POV-Ray goes beyond standard rendering too
on
POV-Ray 3.5 Rendered
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I have found POV-Ray to be a pretty useful tool. Most people probably think about rendering some nice scenes when POV-Ray is mentioned. Well, it can be used on other stuff too.
I have rendered user interface components for games with POV-Ray. Basically I have built a.inc files which consist of the interface primitives (some macro "functions"). The.pov files contain the real user interface components. Using a config.inc and some scripts you can parametrize the whole system. You can change textures, sizes, lighting and so forth on by editing the config.inc and render the components with one shell script. Also, it is easy to produce nice alpha masks (to get rig of the background) to the components by fiddling with textures and lighting. It doesn't take too many lines of code to combine the masks and the images (in PNG format). You know, a rendering pipeline, a programmer compatible way doing graphics, beats Photoshop anytime:)
POV-Ray can also be used as a plain texture generator.
I wish that POV-Ray had a more powerful macro language. Or, awwwww, maybe even a proper scripting language. At the moment you have to use all sorts of external magic to generate POV-Ray files to get what you want.
But still, some people have commented that they would keep the ads and watch them. They would do that because they want to support the project. Umm, maybe they even buy some of the advertised products...to support the project.
Now, that would be kind of silly, wouldn't it? Sounds like some weirdo charity.
Lets get real. What do you think, are the advertisers an infinite money source or something? It seems that ad-revenue is the number one trick to get money. You know, the pattern below is everywhere:
Step 1: A superb dotcom/software/whatever idea Step 2: Sell advertising space Step 3: Profits
I think advertisers already have too much choice (tv, radio, print media, web, movies, mobile phones etc). Where are we going to find even more advertisers? Where are we going to find people that care about all this advertising (I don't)?
I think it is time to get more creative. Or, lets be less creative. The work done by software developers should somehow be compensated by the users of their work, right? In exchange the software users could give some of their work to the developers, right? We could even use the universal exchange unit of work, right? Hey, wait...but that's money!?!
You can implement whatever coordinate system you want. It doesn't make much sense to use pixel coordinates today. Using relative coordinates or some sort of mapping (e.g. one unit in the GUI is one inch on the screen) you could use whatever resolution and the GUI would look the same.
You will have trouble with cheapo 3D hardware & drivers (even in the MS Windows environment, where the hardware is "supported").
Double buffering is not OpenGL specific feature.
If a direct OpenGL hardware access is granted to all applications (which would be nice) you will run into render state problems. That is, after each app has rendered you have to reset the device states (which is usually expensive).
Framebuffer is no the only resource. You have to manage textures, vertex buffers etc.
Treating the device badly probably leads to a system crash.
99% of X-Window terminals don't run on desktops. They run on Workstations, that are usually connected to very fast LANS.
You are probably not counting a few Linux/*BSD boxes running on fast LANs (homes, offices, etc). And since when desktop != workstation?
So monopoly is good? People like different things. Let the desktop evolve.
Uhhh, the Slashdot pattern. That is, the only option is the polar opposite of everything. Structure example: "I don't like fat people. So, should we kill them?"
A question, is an open standard a monopoly? Evolving the desktop will eventually change the desktop, right? Let the standards evolve.
When X was first designed, the chattiness wasn't a problem because there were no low bandwidth networks so this wasn't even a concern.
You know, I could swear that in some other Slashdot discussions many people have emphasized that "X is sooo small and elegant by design, it was designed to work over modem lines".
They have done an incredible amount of work so that you can sit here and bitch.
What kind of answer is that? Something seems to be wrong. And the excuse for that? They have worked so hard to get there?!
Agreed. It was easy to sell visual UNIX workstations when the PCs could not do hardware accelerated 3D at all. The low end visual workstations has been taken by cheapo PCs. This shift has basically created a totally new market in the industry (that is where I'm).
Well, low end sucked anyway and SGI is consentrating on the highest of high end. Unfortunately, the high end is probably not growing that fast. Yes, there will never be enough computing power. To do what? Most engineers and researchers I know are happy with PCs. What are you going to do with $1M - $10M system? Simulate the universe or something similar? Good, if you are happy with only a handful of customers.
Maybe SGI should start targetting rich people and entertainment markets (e.g. LustReality).
I think Sun's workstations will also be in trouble. Just check their workstation prices (Blade 1000). Ridiculous. You can get a 900Mhz Blade 1000 at $10,995. Adding another processor to your configuration will cost you $9,995. Adding another 36-GB 10000 RPM FC-AL hard disk will cost you, $2,300. Fuck, you get more if you just buy two machines and stick them together.
Well, maybe even the OSS community needs managers. You know, those bloody PHBs. How many OSS project managers/leaders are just coding today and don't care a bit about management?
How many projects actually have a detailed guideline for submitting new code?
Which one is faster and better way of development: A few dedicated persons do the whole job or a few dedicated persons do the job *and* review thousands of lines of submitted code. Usually it is faster to implement an idea than trying to understand someone's code.
Also, I don't think it is ok that some persons just occasionally drop some code to projects. If some submitted code needs fixes or large changes it is better to have the original coder available. If not, the code must be studied and changed or the whole thing must be reimplemented. It is much safer to do all the work inside the core team. What I don't understand is that a skilled coder who wants to become a member of such core team is ignored.
The attack caught us all by suprice. Who would have believed that the WTC would collapse today? Who expected that civil planes could be used as powerful weapons? This really shows how vulnerable big cities are. Lots of people, lots of damage. This time the damage was limited to a relatively small area.
I doubt any pilot would have crashed to WTC even if threatened (knowing that he would die *anyway*). The pilot would probably have tried to crash to a more safe place. The terrorists must have known how to fly a plane.
The attacks required suicides by terrorists - a group of terrorists in every plane. They did not land to an airport to hold hostages for a few days. They didn't just leave a bomb to an unmanned car. They didn't warn, they didn't ask anything, they didn't threaten. They just took it to the end personally. They just flew a plane filled with people directly to a crowded scyscraper. Just like that, just direct mean action. Some people must hate USA very much.
This is one step to wrong direction. And the next step...nonconventional weapons? Maybe. Today's attack clearly shows that there is no limit to terrorists' imagination.
Slashdot Mirror
See it here
I have rendered user interface components for games with POV-Ray. Basically I have built a .inc files which consist of the interface primitives (some macro "functions"). The .pov files contain the real user interface components. Using a config.inc and some scripts you can parametrize the whole system. You can change textures, sizes, lighting and so forth on by editing the config.inc and render the components with one shell script. Also, it is easy to produce nice alpha masks (to get rig of the background) to the components by fiddling with textures and lighting. It doesn't take too many lines of code to combine the masks and the images (in PNG format). You know, a rendering pipeline, a programmer compatible way doing graphics, beats Photoshop anytime :)
POV-Ray can also be used as a plain texture generator.
I wish that POV-Ray had a more powerful macro language. Or, awwwww, maybe even a proper scripting language. At the moment you have to use all sorts of external magic to generate POV-Ray files to get what you want.
But still, some people have commented that they would keep the ads and watch them. They would do that because they want to support the project. Umm, maybe they even buy some of the advertised products...to support the project.
Now, that would be kind of silly, wouldn't it? Sounds like some weirdo charity.
Step 1: A superb dotcom/software/whatever idea
Step 2: Sell advertising space
Step 3: Profits
I think advertisers already have too much choice (tv, radio, print media, web, movies, mobile phones etc). Where are we going to find even more advertisers? Where are we going to find people that care about all this advertising (I don't)?
I think it is time to get more creative. Or, lets be less creative. The work done by software developers should somehow be compensated by the users of their work, right? In exchange the software users could give some of their work to the developers, right? We could even use the universal exchange unit of work, right? Hey, wait...but that's money!?!
A question, is an open standard a monopoly? Evolving the desktop will eventually change the desktop, right? Let the standards evolve.
You know, I could swear that in some other Slashdot discussions many people have emphasized that "X is sooo small and elegant by design, it was designed to work over modem lines". What kind of answer is that? Something seems to be wrong. And the excuse for that? They have worked so hard to get there?!Well, low end sucked anyway and SGI is consentrating on the highest of high end. Unfortunately, the high end is probably not growing that fast. Yes, there will never be enough computing power. To do what? Most engineers and researchers I know are happy with PCs. What are you going to do with $1M - $10M system? Simulate the universe or something similar? Good, if you are happy with only a handful of customers.
Maybe SGI should start targetting rich people and entertainment markets (e.g. LustReality).
I think Sun's workstations will also be in trouble. Just check their workstation prices (Blade 1000). Ridiculous. You can get a 900Mhz Blade 1000 at $10,995. Adding another processor to your configuration will cost you $9,995. Adding another 36-GB 10000 RPM FC-AL hard disk will cost you, $2,300. Fuck, you get more if you just buy two machines and stick them together.
How many projects actually have a detailed guideline for submitting new code?
Which one is faster and better way of development: A few dedicated persons do the whole job or a few dedicated persons do the job *and* review thousands of lines of submitted code. Usually it is faster to implement an idea than trying to understand someone's code.
Also, I don't think it is ok that some persons just occasionally drop some code to projects. If some submitted code needs fixes or large changes it is better to have the original coder available. If not, the code must be studied and changed or the whole thing must be reimplemented. It is much safer to do all the work inside the core team. What I don't understand is that a skilled coder who wants to become a member of such core team is ignored.
I doubt any pilot would have crashed to WTC even if threatened (knowing that he would die *anyway*). The pilot would probably have tried to crash to a more safe place. The terrorists must have known how to fly a plane.
The attacks required suicides by terrorists - a group of terrorists in every plane. They did not land to an airport to hold hostages for a few days. They didn't just leave a bomb to an unmanned car. They didn't warn, they didn't ask anything, they didn't threaten. They just took it to the end personally. They just flew a plane filled with people directly to a crowded scyscraper. Just like that, just direct mean action. Some people must hate USA very much.
This is one step to wrong direction. And the next step...nonconventional weapons? Maybe. Today's attack clearly shows that there is no limit to terrorists' imagination.