POV-Ray

A new release of the LionSnake modeller is now available. The latest version includes several bug fixes and many enhancements to allow easier editing. A complete list of changes can be found on the new LionSnake website.

Not ray-tracing related, but given the POV-Ray project's home base is Australia, we'll mention the ongoing plan to introduce mandatory internet censorship by the Australian Government. The EFA has a new campaign titled "It's Time to Tell Mum" which ... [More] highlights a few points that the average internet user might not realize. One of the things to be particularly aware of is that the filter will not just cover illegal material, but any "unwanted content" (quoted from Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Communications, Nov 11 2009). It's not clear what "unwanted content" is to be defined as (other than it doesn't include illegal material, since that's covered separately), and given the list of sites to be blocked will be secret, it may be hard to figure out. Other links: Electronic Frontiers Australia, Stephen Conroy [satiric site], Senator Scott Ludlam [official site]. [Less]

Not ray-tracing related, but given the POV-Ray project's home base is Australia, we'll mention the ongoing plan to introduce mandatory internet censorship by the Australian Government. The EFA has a new campaign titled "It's Time to Tell Mum" which ... [More] highlights a few points that the average internet user might not realize. One of the things to be particularly aware of is that the filter will not just cover illegal material, but any "unwanted content" (quoted from Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Communications, Nov 11 2009). It's not clear what "unwanted content" is to be defined as (other than it doesn't include illegal material, since that's covered separately), and given the list of sites to be blocked will be secret, it may be hard to figure out. Other links: Electronic Frontiers Australia, Stephen Conroy [satiric site], Senator Scott Ludlam [official site]. [Less]

During development, pre-release Rhino OS X is free to anyone willing to provide feedback. Visit their site for more information.

Visualization Library is a C++ middleware for high-performance 2D and 3D graphics applications based on the industry standard OpenGL 2.1, designed to develop portable applications for the Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.

Symscape's commercial range of simulation products has now been expanded to include SymLab RANS Flow for the simulation of realistic (viscous) gas and liquid flow with heat transfer. SymLab's viewer utility can, with the Viz Export add-on, directly output POV-Ray SDL. Examples of POV-Ray exports are available on their site.

Lost: A giant belt of brown clouds big enough to swallow Earth twenty times over.

Since 2001, OGRE has grown to become one of the most popular open-source graphics rendering engines, and has been used in a large number of production projects. Check out the first maintenance release to the new 1.7 stable branch codenamed Cthugha.

e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, announced today the immediate availability of Vue 8.5 xStream and Infinite, its professional solutions for the creation, animation and rendering of natural 3D environments.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory is beaming back stunning new images of the sun, revealing our own star as never seen before!