CompuServe Messages

Hi John, ->"Raytracing is considerably slower. As 90% of the time its a waste of rendering time," ->"It is also considerably more difficult to get an artistic kind of feel to your work with RayTracing. For none artistic types Raytracing is easier to get a Photorealistic look. The down side is that it becomes a crutch, and one doesn't fully develope one's artistic skills." John, please understand that I normally believe your posts to be extremely well thought out and accurate, and I've learned alot of valuable things from you online. I really have the greatest amount of respect for you. In this case, however, I must disagree completely with your comments. I think you are leading Mr. MacDougall down a narrow path, despite his somewhat arrogant attitude. Myth#1 – "Raytracing is considerably slower" – This is completely dependent on which raytracer you use, and is a function of how well the code is written and optimized. There are alot of really bad implementations of raytracing out there, but there are quite a few excellent ones that don't lend to the myth. For example, the watcom-compiled version of the Vivid raytracer absolutely screams, especially with respect to raytraced shadows. Using the 3DS2POV utility and outputting 3DS scenes to Vivid, I've found it's actually *much* faster at rendering scenes with raytraced shadows. Other raytracers like POV and PolyRay have also been greatly improved from a speed standpoint. I think its somewhat flippant to automatically cast aside all raytracers as "considerably" slower. Myth#2 – "Raytracing is easier…it becomes a crutch" – Huh? Regardless of whether you use scanline or raytracing, you still need to create a fundamentally sound lighting and surfaces treatment to obtain decent photorealism. And even if it's easier to setup reflection and refraction, this isn't a crutch, it's a feature when considering this as a specific goal. Bottom line is you have to work harder if you want this effect in 3DS. I'm not sure I consider that an artistic "skill", more like an obstacle. Lastly, your comment that "If one plans to develop a distinctive style, this IMO is a real drawback" floored me. Have you seen the works of Truman Brown, Mike Miller, Dan Farmer, or Steve Anger? They all have extremely well developed, distinctive styles that I consider to be on par with any 3D artist I've ever seen using any package. ->"I think if you've got the talent you'll prefer 3DS." Aaaauuugh! It's not an EITHER OR situation. This is the thinking that spawns the endless Lightwave-vs.-3DS type debates, and it's irrelevant. Use *both* if you want, the technology is there. It's OK to wish for these features in 3DS, they don't have to *replace* the scanline renderer, which I consider to be excellent the way it is. I think all anyone wants is a toggle or button that enables selective, and optimized raytracing features. How could anyone object to this? Best regards, -Heinz.