Here's an interactive VR of my ringworld, to counterpoint Thomas' recent
efforts. (Not technically a binary post but anyway).

http://www.infradead.org/~wmp/vr_povray/ringworld01.mov

I actually had to cheat with the sun as well as the sky in the end. It appears
I'm still suffering with some precision issues. Although the shadow squares are
fine, apparently something a million units across but 90 million units away from
the camera doesn't show up. Moving it closer does make it show up, so I'm using
a fake sun-and-shadow-squares union, a mere million units away and scaled
proportionally. The shadows are cast by the actual shadow squares, which have
no_image set. The result should be indistinguishable from the real(!) thing.

I need to play with the landscape some more now, brighten the arch, etc, etc...
:)

Bill

Post a reply to this message

On 6/21/2010 5:05 PM, Bill Pragnell wrote:
> Here's an interactive VR of my ringworld, to counterpoint Thomas' recent
> efforts. (Not technically a binary post but anyway).
>
> http://www.infradead.org/~wmp/vr_povray/ringworld01.mov
>
> I actually had to cheat with the sun as well as the sky in the end. It appears
> I'm still suffering with some precision issues. Although the shadow squares are
> fine, apparently something a million units across but 90 million units away from
> the camera doesn't show up. Moving it closer does make it show up, so I'm using
> a fake sun-and-shadow-squares union, a mere million units away and scaled
> proportionally. The shadows are cast by the actual shadow squares, which have
> no_image set. The result should be indistinguishable from the real(!) thing.
>
> I need to play with the landscape some more now, brighten the arch, etc, etc...
> :)
>
> Bill
>


Oh, God, please don't make me install Quicktime and all the other Apple 
junkware..

-- 
http://isometricland.com

Post a reply to this message

SharkD <pos### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Oh, God, please don't make me install Quicktime and all the other Apple
> junkware..

I'm pretty sure you only need quicktime. However, if you know another 100% free
way to encode interactive VR I'll be happy to supply alternatives! Is yours
flash? What did you use to create it?

Post a reply to this message

Impressive indeed!

I have a couple of comments though:

I am not too convinced about the view of the sun and shadow squares. The 
glare of the sun should overs-shine the squares and make them invisible I 
guess during day time. Also I wonder if the ring at zenith would be visible 
in that glare.

It now appears as if the sun is much larger than the shadow squares. If this 
were so, there would be no nights at all. In reality (?) the squares are the 
size of the sun's diameter. However, I assume that it is the glare we are 
seeing?

Thomas

Post a reply to this message

"Thomas de Groot" <tDOTdegroot@interDOTnlANOTHERDOTnet> wrote:
> Impressive indeed!

Isn't it? I was pleased with this.

> I am not too convinced about the view of the sun and shadow squares. The
> glare of the sun should overs-shine the squares and make them invisible I
> guess during day time. Also I wonder if the ring at zenith would be visible
> in that glare.

You are right, of course, I was taking severe artistic license in this matter!
Of course the glare would make the shadow squares all but invisible - however,
it is likely that they would be partly visible during twighlight, and probably
very obvious at night, when they also occlude parts of the arch. I think the
nature of their world would be more apparent to the natives than Niven thinks...

> It now appears as if the sun is much larger than the shadow squares. If this
> were so, there would be no nights at all. In reality (?) the squares are the
> size of the sun's diameter. However, I assume that it is the glare we are
> seeing?

Yes, this was an attempt to depict glare. What I really need to do is make the
glare larger, the sun's disc smaller, and use some kind of colour bleeding to
produce a more (photo)realistic effect. I think it is time to investigate Sam's
macros... :)

I have seen variable-exposure hdr panoramas on photography sites - perhaps I
should also investigate this... I expect the tools required are expensive :(

Post a reply to this message