"Reinhard" <rpr### [at] gmxnet> wrote in message 
news:4857af5e$1@news.povray.org...
> Chris B wrote:
>> "Reinhard" <rpr### [at] gmxnet> wrote in message 
>> news:48579fc5@news.povray.org...
>>> Chris B wrote:
>>>> "Reinhard" <rpr### [at] gmxnet> wrote in message 
>>>> news:48561186$1@news.povray.org...
>>> ... snip ... With particle_res I can manipulate the numbers of 
>>> particles, can I? But is there an #declare with which I can manipulate 
>>> the form of them?
>>>
>>> thank you,
>>> Reinhard
>>
>> The help file that comes with the #include file indicates that you can 
>> specify the shape of the individual particles created by the Object 
>> Exploder using the 'particle_object' identifier.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Chris B.
>
> What kind of shape would you use to explode a planet, in my case the 
> earth?

You're likely to need a lot of them over quite a number of frames if you're 
animating it, so you'll probably be wanting something that renders very 
quickly. That more or less rules out Isosurfaces. Though, if you're doing a 
still frame rather than an animation, then you might want to throw in a 
couple of extra isosurfaces close to the camera.

One option would be a craggy shaped mesh object which would render quite 
quickly.

I've not tried it, but I would think it might also be worth trying just the 
union of a cube and a sphere with a very rough pigment and a very rough (but 
different) normal. If the sphere radius is somewhere between half the side 
length and half the diagonal length of the cube you should get an outline 
that is not too evidently spherical (particularly from a distance or if the 
bits are moving quite fast). I'd recommend starting with a crackle pattern 
for the normal and an agate pattern for the pigment using a range of browns 
in the color_map, and see how that works.

Once you've got something in the general direction of what you're trying to 
get you could post an image on povray.binaries.images, describing what you 
find wrong with it. It can also be productive to provide a link to an image 
out on the Internet if there's one that has features you'd like to emulate.

Regards,
Chris B.

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