswered. Can you have a contest that uses POV, just POV, and ONLY POV?
> Several comments by the artist in the contest admit using numerous software
> packages. I believe POV-RAY will only be truely rung out during a POV only
> contest. This should be an opportunity to gain significant feedback for the
> advancement of POV-RAY.

  I don't see why designing scenes should be limited to creating SDL by
hand only.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

"swampie" <nomail@nomail> schreef in bericht 
news:web.45fcb70a8ef8d9c0ea4ef3290@news.povray.org...
> If you read the upsurge of comments about POVCOMP 2004, a question was 
> left
> unanswered. Can you have a contest that uses POV, just POV, and ONLY POV?
> Several comments by the artist in the contest admit using numerous 
> software
> packages. I believe POV-RAY will only be truely rung out during a POV only
> contest. This should be an opportunity to gain significant feedback for 
> the
> advancement of POV-RAY.
>
> Comments Please?
>

Hmm... you mean IRTC, I suppose?

I think that the short answer is: the Short Code Contest. That is a POV only 
contest with impressive results.

More in general, I wonder why you would want to restrict your creative 
powers to only POV-Ray, when you can happily mix different things: objects 
you make in Wings3D, height_fields you create in Leveller or World Machine, 
creatures you control in Poser... all coming together in POV-Ray to be 
rendered. I don't think POV-Ray is in need of proving itself, not to 
community anyway. Just my two cents...

Thomas

Post a reply to this message

swampie wrote:
> Can you have a contest that uses POV, just POV, and ONLY POV?

Only on the Windows platform, as that is the only platform with a 
builtin editor.

The Linux folks need vi or emacs, at least.

Now, I know the above is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but seriously... once 
you allow text editors to create objects, what's the difference between 
that and allowing modeling programs such as Wings3D to create objects?

...Chambers

Post a reply to this message

Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> swampie wrote:
> > Can you have a contest that uses POV, just POV, and ONLY POV?
>
> Only on the Windows platform, as that is the only platform with a
> builtin editor.
>
> The Linux folks need vi or emacs, at least.
>
> Now, I know the above is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but seriously... once
> you allow text editors to create objects, what's the difference between
> that and allowing modeling programs such as Wings3D to create objects?
>
> ...Chambers

To All Above:

You ask why? The last line of my post is why. I am for pushing POV-Ray to a
higher level than what it is and right now it is the most impressive Free
software that I know of in the world. I would like for it to become a
standard educational tool for math, art and design, the world over. The
real question that comes back to you guys is why not take POV to higher
levels? I appreciate your comments but would like some thinking on cranking
up POV.

Thanks,

Swampie.

Post a reply to this message

Chambers wrote:
> Only on the Windows platform, as that is the only platform with a
> builtin editor.

Wrong! ;-)

	Thorsten

Post a reply to this message

Warp wrote:
> swampie <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> 
>>If you read the upsurge of comments about POVCOMP 2004, a question was left
>>unanswered. Can you have a contest that uses POV, just POV, and ONLY POV?
>>Several comments by the artist in the contest admit using numerous software
>>packages. I believe POV-RAY will only be truely rung out during a POV only
>>contest. This should be an opportunity to gain significant feedback for the
>>advancement of POV-RAY.
> 
> 
>   I don't see why designing scenes should be limited to creating SDL by
> hand only.

Especially in light of the fact that Moray will soon be just as 
affordable as POV-Ray (if this is not already the case).

The only logical reason to reserve praises or prizes for hand-written 
code is to make it fair for people who don't have the $$$ for a modeling 
program; for some of us, a $20 shareware fee really is too much for 
something that is only a hobby.  (And most shareware is really 
crippleware, but that's an argument for another thread.)

But with Moray being transferred to the POV-Ray organization, that 
reason goes away.

Regards,
John

Post a reply to this message

John VanSickle <evi### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > swampie <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> >
> >>If you read the upsurge of comments about POVCOMP 2004, a question was left
> >>unanswered. Can you have a contest that uses POV, just POV, and ONLY POV?
> >>Several comments by the artist in the contest admit using numerous software
> >>packages. I believe POV-RAY will only be truely rung out during a POV only
> >>contest. This should be an opportunity to gain significant feedback for the
> >>advancement of POV-RAY.
> >
> >
> >   I don't see why designing scenes should be limited to creating SDL by
> > hand only.
>
> Especially in light of the fact that Moray will soon be just as
> affordable as POV-Ray (if this is not already the case).
>
> The only logical reason to reserve praises or prizes for hand-written
> code is to make it fair for people who don't have the $$$ for a modeling
> program; for some of us, a $20 shareware fee really is too much for
> something that is only a hobby.  (And most shareware is really
> crippleware, but that's an argument for another thread.)
>
> But with Moray being transferred to the POV-Ray organization, that
> reason goes away.
>
> Regards,
> John

My 2c:
When it's a hobby, the fun is in the-doing, not always just the end-result
or cost-effectiveness.  Sometimes it's not even in effort-effectiveness:

If somebody builds a cabin in the woods, that's impressive.  If somebody
builds a cabin in the woods with no power tools and in fact only self-made
tools, then that's much more interesting.  (There was a PBS special some
time ago about a man who did this and lived for many years off of the land
by choice, documenting his adventures all the while on film.)

In a contest, the rules set the game's challenges and objectives and the
best contests have very specific restrictions - that's what makes them fun.
 The objectives may not be purely focused on the end result, like pretty
pictures.  A contest like swampie was suggesting could be all about who can
come up with the cleverest solutions to _x_ problem when restricted to _y_
resources.   A contest  without those restrictions is simply a different
contest.   (Free-for-all's are fun too.)

Charles

Post a reply to this message

Thorsten Froehlich wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
>> Only on the Windows platform, as that is the only platform with a
>> builtin editor.
> 
> Wrong! ;-)
> 
> 	Thorsten

Oh, really?  I wasn't aware of this.  Let me guess, it also has an 
editor on the Mac?  I'd assume that the Linux version remains CLI in the 
official distribution...

...Chambers

Post a reply to this message

Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> Oh, really?  I wasn't aware of this.  Let me guess, it also has an 
> editor on the Mac?  I'd assume that the Linux version remains CLI in the 
> official distribution...

  Unix/Linux people don't need nor want a builtin editor because most
Unix/Linux people have a different mentality and different customs than
Windows and Mac people. In Unix/Linux the mentality is more "one text
editor for all applications" instead of the "each application has its
own builtin editor" mentality of Windows/Mac.

  It makes sense. When you are accustomed to your favorite text editor and
have configured it to your liking, why should you be forced to use anything
else? You don't *need* anything else.

  In Windows (and probably Mac), however, people usually don't know nor
care how to connect different programs to perform a certain task, and thus
they want each program supporting everything by builtin features.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message