I had this topic in mind, when I stumbled on this very old thread. With the vastly increased use of photo-realistic rendering since then, I'm wondering if the subject has been given any more thought?
In particular, I've found that there's a fair number of parts that are made of a softer plastic than the typical ABS brick, and/or have a rougher, matte finish (like the slope texture that kicked off that thread). While there are already color categories for rubber, various metals, etc., there seems to be a lack of options for describing different solid plastic properties within LDraw.
As a more general note, this seems like another in a family of physical part characteristics that I could envision being described by a series of metadata extensions, possibly as part of a hypothetical LDraw 2.0. Others in the family could include snapping/connectivity info, physical part dimensions (for accurately rendering seams, or calculating part collisions), and kinematic info (for describing technical functions like gear meshes).
In particular, I've found that there's a fair number of parts that are made of a softer plastic than the typical ABS brick, and/or have a rougher, matte finish (like the slope texture that kicked off that thread). While there are already color categories for rubber, various metals, etc., there seems to be a lack of options for describing different solid plastic properties within LDraw.
As a more general note, this seems like another in a family of physical part characteristics that I could envision being described by a series of metadata extensions, possibly as part of a hypothetical LDraw 2.0. Others in the family could include snapping/connectivity info, physical part dimensions (for accurately rendering seams, or calculating part collisions), and kinematic info (for describing technical functions like gear meshes).