POV-Team Status Report - September 1, 2000

Dear POV-Ray Community,

Thank you for all of your enthusiastic support for POV-Ray. It is because of you that this labor of love continues to exist and grow. As many of you know, our next release, POV-Ray 3.5, is currently in development, and POV-Ray 4.0 is planned as a major rewrite of the core of POV-Ray. We are providing this status report to let the community know how things are progressing. Thank you all again for your support and patience.

Sincerely,
    The POV-Team

POV-Ray 3.5 Status

POV-Ray 3.5 is a work that will be somewhat similar to the unofficial compile known as MegaPov. POV-Ray 3.5 will be more mature and stable than MegaPov.

Work on POV-Ray 3.5 is progressing slowly but steadily. POV-Ray 3.5 will contain many of the features of MegaPOV 0.5a, as described in the lists at the end of this message. Please be aware that this feature list is currently fixed. Each feature in MegaPov was carefully considered for inclusion, and there are very good reasons why certain features have been left out. We are not requesting any discussion about features for 3.5. Again, this list is fixed.

The primary work on 3.5 is done, but quite a bit of work remains. First, we have a long list of bugs that we need to fix. Second, some of the features (such as light groups) are being enhanced and improved. Third, documentation still needs to be written (The MegaPov documentation often leaves a lot to be desired). Fourth, the graphical interfaces for our various supported platforms need to be updated. Finally, all of this will need to be packaged together into a final distribution.

POV-Ray 4 Status

Work on POV-Ray 4 has not yet begun. However, there has been some discussion that we feel is of interest to the community.

First, we have been discussing using a new license for 4. Various open-source licenses are under consideration. We might instead use an updated version of POVLEGAL. No conclusions have been reached so far, but the topic is under discussion within the POV-Team.

Second, we are also hoping to use a much more open development model for POV 4, with public read access to our source-revision tree. System analysis, design, and implementation of POV 4 will be a very large task, and this is one way we hope to speed it up. This open development model would also hopefully provide development releases (snapshots) more quickly to the power-user community, similar to what MegaPov offers now.

Third, our most recent musings about POV-Ray 4 lean towards a major reworking of the POV Scene Description Language. This means that POV 4 may not be fully backwards compatible with old scenes. If that is the case, we will plan to provide an official conversion utility that will convert old scenes into the new syntax, or provide some other means of importing old scenes.

Finally, the POV-Team is currently not going to be involved in any public discussion about POV 4. We need to focus our efforts on POV 3.5. Only after the release of POV 3.5 will work on version 4 begin. The community can feel free to discuss this topic, but should not expect the POV-Team to read such discussions at this time.

POV-Ray 3.5 Feature List

Not part of 3.5

• Blinn ""microfacet" highlights
• Blurred reflection
• Motion Blur
• Fast Macros
• Post-Processing
• Proximity pattern
• Square pattern
• Triangular pattern
• ini_option
• Shortcuts for #declare and #local
• Reset children (deprecated - use pigment_pattern)
• Text Object enhancements
• Isoblob
• Height of heightfield (deprecated - use trace)
• String_encoding (deprecated - Unicode support instead)

These will be in 3.5

• JPEG image format reading
• TIFF image format (reading and writing)
• TrueType Unicode support
• Parallel lights
• Projected_through
• Fade_color
• Realistic attenuation
• Fractal Patterns
• Polarical pattern
• 2-d Vector bug fix
• Cylinder Camera Bug Fixes
• Light and Media Speed Optimization
• Clock keywords
• Directive #ifdef (array)
• eval_pigment
• eval_pattern
• Image size keywords
• Turbulence vector
• vtransform, vinv_transform
• Transform Patch
• Sphere camera
• Circular area lights
• Soft shadow (orient)
• Light Groups (will be different from MegaPov)
• Photons
• Conservation of energy for reflection
• Metallic reflection
• Variable reflection
• Media
• Isosurface
• Mesh2
• Triangle texture interpolation
• Sphere sweeps
• Splines - alternative syntax
• Dispersion
• Double_Illuminate
• No_image, no_reflection
• Interior_texture
• Layered textures
• Crackle types
• Blob pattern & pigment
• Function pattern
• Image Pattern
• Object pattern
• Cells pattern
• Slope pattern
• Pigment pattern
• Pattern Image Type
• UV mapping
• Mapping Using Warps
• Cutaway Texturing for CSG Difference
• Bounds patch
• Bug fixes, Optimizations, and other Changes
• Normal average bug fix
• Normal reflection bug fix
• Double-Illumination Bug fix
• Noise bug fix (may be different from MegaPov)
• Smaller bug fixes
• Trace
• Radiosity Improvements
• Normal bug fix (and all related stuff)

Maybe in 3.5

The following features may or may not be included in POV 3.5. These features cannot be used in their current state (due to incompleteness, bugs, or other potential problems), but may be added if time permits us to get them ready for release.

• Solid Triangle Mesh
• Rational Bezier
• Persistence of Variables
• Date functions
• Timer functions
• Tick function

Mac 3.5 Features

• Multiple open source files
• Carbon compatibility (Mac OS X version)
• AppleScript support (recordable application)
• Easier to use Render Settings dialog
• Extended preferences dialog
• Improved text editor window with popup menus to jump to markers, declares, macros and includes and show dependent files
• Search Menu (Find, Replace, etc) with regular expression searching
• Faster syntax coloring
• Symbol coloring
• Faster image preview window
• Batch render multiple files with the extended Render Quene window
• Advanced Template Menu
• Edit and preview templates in POV-Ray
• Render progress dialog
• Improved message window to show statistics, errors and warnings
• New preferences format that will never again be lost in a new version, it will not destroy 3.1 preferences, too!
• New about box and startup screen
• New application and file icons
• Application icon is available in true color and uses transparency for Mac OS 8.5 and later