POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.object-collection : 2009 Q3 News Server Time
28 Mar 2024 08:27:53 EDT (-0400)
  2009 Q3 News (Message 1 to 4 of 4)  
From: Chris B
Subject: 2009 Q3 News
Date: 29 Sep 2009 05:22:28
Message: <4ac1d1d4@news.povray.org>
The POV-Ray Object Collection is a place where you can freely store and 
retrieve objects, macros, textures etc. under a common, very open license.


Geocities Project
------------------
Geocities, a free web hosting service that has been about for many years, 
has announced that they're closing down on Oct 26th. This service has been 
quite popular with successive generations of POV-Ray users as a place to 
store their objects, macros, tutorials, galleries etc. There's currently an 
effort being organised through the povray.general newsgroup to try and 
preserve as much content of interest to the POV-Ray community as possible. 
Part of that effort is to harvest some of the models for this collection. If 
you're interested in helping in any way, please pick up the thread at 
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/.


New Stuff
-----------
Earlier this month Bill Pragnell added the 5 Platonic, 13 Archimedean and 13 
Catalan solids into the object collection. Each object can be rendered as a 
mesh2 or in a wireframe/skeletal form showing the edges and vertices. The 
include files also hold the coordinates of the vertices in an array, so that 
you can use that data procedurally, for example to position copies of an 
object at each vertex of your favourite shape. Each group is contained in 
its own include file. See:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=ArchimedeanSolids&contributorTag=Bill
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=PlatonicSolids&contributorTag=Bill
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=CatalanSolids&contributorTag=Bill


In July Charles R provided a Bubble macro to add some randomly spaced 
streams of bubbles as you might get from a fizzy drink. See:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=bubble&contributorTag=charlesr


The new DisplayCase macros produce a range of glass cases intended to show 
off whatever you wish to exhibit. Using a single macro call you can produce 
"Spherical", "Oblong", "Cylindrical" or "Box" shaped cases, using dimensions 
and textures of your choice. The same macro enables you to place any of 
these cases on top of a "Pedestal", "Tree", "Wallmount", "RoundPillar" or 
"RectangularPillar" style mount. For illustrations of what it can do, see:
http://lib.povray.org/collection/displaycase/chrisb%201.0/displaycase.html


The PeriodicTable object is largely of academic interest, but could be handy 
if you're keen on Chemistry. It's quite easy to change colors, textures, 
font-style etc. for the various groups of elements. See:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=PeriodicTable&contributorTag=chrisb


The very latest additions are from Tim Atwood who has added his daffodil and 
pillars objects and pipemrg macro (previously hosted on a geocities site) to 
the collection.
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=daffodil&contributorTag=Tim%20A
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=pillars&contributorTag=Tim%20A
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=PipeMrg&contributorTag=Tim%20A


Downloads
-----------
Downloads for the year-so-far are just over 15,000. There are currently 68 
separate downloads available, many incorporating, or able to generate, lots 
of separate objects.

The monthly download league table is at:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/downloadsummary.php?rollup=1&sort=total.


Contributing
------------
Preparing stuff to go into the collection mainly just means following the 
naming standards described at 
http://lib.povray.org/usersguide/04contributing.html#prep. Self registration 
takes a few minutes. When you subsequently log on as a registered user you 
get access to the 'Contribute' button to enable you to submit an object. 
Contributing objects usually only takes a few minutes once you've gotten 
used to the form.

The submission form is just a single screen and is hopefully fairly 
self-explanatory. Just in case, relevant hints are displayed at the top of 
the screen as you pass from field to field and if you really get stuck, each 
field is described in greater detail at 
http://lib.povray.org/usersguide/04contributing.html#submission.


Support
--------
This newsgroup can be used for any questions related to contributing to the 
collection, support on using any of the files in the collection or for 
general discussions on the direction you'd like to see the collection take.


Regards,
Chris B.


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From: Stephen
Subject: Re: 2009 Q3 News
Date: 29 Sep 2009 14:41:33
Message: <p3l4c5dfgmh9b8fv2ffdu7n6ti28f5nb9f@4ax.com>
On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:22:22 +0100, "Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:

>Downloads for the year-so-far are just over 15,000.

It makes me wonder what the Pov user base is. </OT> :)
-- 

Regards
     Stephen


Post a reply to this message

From: Chris B
Subject: Re: 2009 Q3 News
Date: 29 Sep 2009 15:00:13
Message: <4ac2593d@news.povray.org>
"Stephen" <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote in message 
news:p3l4c5dfgmh9b8fv2ffdu7n6ti28f5nb9f@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:22:22 +0100, "Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:
>
>>Downloads for the year-so-far are just over 15,000.
>
> It makes me wonder what the Pov user base is. </OT> :)
> -- 
>
> Regards
>     Stephen

Yes, it would be interesting to know. This figure of course doesn't give us 
any idea of that :-)

The closest indicator I suspect we'd be likely to get is to know the number 
of reads for the more popular postings on the povray.general newsgroup over 
the space of a few weeks. I don't know if that's even recorded anywhere 
though.

The total number of downloads for a particular version of the executables 
could also be a reasonable indicator.

Regards,
Chris B.


Post a reply to this message

From: Stephen
Subject: Re: 2009 Q3 News
Date: 29 Sep 2009 16:40:34
Message: <60s4c5hhl366nrae9r0loqkocp1s54u6mg@4ax.com>
On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:59:59 +0100, "Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:

>> It makes me wonder what the Pov user base is. </OT> :)
>> -- 
>>

>Yes, it would be interesting to know. This figure of course doesn't give us 
>any idea of that :-)
>

It would and it doesn't :)

>The closest indicator I suspect we'd be likely to get is to know the number 
>of reads for the more popular postings on the povray.general newsgroup over 
>the space of a few weeks. I don't know if that's even recorded anywhere 
>though.
>
>The total number of downloads for a particular version of the executables 
>could also be a reasonable indicator.

It ties in with the sub-sub thread earlier of who have you met who has heard of
PovRay. It is a nice to know.
-- 

Regards
     Stephen


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