POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.binaries.images : The Orthographic Decapitation : Re: The Orthographic Decapitation Server Time
30 Jul 2024 10:18:01 EDT (-0400)
  Re: The Orthographic Decapitation  
From: Cousin Ricky
Date: 17 Dec 2012 18:50:00
Message: <web.50cfaeabb526f52285de7b680@news.povray.org>
"gregjohn" <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> May I say that this whole thread supports my claim that the camera docs, notably
> the diagram, don't explain what it the orthographic camera does?  I presume
> everyone posting in this thread has in fact RTFM.

I've gone back to the docs on occasion when I'm doing something unusual with the
perspective camera, but I don't recall the last time I did it for the
orthographic camera; it may have been as long ago as February of 2004.

What is clear to me now is that "angle" makes no physical sense with the
orthographic camera, so I never use that keyword.  I just use the right and up
vectors to describe the viewport and be done with it.

I do recall having trouble with the orthographic camera in the misty, distant
past, but whatever the trouble was, my brain didn't see the value in retaining
it.  It may have been foolish attempts to use the sky sphere with this camera;
or it may have been an abortive attempt to make the angle keyword behave before
discovering that the right and up keywords do exactly what I needed done. (Come
to think of it, the sky sphere episodes might be recurring, ending with me
slapping my forehead every time.)

Sam's illustration conveys the camera much better than the existing diagram in
the docs, although Sam's illustration doesn't have a place for the angle.  I
have made no attempt to verify whether the angle keyword in fact does what the
diagram in the docs implies.


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