I decided to dust off this old scene and work on a few more bits.

I finalized how the docking bay and engine are going to be laid out, and 
I am happy with them.

I also split the habitation area into two counter-rotating sections. I'm 
thinking of making the end caps concave, like the bottom of a soda can.

A note about the cone in front. It's supposed to be a mesh of copper or 
gold wires that are electrically charged to keep dust from coming in 
contact with the ship. Kind of the opposite of a solar sail. I need to 
work on the wires a bit more to make them apparent.

Enjoy!


Mike

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Attachments:
Download 'gh_scene_spinner_cutaway.png' (693 KB)

Preview of image 'gh_scene_spinner_cutaway.png'

On 1/6/2016 4:31 AM, Mike Horvath wrote:
> A note about the cone in front. It's supposed to be a mesh of copper or
> gold wires that are electrically charged to keep dust from coming in
> contact with the ship. Kind of the opposite of a solar sail. I need to
> work on the wires a bit more to make them apparent.


I don't know. I like the effect you have now.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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Your project is promising, please continue with it and keep us updated. :-)

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Another thing I worry about is the weak spine of the ship. I need to 
create struts around the circumference of the ship so the ship does not 
break in half when applying thrust! Aircraft and spacecraft IRL tend not 
to have spines, but rather a hollow frame.

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Le 16-01-05 23:31, Mike Horvath a écrit :
> I decided to dust off this old scene and work on a few more bits.
>
> I finalized how the docking bay and engine are going to be laid out, and
> I am happy with them.
>
> I also split the habitation area into two counter-rotating sections. I'm
> thinking of making the end caps concave, like the bottom of a soda can.
>
> A note about the cone in front. It's supposed to be a mesh of copper or
> gold wires that are electrically charged to keep dust from coming in
> contact with the ship. Kind of the opposite of a solar sail. I need to
> work on the wires a bit more to make them apparent.
>
> Enjoy!
>
>
> Mike

Given the size of that ship, the wires won't be individualy visible 
unless they are very thick, like around 1m thick...

The part of the spine inside the living section is OK as it don't seem 
to have a real structural function. But, going aft, it does indeed look 
flimsy.

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Several changes.


Mike

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Attachments:
Download 'gh_scene_spinner_cutaway_24.png' (643 KB)

Preview of image 'gh_scene_spinner_cutaway_24.png'

I decided to use an array of spheres for the spiral lamp light instead 
of a single object since it's a lot easier to control.

I also tweaked the parabolic nose shield. I am very unhappy with the 
texture however. It's supposed to simulate a wire mesh, not a solid 
surface, but I don't think it's working. Here is the texture:

#declare thin_wire_material = material
{
	#switch (TexQual)
		#case (-1)
			texture {lowqual_pig(Seed)}
		#break
		#case (0)
			texture {pigment {gamma_color_adjust(<0.70, 0.25, 0.15, 0.00, 0.90>)}}
		#break
		#case (1)
		#case (2)
			// needs an interior too I think
			texture
			{
				pigment {gamma_color_adjust(<0.70, 0.25, 0.15, 0.00, 0.90>)}
				finish
				{
				    ambient		0.15
				    brilliance	5
				    diffuse		0.6
				    metallic
				    specular	0.80
				    roughness	1/100
				    reflection	0.65
				}
			}
		#break

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Attachments:
Download 'gh_scene_spinner_cutaway_27.png' (847 KB)

Preview of image 'gh_scene_spinner_cutaway_27.png'

Am 10.01.2016 um 00:38 schrieb Mike Horvath:

> I also tweaked the parabolic nose shield. I am very unhappy with the
> texture however. It's supposed to simulate a wire mesh, not a solid
> surface, but I don't think it's working. Here is the texture:

No that indeed doesn't work at all.

You'll want "micronormals", i.e. some "normal {...}" statement with a
pattern scaled so small that it is no longer visible in the image.

Ideally the structure of the pattern should match the structure of
whatever material you intend to simulate.

Make sure you don't get moiree effects from it though; anti-aliasing
might do the trick, otherwise I'd recommend using a tiny bit of focal
blur, or use UberPOV's anti-aliasing mode 3. Or you might just choose a
random pattern, which won't be as close to the real deal but will not
cause any moiree at all.

Speaking of UberPOV, if you go down that route another alternative would
be to just use highly blurred reflections.

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On 1/9/2016 7:07 PM, clipka wrote:
> Am 10.01.2016 um 00:38 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>
>> I also tweaked the parabolic nose shield. I am very unhappy with the
>> texture however. It's supposed to simulate a wire mesh, not a solid
>> surface, but I don't think it's working. Here is the texture:
>
> No that indeed doesn't work at all.
>
> You'll want "micronormals", i.e. some "normal {...}" statement with a
> pattern scaled so small that it is no longer visible in the image.
>
> Ideally the structure of the pattern should match the structure of
> whatever material you intend to simulate.
>
> Make sure you don't get moiree effects from it though; anti-aliasing
> might do the trick, otherwise I'd recommend using a tiny bit of focal
> blur, or use UberPOV's anti-aliasing mode 3. Or you might just choose a
> random pattern, which won't be as close to the real deal but will not
> cause any moiree at all.
>
> Speaking of UberPOV, if you go down that route another alternative would
> be to just use highly blurred reflections.
>


How would I create the pattern? The radial part is easy, but how do I 
get the ribbed portion? Which function do I use?

f_paraboloid(x,y,z, P0)

Or something else?

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On 1/9/2016 7:07 PM, clipka wrote:
> Am 10.01.2016 um 00:38 schrieb Mike Horvath:
>
>> I also tweaked the parabolic nose shield. I am very unhappy with the
>> texture however. It's supposed to simulate a wire mesh, not a solid
>> surface, but I don't think it's working. Here is the texture:
>
> No that indeed doesn't work at all.
>
> You'll want "micronormals", i.e. some "normal {...}" statement with a
> pattern scaled so small that it is no longer visible in the image.
>
> Ideally the structure of the pattern should match the structure of
> whatever material you intend to simulate.
>
> Make sure you don't get moiree effects from it though; anti-aliasing
> might do the trick, otherwise I'd recommend using a tiny bit of focal
> blur, or use UberPOV's anti-aliasing mode 3. Or you might just choose a
> random pattern, which won't be as close to the real deal but will not
> cause any moiree at all.
>
> Speaking of UberPOV, if you go down that route another alternative would
> be to just use highly blurred reflections.
>


I guess I should clarify that what you see in that last image is not a 
texture, but a physical array of cylinders and tori. Replacing them with 
a proper texture would make the scene render much faster as well.


Mike

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