Re: POV-Ray & existing graphics

I've been using POV-Ray for a couple of years now and figured I'll give my
two (three) cents:

1. I have never seen a program that converts gifs or jpegs to a POV or RAW
format.  I would imagine that it would be difficult to convert 2D gifs and
jpegs to the 3D format of pov files and do either justice.  Of course, if it
*can* be done I'm sure someone has written the software, but I've never come
across it.

2.  You don't need a modeller to use POV-Ray effectively, but if you are a
beginner I would highly recommend one.  I can safely say that I have tried
virtually every POV-Ray modeller available and my favorite for features and
particularly for ease-of-use has got to be Breeze Designer.  You can find it
at http://www.imagos.fl.net.au/.  It seems to be perpetually in beta, but
its getting quite good now.  If you really want to get the maximum use out
of POV-Ray though, I'm afraid you'll have to dive into the intense textual
language of the program.  But hey!  It's fun once you catch your breath!


And....as for Alastair's helpful response to *this* response:

>PovRay is -not- intuitively obvious to the casual observer; the docs are
>daunting. But if you want to learn the most -infinitely- variable and
flexible
>image generator then PovRay is the way to go.

I don't see where there is any mention of, or comparison to, 3D Studio is in
this statement.  Thanks for your sales pitch though, Alastair.  I'm certain
we'll be sure to take 3DS into consideration when us less-than-serious
professionals finally realize we're missing our "inverse kinematics" or
decide to render over a network.


Shannon Sims
shannonsims(at)stc.net
Strengthen the thread, don't unravel it.


-----Original Message-----
From: Kaho, Sallie <kaho(at)eglin.af.mil>
To: hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org <hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org>
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 4:01 PM
Subject: POV-Ray & existing graphics


>Hi all,
>First, I am reading the documentation & going thru the tutorial. But,
>once again, a time crunch due to this being an "on-the-job" project, I'm
>asking questions that are perhaps answered later in the
>documentation...if so, apologies to all!
>1. Can I convert existing graphics (i.e. gifs or jpegs) to a useable
>format for POV-Ray (e.g. .pov)? If so, how? Do I need another program?
>2. Am I going to "have" to have an ancillary s/w package to be able to
>use POV-Ray effectively (e.g. a modeling program like Moray)??
>Thanks gurus!!!
>Sallie
>

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