After taking a couple months off for the holidays, I am back at work on this
project. What's new?

1. Rebuilt all of the deck structures, adding round corners, glass in the
windows and new textures.

2. I created a new rail using trace to follow the curve of the hull. This
allowed me to add rounded edges and a bead detail. I wrote the code to
allow for more trace calls where the hull curves the most and fewer where
the hull has only a slight curve.

3. Completely new deck. In the previous design, the deck was simply a union
of alternating boxes and cylinders constrained by an intersection with a
prism. The new deck design uses trace to determine the starting and ending
point of each row of planks. The trace is targeted to the waterway (Red
fixture that runs around the perimeter of the deck) that inturn is created
with trace in the same way as the new railing. This significantly sped up
the renduring time. The code allows for staggering the planks to match
non-existant frames under the deck. New randomized texture as well. I added
"Tree-Nails" to the planks but removed them after I determined that they
were nearly invisible.

4. New rounded stern still needs some work. New textures as well, though it
is hard to see them well in this image.

As always there is plenty of work still to go, but as my experience
increases, I find that I am writing smarter and more efficient code and the
work is going faster. RAM is now becoming an issue (1 Gb of RD Ram) I am
planning on rebuilding my PC and upgrading to a 64 bit dual core system
(This will cost less than adding another 1 Gb of RD Ram). Is this a good
time to do this from a POV-Ray point of view?

Comments, Criticisms and suggestions are always welcome.

Thanks,

Tim

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Attachments:
Download 'uss niagara 013106.jpg' (180 KB)

Preview of image 'uss niagara 013106.jpg'

Tim, would you mind explaining how your trace functions work?  I'm 
having trouble following.  When you say you trace the hull, what exactly 
is your ray intersecting: patches, a mesh?  And then how are you using 
the output?  Are you approximating the curvature of the hull with a 
trace every few units, or putting the output in a spline?

Skip

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> increases, I find that I am writing smarter and more efficient code and 
> the
> work is going faster. RAM is now becoming an issue (1 Gb of RD Ram) I am

Are you using meshes for what would otherwise be repeated CSG.  For instance 
I'm thinking of the blocks and belaying pins.  That might save you a hunk of 
memory.

#####-----#####-----#####
POV Tips and Hints at ...
http://povman.blogspot.com/

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Skip,

Basically I trace the surface of the hull and use that to generate a series
of points that I connect with cylendars and triangles. The hull is a patch.
Attached is the code. The top image shows the traingles and cylinders and
the bottom image shows them properly textured.

Tim






"Skip Talbot" <Ski### [at] aolcom> wrote in message
news:43e0d403$1@news.povray.org...
> Tim, would you mind explaining how your trace functions work?  I'm
> having trouble following.  When you say you trace the hull, what exactly
> is your ray intersecting: patches, a mesh?  And then how are you using
> the output?  Are you approximating the curvature of the hull with a
> trace every few units, or putting the output in a spline?
>
> Skip

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Attachments:
Download 'WaterWay.txt' (5 KB) Download 'Water_Way.jpg' (113 KB)

Preview of image 'Water_Way.jpg'

Currently all of the running rigging is constructed using a single macro to
automate the process. This allows me to vary dimensions of the rope, blocks,
etc...just by changing variables. When I wrote the macro, it was pure CSG.
Re-constructing the blocks from a mesh is an interesting idea. I could
simply scale the mesh based upon the same variables.

Thanks for the idea.

Tim

"POVMAN" <s### [at] acom> wrote in message news:43e0dbf7$1@news.povray.org...
> > increases, I find that I am writing smarter and more efficient code and
> > the
> > work is going faster. RAM is now becoming an issue (1 Gb of RD Ram) I am
>
> Are you using meshes for what would otherwise be repeated CSG.  For
instance
> I'm thinking of the blocks and belaying pins.  That might save you a hunk
of
> memory.
>
> #####-----#####-----#####
> POV Tips and Hints at ...
> http://povman.blogspot.com/
>
>
>

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Tim McMurdo spake:

> After taking a couple months off for the holidays, I am back at work on
> this project. What's new?
> 
> 1. Rebuilt all of the deck structures, adding round corners, glass in the
> windows and new textures.
> 
> 2. I created a new rail using trace to follow the curve of the hull. This
> allowed me to add rounded edges and a bead detail. I wrote the code to
.
.
.
> Comments, Criticisms and suggestions are always welcome.

Hi Tim

Keep going! It is getting better and better, methinks...

-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

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"Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
news:43e10fbe@news.povray.org...
>
> Hi Tim
>
> Keep going! It is getting better and better, methinks...
>

I join Stefan in this!

Thomas

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