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

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I have used Paintshop Pro to look at them, but only after 
changing *.pot to *.gif


Mark Gordon wrote:
> 
> 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

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In article <3938985b@news.povray.org>, "Mark Wagner" 
<mar### [at] gtenet> wrote:

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

GraphicConverter(a Mac image editor) will open them, but it seems(at 
first glance, anyway) to treat them as ordinary GIF images.

-- 
Christopher James Huff - Personal e-mail: chr### [at] maccom
TAG(Technical Assistance Group) e-mail: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
Personal Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/
TAG Web page: http://tag.povray.org/

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If I am asking an old question, please forgive me.

How much MegaPOV is going to look like Povray 3.5? I mean, if I write MegaPOV
code today I am going to throw out everything or we can expect minor
modifications which can be quickly performed?

The obvious reason for asking this question is that should MegaPOV be quite
similar to Pov3.5 I am going to adopt it right away otherwise I prefer to way
for 3.5.

Thanks in advance.

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Thank you!! I would have traded gif support for any one of those fixes!

--
ICQ 74734588

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From: "Bob Hughes" <per### [at] aolcom?subject=PoV-News:>
> "Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message
news:3937753c@news.povray.org...
> | Now, some people may want some (still) free utilities to convert gifs
> | to pngs. Anyone know of any?
>
> IrfanView does great: http://stud1.tuwien.ac.at/~e9227474/english.htm

You can always go to http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/gif2png/
The source is available and should work for Dos, Unix, Linux and Windows.

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In povray.unofficial.patches Alessandro Coppo <a.coppo@iol.it> wrote:
: The obvious reason for asking this question is that should MegaPOV be quite
: similar to Pov3.5 I am going to adopt it right away otherwise I prefer to way
: for 3.5.

  AFAIK many megapov features will be very similar (if not identical) in
pov3.5, but not every single feature will be included, so be aware of that.

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

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Chris Huff wrote:
> 
> In article <3938985b@news.povray.org>, "Mark Wagner"
> <mar### [at] gtenet> wrote:
> 
> > That's the .pot format.  There are exactly two programs in the world that
> > support it: POV-Ray, and Fractint.
> 
> GraphicConverter(a Mac image editor) will open them, but it seems(at
> first glance, anyway) to treat them as ordinary GIF images.

Actually the .pot format _is_ in gif format. The pictures are only twice
as width as the original picture, because the high 8 bits of the 16bit
picture are stored in the second half of the picture.

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I don't think that loss of GIF is that bad. I, for one, never use GIF
with POV. It supports only 8 bit color. And why is PNG the only other
option? What about PICT? It's a great format. Or JPEG? Why does anyone use
GIF anyway?
                   
                               David McCabe
                          dav### [at] maccom

> From: Anybody <any### [at] nirvananet>
> Newsgroups: 
> povray.general,povray.macintosh,povray.unofficial.patches,povray.windows
> Date: Mon, 05 Jun 2000 12:22:56 +0200
> Subject: Re: Announce: MegaPov 0.5a available.
> 
> Chris Huff wrote:
>> 
>> In article <3938985b@news.povray.org>, "Mark Wagner"
>> <mar### [at] gtenet> wrote:
>> 
>>> That's the .pot format.  There are exactly two programs in the world that
>>> support it: POV-Ray, and Fractint.
>> 
>> GraphicConverter(a Mac image editor) will open them, but it seems(at
>> first glance, anyway) to treat them as ordinary GIF images.
> 
> Actually the .pot format _is_ in gif format. The pictures are only twice
> as width as the original picture, because the high 8 bits of the 16bit
> picture are stored in the second half of the picture.

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On Mon, 05 Jun 2000 14:44:01 -0700, David <dav### [at] maccom> wrote:

> And why is PNG the only other option? What about PICT? 

PICT is primarily a "Mac" format. PNG is far more cross-patform, and
is designed specifically to be a superior replacement for the GIF
format.

>Or JPEG? 

JPEG is certainly useful, but it is too lossy and has too many
artifacts for many people's needs. 

PNG is lossless. PNG files can also be created as true-color images,
or with palettes, similar to GIF palette-based images.  JPEG images
can't be created as palette-based images. Palette-based images
actually have their uses in POV-Ray, especially as input-images.


>Why does anyone use GIF anyway?

There are some "input-file" applications that only work well with GIF.
Certain types of filtering, in their use as image_maps, for example. I
don't think PNG's behaved in exactly the same manner in all cases, but
the exact details of the descrepancies escape my memory at the moment.

Later,
Glen Berry

7no### [at] ezwvcom
(Remove the "7" to reply via email.)

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