"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> * Multithreading Support
> POV is going multithreaded. An SDL that allows to multithread parts or maybe
> even all of the parsing would be of benefit there. This might be particularly
> of importance for animations.

Actually, for animations it's not really so important. When rendering an
animation, you can just run several instances of Povray, each rendering a
different part of the animation. That's what I'm doing.

I only would have one feature request regarding animations: Please add a
"DoNotRenderAgain"-Option or so such that frames are only rendered when the
output file doesn't already exist. Otherwise, you always have to adjust the
Subset_Start_Frame and Subset_End_Frame values in the .ini file when you quit
Povray and restart again, which is inconvenient. It would also make it a lot
easier to run several Povray instances to render one animation.

> * Object Orientation
> [and lots of other things]

Ambition is fine... But ambitious updates tend to harm the product when the
users have to wait for years for the next update. Better take smaller steps,
IMO.

> * Vector and Color functions
>
> Being unable to use vectors within functions sucks.

YES! This would be the #1 thing I'd like to have improved.

Cheers,
Burkhard

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Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> > REPEAT
> >    ...
> > UNTIL (condition);
>
> That's usually represented as
> do {
> stuff
> } while (condition);

Not so in Pascal, which has a WHILE condition ... DO loop, and a REPEAT ...
UNTIL condition.

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Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> On 3/29/2009 10:17 AM, clipka wrote:
> > This would require some alternative way of indicating whether the variable is to
> > have global or inc/macro scope (#declare vs. #local); I guess we wouldn't want
> > to ditch the #declare but keep the #local.
>
> How about predeclaring variables, but not declaring assignment (if I'm
> wording that right)?
>
> That is,
>
> #declare / #local b;
> b = 5;

I think the next generation SDL should impose very low formalism overhead on the
user (but not so on the "grammar" itself, which should be very well-defined, and
follow a clear pattern for every possible "sentence")

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"moppel" <mop### [at] tutututututude> wrote:
> I only would have one feature request regarding animations: Please add a
> "DoNotRenderAgain"-Option or so such that frames are only rendered when the
> output file doesn't already exist. Otherwise, you always have to adjust the
> Subset_Start_Frame and Subset_End_Frame values in the .ini file when you quit
> Povray and restart again, which is inconvenient. It would also make it a lot
> easier to run several Povray instances to render one animation.

.... which I'd actually consieder a feature request that could apply to POV 3.7
just as well. And a good one, I guess.

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On 3/31/2009 9:55 AM, clipka wrote:
> Chambers<ben### [at] pacificwebguycom>  wrote:
>>> REPEAT
>>>     ...
>>> UNTIL (condition);
>> That's usually represented as
>> do {
>> stuff
>> } while (condition);
>
> Not so in Pascal, which has a WHILE condition ... DO loop, and a REPEAT ...
> UNTIL condition.
?

"while .. do" is the traditional while loop, while the "do ... while" 
version is the "repeat ... until" that Pascal has.

So... what part, exactly, is the "not so?"

-- 
...Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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moppel wrote:

> 
> "clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
>> * Multithreading Support
>> POV is going multithreaded. An SDL that allows to multithread parts or maybe
>> even all of the parsing would be of benefit there. This might be particularly
>> of importance for animations.
> 
> Actually, for animations it's not really so important. When rendering an
> animation, you can just run several instances of Povray, each rendering a
> different part of the animation. That's what I'm doing.

For longer length animations, I sometimes have used separate .ini files, 
each one written to render half a second (12 frames) of the same 
animation.  I then pass out the .INI files to different rendering boxes, 
all of them writing the files in the same network drive directory.

> I only would have one feature request regarding animations: Please add a
> "DoNotRenderAgain"-Option or so such that frames are only rendered when the
> output file doesn't already exist.

I think POV-Ray already runs this way.  I've done more than a few 
animation renders, and the frames that already have a complete file 
don't get re-rendered.  I think the option "AlwaysRender" is more needful.

Regards,
John

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John VanSickle <evi### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> For longer length animations, I sometimes have used separate .ini files,
> each one written to render half a second (12 frames) of the same
> animation.  I then pass out the .INI files to different rendering boxes,
> all of them writing the files in the same network drive directory.
>
> > I only would have one feature request regarding animations: Please add a
> > "DoNotRenderAgain"-Option or so such that frames are only rendered when the
> > output file doesn't already exist.
>
> I think POV-Ray already runs this way.  I've done more than a few
> animation renders, and the frames that already have a complete file
> don't get re-rendered.  I think the option "AlwaysRender" is more needful.

Maybe it depends on the OS and filesystem? I'm running 3.6 on Windows Vista, and
the images definitely get rerendered when you start the .ini file again.

Btw at the moment I'm using DOS-batch files to overcome this. The batch file
looks for an image that is missing and then starts Povray, rendering only that
image. I can run several instances of that batch file at a time, it works quite
fine. It's just quite annoying to have the splashscreen pop up every time Povray
starts again...

Anyway, it'd be nice to have options to tell Povray whether existing image files
should never be rerendered or always be rerendered.

Cheers,
Burkhard

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Chambers <ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> wrote:
> "while .. do" is the traditional while loop, while the "do ... while"
> version is the "repeat ... until" that Pascal has.
>
> So... what part, exactly, is the "not so?"

You need a different condition (the inverse one, obviously).

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"clipka" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "moppel" <mop### [at] tutututututude> wrote:
> > I only would have one feature request regarding animations: Please add a
> > "DoNotRenderAgain"-Option or so such that frames are only rendered when the
> > output file doesn't already exist. Otherwise, you always have to adjust the
> > Subset_Start_Frame and Subset_End_Frame values in the .ini file when you quit
> > Povray and restart again, which is inconvenient. It would also make it a lot
> > easier to run several Povray instances to render one animation.
>
> .... which I'd actually consieder a feature request that could apply to POV 3.7
> just as well. And a good one, I guess.

I agree! Seems I'm always overwriting animation files when I don't mean to. (Of
course, you *could* say that's due to operator error...)

KW

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moppel <mop### [at] tutututututude> wrote:
> I only would have one feature request regarding animations: Please add a
> "DoNotRenderAgain"-Option or so such that frames are only rendered when the
> output file doesn't already exist. Otherwise, you always have to adjust the
> Subset_Start_Frame and Subset_End_Frame values in the .ini file when you quit
> Povray and restart again, which is inconvenient. It would also make it a lot
> easier to run several Povray instances to render one animation.

  +C already does something like that. It will parse the scene for each
frame, but it won't render the frame if the image has already been fully
rendered.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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