what are everybody's impressions of pov-ray. for a freeware rendering it looks fairly impressive (despite the lack of a gui). i was wondering if it is worth learning or if i would be better off spending the time to learn a real (read 'commercial') rendering program.

here are some early tests.
su->pov-ray

and another.
i lightented these up in photoshop -- perhaps too much. also, i am JUST figuring this program out (can't even get the sun working, so am left with just spot lights).

looks like you're on your way!

congrats on asking about pov-ray a week ago and now posting reasonable images to go with it.

I actually like the last lightened image, but not in a photoreal sense. It has enough spatial depth and tone to give it a pretty good feeling, plus it seems to be a decent design...

here are some early tests.
su->pov-ray
These look pretty good. I would turn of the shadows (if you can) on one of the light sources in the aerial shot.

I would turn of the shadows (if you can) on one of the light sources in the aerial shot.

the aerial view was early in the process of getting the lights to work at all. i think i was so pleased i finally got a rendering i didn't even notice that i had too many lights on at odd angles.

incidentally,
does anyone know how to get the sun to work? the export always fails for me when a sun is involved. i'm using su5, povray3.6 and su2pov2.3. i've seen examples of the sun working but from old copies of su and i'm wondering if it's just not supported (yet) for 5. any thoughts on this would be very welcome.

Pretty good , I tinkered a bit with POVray but the lack of GUI and the prospect of figuring out all the .INCs was a let down . I tried the new Kerkythea and I see a future there for me.