Jim Charter <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote:
> m1j wrote:
> > I built this cart in XSI but decided to see what POVRay would do with it. I
> > had to change the road look because of differences in texturing systems and
> > the fact that part of my textures in XSI are not tillable. I had to fix
> > that for POVRay which I will use in XSI as well.
> >
> > I still need to do a lot of work on lighting. POVRay is clearly slower so it
> > is taking me more time to tweak the radiosity and light values. In this
> > rendering I have radiosity too bright. My am is to match the output of
> > MentalRay as close as possible. The cart still needs sides and something to
> > be pulling it. And some cargo. Hay probably.
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> Interesting too see the systems side by side but the results can be
> nothing more than anectodal without more control I would think.
>
> The interesting thing here is whether you are focused on the cart or the
>   setting.  In the XSI version the texures on the cart stand out better
> and the color seems more apropriate, but the sense of lighting on the
> ground looks utterly crude and synthetic when compared to the delicate
> light at play in the POV render.  But lighting and texturing, especially
> finish, work very, very closely with one another, at least in POV they
> do.  I assume that is probably also true in other programs but I don't
> know for sure.  But there would be little way to standardize the
> settings between the two programs, would there be?  Never-the-less an
> interesting study in so far, as you mentioned, that it establishes that
> POV-Ray, a free program, gives up little to a professional program.

Part of the challenge is matching the two scenes with different systems of
setting things up. The focus for me is always how real does it look. I have
noticed povray is better at color transport in light. The next version of
XSI claims to have inproved this. The floor is heightfield in POVRay while
it is a displacement in XSI. I can push the detail up in XSI to reach that
of POVRay.

I fixed some of the texture problem of the floor when I was working in
POVRay. I will now move those fixes into XSI to begin making a better
comparison. My goal is to find an easy way to move back and forth. Once I
find setting that compare I will write the XSI script to output povray
scenes for rendering. That is if I complete this one project of many I have
going at the moment.

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