In article <3962B4A1.A300F52D@nospamthanks.hotmail.com>, Pabs 
<pab### [at] nospamthankshotmailcom> wrote:

> How about an object emitter where particles are emitted in the 
> direction of the surface normal and a speed specified by a 
> pattern/function.  The emmission points on the surface could be 
> sampled by tracing rays from a point & or direction toward that 
> object- kind of like how photons are done.

I have been wondering about this...I just haven't thought of a good way 
of implementing it. It should be quite possible by specifying a point to 
sample surface positions from, as you suggest...but that would only 
cover part of the object. I could shoot at the center of the object's 
bounding box from random points on the surface of a sphere around 
it...but that would only give an even emission distribution for 
spherical objects, and parts of the object could be "hidden" from the 
particles by other parts. Would anyone notice?

-- 
Christopher James Huff - Personal e-mail: chr### [at] maccom
TAG(Technical Assistance Group) e-mail: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
Personal Web page: http://homepage.mac.com/chrishuff/
TAG Web page: http://tag.povray.org/

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