Low-res test rendering to study the possible use of billboard plants sprites in
my current scene. Very much a work in progress. I'm still modeling the creature
on top of the pavilion structure. I'll post my sketch to show intent here. I
think the plant/weeds needs more work - may need to tweak a few variations to
mix in with my populate routine. I am happy with the .png transparent edge on
the plant sprites - very clean. Rendered with radiosity on.
Mike

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Preview of image 'the_nest.png'

"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Low-res test rendering to study the possible use of billboard plants sprites in
> my current scene. Very much a work in progress. I'm still modeling the creature
> on top of the pavilion structure. I'll post my sketch to show intent here. I
> think the plant/weeds needs more work - may need to tweak a few variations to
> mix in with my populate routine. I am happy with the .png transparent edge on
> the plant sprites - very clean. Rendered with radiosity on.
> Mike

That's a really good start, the billboard plants are very effective (especially
in the distance). Interested to see this develop!

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Very nice start, I love the mood of this scene already. Good to see what your
plant sprites are being used for and wouldn't have know they were 2d if it
wasn't for the other post.

Sean

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"19100" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> > Low-res test rendering to study the possible use of billboard plants sprites in
> > my current scene. Very much a work in progress. I'm still modeling the creature
> > on top of the pavilion structure. I'll post my sketch to show intent here. I
> > think the plant/weeds needs more work - may need to tweak a few variations to
> > mix in with my populate routine. I am happy with the .png transparent edge on
> > the plant sprites - very clean. Rendered with radiosity on.
> > Mike
>
> That's a really good start, the billboard plants are very effective (especially
> in the distance). Interested to see this develop!

Thanks, happy with the first attempt but the rendering definitely slows down
when it gets to all the overlapping billboards. I just took Kenneth's advice and
tried making a few plant types with a zero-thickness box. It speeds the
rendering up considerably! I'll need to remake the plant in this scene to use
that tip. I was using a clipped sphere to get a more curved leaf, but I think I
can use multiple flat panels to approximate the look.
Mike.

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"Mike Miller" <mil### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> I just took Kenneth's advice and
> tried making a few plant types with a zero-thickness box. It speeds the
> rendering up considerably!

>> I ended up using a sphere intersected with a plane for most of the
curved leaves.

Not surprising, since an intersection is sort of like, or exactly like,
difference {} inverse.

So you have all of that bounding hierarchy stuff to sift through every time.

It's amazing how quickly you hammer out these amazing looking scenes, with all
of the elements looking so good straight out of the gate!

You should make instructional videos for graphic artists!

- BW

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On 11/8/23 11:17, Mike Miller wrote:
> I just took Kenneth's advice and
> tried making a few plant types with a zero-thickness box. It speeds the
> rendering up considerably!

If it works, it works. :-)

FWIW, such shapes are degenerate in that POV-Ray cannot fully handle 
them. They are likely to be flaky if part of things more complex. A 
polygon would be cleaner - but probably not faster.

Never taken a detailed look, but I believe a big part of the better 
speed comes from dealing with many fewer intersections internally. 
Either because they are not found - or because they are quickly 
discarded due not meeting criteria like the internal, min intersection 
depth filters.

Bill P.

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This is great stuff Mike! Preliminary and yet with such details! The 
architecture/brickwork is already in a semi-final stage it seems, and I 
hope you will keep this slanting, eery illumination. The vegetation did 
come out perfectly indeed.

-- 
Thomas

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Thomas de Groot <tho### [at] degrootorg> wrote:
> This is great stuff Mike! Preliminary and yet with such details! The
> architecture/brickwork is already in a semi-final stage it seems, and I
> hope you will keep this slanting, eery illumination. The vegetation did
> come out perfectly indeed.
>
> --
> Thomas

Thanks Thomas,
I plan to add at least one broken/cracked-open egg along with a few additional
plant types - possibly a forest in the background. I'm currently looking at
smooth triangles for a way to handle a large plant/sprite library.
Mike

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