Ok, I was going to put the macro into my web site (yes, Christoph, my ISP
offered illimitated web space and I didn't even suspect that :-|  doh!),
when I came upon a problem showing when you place too many objects very
close to each other.
In the following images, the coins are placed with a non-random spiral loop:

Here's how the problem manifested itself:
http://digilander.iol.it/jrgpov/images/coins1.jpg

As you can see, every coin close to the centre of the spiral is placed on
the previous one, and this pile grows until some coins touch the previous
ones only in one point and then float in the air: that's due to the
algorithm, which supposes that, once rotated properly, the object touches at
least three points of the *land*. If this doesn't occur the object is
rotated in a wrong way and it floats in the air.

So I added some code to check if the object really touches those three
points, and if not it slightly moves the object from its position.
Here's how the image looks with this addiction:
http://digilander.iol.it/jrgpov/images/coins2.jpg

Yet, the pile has grown too much. A physically correct macro would have
checked whether the weigth of the pile makes it fall or not. To avoid this
problem I add the possibility to define a max_height float, which checks
that the object position is not too distant from the ground.
Here's how the final image looks:
http://digilander.iol.it/jrgpov/images/coins3.jpg

The problem is that these workarounds *break* the spiral shape (which isn't
a true problem if you're using pseudo-casual positions).

What do you think, do these workarounds do their job? Again including
physics would be very slow and difficult to implement: you would have to
take into account the already placed objects as well, unless you want to get
wrong results like the too high pile of coins shown before.
BTW any suggestion in this direction is welcome :)

So, I think the macro will be posted within two days maximum (I have to
write some sample scenes and, what is harder for those who, like me, doesn't
know English too well, a brief documentation).

Cheers,


--
Jonathan.

Home Page: http://digilander.iol.it/jrgpov/

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JRG wrote:
> those who, like me,
>doesn't  know English too well
  ^^^^^^

Doh!

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:o) Don't worry about it, your images speak volumes.

That macro looks very impressive, could it be used to scatter clumps of 
random rocks, grass and Tom Trees over an ISO landscape?

JRG wrote:

> 
> JRG wrote:
>> those who, like me,
>>doesn't  know English too well
>   ^^^^^^
> 
> Doh!

Post a reply to this message

"Daniel Matthews" <dan### [at] 3-enet> wrote in message
news:114### [at] 3-enet...

> That macro looks very impressive, could it be used to scatter clumps of
> random rocks, grass and Tom Trees over an ISO landscape?

I'm sure it could but you only need trace for that - however I want to do a
picture of pebbles on a beach could it be adapted for that?

Mick

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JRG wrote:

> ...doesn't know English too well...

Oh come off it, you only made two mistakes in a post that length? I know native
English speakers who'd make 10 times that many! Nothing wrong with your English
at all; and apparently nothing wrong with your POV skill either...

From the Grey Knight
//@---signature---
//  Grey Knight's site of the week: http://heday.freeservers.com/

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What?! Two mistakes?! Let me see... yep! What the hell does *illimitated*
mean? Maybe the word I was looking for was unlimited? Or it was illimited?
:-(


"s1631001" <s16### [at] namtarqubacuk> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:3BFCDE7A.AF5132B7@namtar.qub.ac.uk...
> JRG wrote:
>
> > ...doesn't know English too well...
>
> Oh come off it, you only made two mistakes in a post that length? I know
native
> English speakers who'd make 10 times that many! Nothing wrong with your
English
> at all; and apparently nothing wrong with your POV skill either...
>
> From the Grey Knight
> //@---signature---
> //  Grey Knight's site of the week: http://heday.freeservers.com/
>

Post a reply to this message

No, it wouldn't be worth it. Maybe you could have a look to my older clutter
macro (posted to p.b.s-f), which at the moment I'm updating to make it
easier to use.

--
Jonathan.

"Daniel Matthews" <dan### [at] 3-enet> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:114### [at] 3-enet...
> :o) Don't worry about it, your images speak volumes.
>
> That macro looks very impressive, could it be used to scatter clumps of
> random rocks, grass and Tom Trees over an ISO landscape?
>
> JRG wrote:
>
> >
> > JRG wrote:
> >> those who, like me,
> >>doesn't  know English too well
> >   ^^^^^^
> >
> > Doh!
>

Post a reply to this message

Mick Hazelgrove wrote:
> I want to do a picture of pebbles on a beach
>could it be adapted for that?

I think so, but I haven't tried it with so many objects yet. The flatter
those pebbles are the better it will work, I presume.

--
Jonathan.

Post a reply to this message

"JRG" <jrg### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:3bfd3dee@news.povray.org...
>
> What?! Two mistakes?! Let me see... yep! What the hell does *illimitated*
> mean? Maybe the word I was looking for was unlimited? Or it was illimited?
> :-(

   "Unlimited"

    ~Steve~   ;)


>
>
> "s1631001" <s16### [at] namtarqubacuk> ha scritto nel messaggio
> news:3BFCDE7A.AF5132B7@namtar.qub.ac.uk...
> > JRG wrote:
> >
> > > ...doesn't know English too well...
> >
> > Oh come off it, you only made two mistakes in a post that length? I know
> native
> > English speakers who'd make 10 times that many! Nothing wrong with your
> English
> > at all; and apparently nothing wrong with your POV skill either...
> >
> > From the Grey Knight
> > //@---signature---
> > //  Grey Knight's site of the week: http://heday.freeservers.com/
> >
>
>

Post a reply to this message

You can try it yourself. You can find it in my website. No sample scenes at
the moment and no full documentation, just a very short reference.
I will write a more comprehensive doc ASAP.

--
Jonathan.

"Mick Hazelgrove" <mic### [at] mhazelgrovefsnetcouk> ha scritto nel messaggio
news:3bfcc260@news.povray.org...
>
> "Daniel Matthews" <dan### [at] 3-enet> wrote in message
> news:114### [at] 3-enet...
>
> > That macro looks very impressive, could it be used to scatter clumps of
> > random rocks, grass and Tom Trees over an ISO landscape?
>
> I'm sure it could but you only need trace for that - however I want to do
a
> picture of pebbles on a beach could it be adapted for that?
>
> Mick
>
>

Post a reply to this message