David Heys wrote:

> I agree! Your examples and tutorial finally prompted me to download the
> Superpatch. I've been playing around with it and it's quite interesting,
> but also very frustrating. I kind of feel like a blindfolded gunman who
> has been spun around and told to shoot at the target. I don't have
> enough confidence in my math abilities at the moment to be able to
> predict the results of my experiments once they go beyond the simple
> sphere/cylinder/superellipsoid.

My math abilites aren't that great either. Most of what I know about making
functions I learned from hours of experimentation; trying out strange things
like abs and sqr, which I didn't know anything about beforehand. Persistance
will help you in your endeavor.


> Any suggestions, tutorials, sample forumlae, etc.. would be welcome.
> Most of my results, though interesting, seem to end up being infinite
> (or seem so) in size. :{P

<snip code>

I hope to be adding a couple more tutorials soon. I think such things as
noise3d and the pigment functions are very neat and have many applications.


> I have a question on this as well. I'll post an image in
> binaries.images. I tried plunking a light inside this object. Light
> pours out quite nicely onto the plane that intersects the object, but
> does not shine within (even with a Hollow added to the isosurface and
> torus). It's almost as if the "holes" in the object let light pass
> through, but not impact upon the interior of the object. Am I wrong in
> this?
>
> David

After reading your post, I tried some experiements using your code. I tried
all of the things that I could think of that might solve the problem, but
the problems remain anyway. I even tried making the torus you used have
no_shadow. I'm starting to think that it might be a bug. Strangely enough, I
have never used csg operations with isosurfaces.

Here, this will perform an intersection inside your isosurface function:

function{ (your function)&(function to be intersected with) }

Both functions must be within parentheses as shown. The & is like intersect
for functions. Here is an example of this feature which makes a sphere cut
in half by a y plane:

function{ (x^2+y^2+z^2)&(y+1) }

By the way, I have run into that shape you posted. It is an infinite shape,
to be sure. I like the way you use your rgb colors, too! It's a good way to
convert rgb colors from a paint application to pov.


--
Samuel Benge

STB### [at] aolcom

"While you were sleeping
he went on keeping the final line in his mind."
 -Tortoise and the Hare, The Moody Blues

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