aa_colloge_03.pov
by Peter C. Capasso


	This .pov file creates auto-generated colloges in the style of Gilles
Tran.  His main web site is http://www.oyonale.com and
http://www.oyonale.com/fun/php/imagemix.php?lan=enis the link directly to his
random colloge generator.
	I like his colloge generator very much and wanted to figure out how to
write my own.  I also wanted something I could run locally on my system, while
off-line.
	This pov program uses POV-Ray 3.5 features and will not work with
version 3.1.
	This pov program replaces aa_colloge_02 and adds more variation of
the box-scattering patterns.


Installation
------------
	unzip and place the files in a directory that is in your POV path.
There are four files (including this readme file).

 * aa_colloge_03.pov - This is the main .pov file.  Load and render this to
   generate images
 * random.inc - this is a random script I made awhile back.  It allows a pov
   file to save and reuse a random number seed so that each render will be
   different
 * randseed.pov - This file contains the random number seed that is saved
   between renders.  As installed, you will have the same random number seed
   as everyone else.  You might want to change the number in this file.
   Anything more than 8 digits is not recommended as it appears to break the
   POV-Ray random number generator.  This file will be deleted and re-written
   every time aa_colloge_03.pov is rendered

	Each time you render aa_colloge_03.pov, it will create a new file
called "try.pov".  If a file called "try.pov" alredy exists (in the directory
you are rendering in) that file will be deleted.  Try.pov contains the entire
auto-generated scene.  If you like what aa_colloge_03.pov has created and want
to save the scene to render it again, then copy or rename try.pov to a
different file name.


Using image maps
----------------
	Aa_colloge_03.pov is preset to use randomly auto-generated pigments
instead of bitmaps.  To change this, do the following:

1) Create a file called "pic_list.inc".  This will contain a list of pictures
   that you have in your POV path.  Here are some examples to show the syntax
   that must be used in that file:
   
 add_pic("blue_things_01.bmp", 1024, 768, 1, 1)
 add_pic("bubbles.gif", 1152, 864, 1, 1)
 add_pic("farble.tga", 640, 480, 1, 1)
 add_pic("old_legacy_picture.iff", 320, 200, 10, 11)

   For this particular version of this program the numbers are ignored, so you
   can just place ones.  pic_list.inc must be somewhere in your pov path.
   
2) Edit the "use_pics = false;" line in aa_colloge_03.pov to say
   "use_pics = true;".


Bus / Problems
--------------
	This .pov program is a terrible memory hog.  On my system it uses
forty to fifty meg of ram while rendering.
	Because of the above, it can't place as many boxes as Gilles' program
does.  I've run his auto-generator up to 4000 boxes with no trouble.  My
program can't do that.


Legal / Copyright
-----------------
	You can modify and distribute this all you want.  You can include it
in your own projects.  You can change it and write a better version (please!).
In other words, it's in the public domain.  Go crazy.  :)

