These objects are all derived directly from the standard POV-Ray fonts 
cyrvetic.ttf and timrom.ttf.  No hand construction of glyphs was 
involved.  I first created image maps from text{} objects using trace() 
(literally millions of calls), then used the image maps in isosurface 
functions.  The technique is slow to be sure, but it doesn't leave 
corner artifacts like Bevelled_Text() in shapes.inc does, and it can 
also create rounded edges, which Bevelled_Text() cannot do.

I am working on a tutorial for this technique.

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On 5/16/20 9:35 PM, Cousin Ricky wrote:
> These objects are all derived directly from the standard POV-Ray fonts 
> cyrvetic.ttf and timrom.ttf.  No hand construction of glyphs was 
> involved.  I first created image maps from text{} objects using trace() 
> (literally millions of calls), then used the image maps in isosurface 
> functions.  The technique is slow to be sure, but it doesn't leave 
> corner artifacts like Bevelled_Text() in shapes.inc does, and it can 
> also create rounded edges, which Bevelled_Text() cannot do.
> 
> I am working on a tutorial for this technique.

Cool. Images remind me of *mart signs. "Triple packs of 100 billion 
Ultra5G-Rays on sale now!" ;-)

Bill P.

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Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> These objects are all derived directly from the standard POV-Ray fonts
> cyrvetic.ttf and timrom.ttf.  No hand construction of glyphs was
> involved.  I first created image maps from text{} objects using trace()
> (literally millions of calls), then used the image maps in isosurface
> functions.  The technique is slow to be sure, but it doesn't leave
> corner artifacts like Bevelled_Text() in shapes.inc does, and it can
> also create rounded edges, which Bevelled_Text() cannot do.
>
> I am working on a tutorial for this technique.

Oooooooooh.   Nice.

So many things just got cross-referenced in my head.

Can this be applied to prisms then as well?
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3Cweb.5d75c2d16af53e9cecc0fada0%40news.povray.org%3E/

Can it be used to make something like Dave Blandston's bordered characters?
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.scene-files/thread/%3Cweb.5bea4bb194d53ed979416a1f0%40news.povray.org%3E/


Perhaps make Center-line fonts / Single-line fonts from standard fonts, or the
reverse?

And do you think there's a way to decrease the number of trace() calls and
interpolate instead?


Very very nice work, as always   :)

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On 2020-05-17 7:41 AM (-4), Bald Eagle wrote:
> 
> Can this be applied to prisms then as well?
>
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/thread/%3Cweb.5d75c2d16af53e9cecc0fada0%40news.povray.org%3E/

For the edges, without a doubt.  For the face, it should be possible, if 
you make the edge half as wide as the face.

> Can it be used to make something like Dave Blandston's bordered characters?
>
http://news.povray.org/povray.binaries.scene-files/thread/%3Cweb.5bea4bb194d53ed979416a1f0%40news.povray.org%3E/

Probably.

> Perhaps make Center-line fonts / Single-line fonts from standard fonts, or the
> reverse?

I don't know what you mean here.

> And do you think there's a way to decrease the number of trace() calls and
> interpolate instead?

I'm not going to rule that out, but it would involve optimization more 
clever than I can think of at the moment.  There's also the question of 
whether the parser overhead would actually save time, although it 
wouldn't hurt to try.

My algorithm searches for the surfaces over 360 degrees, so one can 
halve the time with a step size of 2.  I don't know how much that would 
affect accuracy, but I do recall that a step size of 5 was unacceptable 
to me.

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Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

> > Perhaps make Center-line fonts / Single-line fonts from standard fonts, or the
> > reverse?
>
> I don't know what you mean here.

Well, if you're rounding the forward face of the font, then extrapolate that
rounding to the point where the ends of the rounding curve meet.  Only use
_that_ point as a datum.  Once the entire glyph has been scanned, you should
have something that would be what you'd see if you drew a single line along the
center parts of the wide typeface.  Thus, "Center-line / Single-line" fonts.

Presumably if that were possible, then you'd be more than halfway along to doing
the reverse - taking a single line character and widening it to make a character
with an offset curve.

And that line of thinking leads me to ask: What happens when you start playing
with the isosurface threshold to get the different level sets?
I'd also try defining a pigment {function {YourIsosurfaceFunction}} and applying
that to a box or plane to see what that looks like.  Could be fun esp if you
make a word with min ().  :)

I'm guessing you're using a point cloud / df3 / object pattern sort of approach?


- Bill

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On 2020-05-18 7:15 AM (-4), Bald Eagle wrote:
> 
> I'm guessing you're using a point cloud / df3 / object pattern sort of approach?

No DF3 or object pattern; just image maps.  An object pattern is used in 
the lower right example, but only for the texture, not the isosurface 
itself.

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Searching for elliptical tori, and serendipitously came across this, which I
thought was closely related enough to mention here.  :)

This guy's blog blows my mind.

https://spacesymmetrystructure.wordpress.com/2009/10/05/medial-axes-voronoi-skeletons/

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This is super exciting! I'll be watching for your tutorial!

Have a great day,

Dave Blandston

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Cousin Ricky <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
>
> I am working on a tutorial for this technique.

The tutorial has been uploaded to p.b.t.

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