> Problem is that java3d is purely polygon based. Ray tracing shows it's
> strengths when used with constructive geometry and 'real' shapes -
> parametric surfaces etc.
Thats true to an extent, but I have used many raytrace supported renderers
from Lightwave Softimage Max Maya, and others, and while they support
parametric surfaces in their scene graphs, the raytracing does not. In Mental
Ray for example, if you dont have your parametric surface subdivision value
set high enough you can see the edges and you can see some lighting/shadow
artifacts from using polygons with phong shading (averaged normals suck in
raytracing). The only raytracer I am aware of that actual supported
parametric surfaces with out subdivision is POV Ray and Animation Master. But
there is now a ton of raytrace renderers and most of my knowledge is years
old so its possible that more of them do support it.
And besides, out of my experience, I have always resorted to using, and my
favorite kinds of curved surfaces are MetaNurbs, because it gets away from
the limitations and fumblings of the rectangular topology in normal Nurb
surfaces. Such a thing was started in Lightwave and I believe Pixar had some
custom tools that worked similary, and similar supported techniques in Max
and Softimage, Im not sure about Maya, I think though most of the Softimage
and Maya crowd are addicted to Nurbs and more experienced in dealing with
seams produce by Nurbs then I.
Anway, this does not prevent someone from using custom made objects that use
subdivived surfaces to generate GeometryArrays, there will be issue with
support from low level drivers. Like Nurb surface support of OpenGL, which
will be overlooked in such a design. In that way.
Leyland Needham
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