ISF.RC (International Science Fiction Raytracing Competition)


Greetings to everyone!

The idea is to create a POV-Ray universe full of planets, life and 
starships. You are invited to add your starship designs to this project.
A first starship for this project is already on its way, please see the 
"povray.binaries.images" newsgroup: "SF: Preview 11+: Space Carrier".

There are some important guidelines to follow:

1
You shall make each POV-Ray unit equal to one meter.
2
You shall supply me the exact dimensions and ranges on the three axises (x,
y, z).
3
You shall have a sufficient amount of details in order to fit (again: see
image).
4
You shall not make it looking simple, it must look technical - excentrically
colored discs will not be accepted.
5
You shall not use textures without lights (ship windows).
6
You shall not use colors which do not fit the given standard design (see any
of the "Previews" here).
7
You shall not create a ship which is not properly directed: ship front
is -z, ship back is +z, ship top is +y, ship bottom is -y, ship steerboard
is -x, ship backboard is +x (means: if you are located at let's say Z-100,
the ship is flying towards you).
8
You shall supply your files as include.
9
You shall supply your ship objects as meshes or regular shapes (boxes,
cylinders, etc.).
10
You shall not name your textures with common names but apply names which
contain your own name or the scene name, to prevent that you textures may be
mistaken because of identical names with other textures.
Example: "SvenLittkowski_SF_SpaceCarrier_Texture_01.jpg"

Also welcome:

1
Humans in future spacesuits (practical, light-weight suits)
2
Small crafts such as maintenance capsulas, maintenance robots,
atmospherical ferries, space ferries, fighters, corvettes, observers, other
small ships
3
Realistic planets such as seen on the background of some of my previews

On demand, I will supply you with my textures and source code examples how
to use them. That would ensure a certain similarity.

Everybody who shares his starship SDL files will also receive, on his
demand, the scene files of other participants.

The first developers of really cool starships will be invited to join the
future "jury", which decides which starships, planets, etc. are accepted for 
the project and which not.

Looking forward to hear from you all!

Sven

Sven Littkowski <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote:
> 8
> You shall supply your files as include.
> 10
> You shall not name your textures with common names but apply names which
> contain your own name or the scene name, to prevent that you textures may be
> mistaken because of identical names with other textures.
> Example: "SvenLittkowski_SF_SpaceCarrier_Texture_01.jpg"

  Since the model is supplied in an include file, wouldn't it be enough
to require that all textures (and basically everything except the main
model which should be used in the scene) are declared #local?

  This is perfectly ok:

#local MyTexture = // It doesn't matter if someone else has a texture
  texture          // with the same name; it won't collide with this
  {
  };

#declare AuthorsNameShip = // This is the only thing which will be seen
  object                   // outside the include file
  { whatever
    texture { MyTexture }
  };

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Hmm... Not sure. If people exchange their files, many might also have the 
textures of others on their own system. That's why I suggest these naming 
rules.

Greetings.

Sven




"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:445e9084@news.povray.org...
> Sven Littkowski <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote:
>> 8
>> You shall supply your files as include.
>> 10
>> You shall not name your textures with common names but apply names which
>> contain your own name or the scene name, to prevent that you textures may 
>> be
>> mistaken because of identical names with other textures.
>> Example: "SvenLittkowski_SF_SpaceCarrier_Texture_01.jpg"
>
>  Since the model is supplied in an include file, wouldn't it be enough
> to require that all textures (and basically everything except the main
> model which should be used in the scene) are declared #local?
>
>  This is perfectly ok:
>
> #local MyTexture = // It doesn't matter if someone else has a texture
>  texture          // with the same name; it won't collide with this
>  {
>  };
>
> #declare AuthorsNameShip = // This is the only thing which will be seen
>  object                   // outside the include file
>  { whatever
>    texture { MyTexture }
>  };
>
> -- 
>                                                          - Warp

Sven Littkowski <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote:
> Hmm... Not sure. If people exchange their files, many might also have the 
> textures of others on their own system. That's why I suggest these naming 
> rules.

  What does it matter? If the include file declares its own textures
as #local, they will not interfere with anything else.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Maybe I am not understanding your point right, Warp. How can I (with a 
Windows system) have in my textures folder different graphic files with 
maybe the same name? If artists exchange their textures, it will come that 
they want to store their texture graphic files in their texture folder.

What does the #local keyword help me within the SDL if the OS overwrites 
different files with new ones having the same name?

I think, I am not sure if I understand your point entirely. Maybe you can 
explain it with other words. Bear in mind that I even don't now that #local 
keyword.

Greetings, Warp.

Sven



"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:445fdb99@news.povray.org...
> Sven Littkowski <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote:
>> Hmm... Not sure. If people exchange their files, many might also have the
>> textures of others on their own system. That's why I suggest these naming
>> rules.
>
>  What does it matter? If the include file declares its own textures
> as #local, they will not interfere with anything else.
>
> -- 
>                                                          - Warp

Sven Littkowski <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote:
> Maybe I am not understanding your point right, Warp. How can I (with a 
> Windows system) have in my textures folder different graphic files with 
> maybe the same name? If artists exchange their textures, it will come that 
> they want to store their texture graphic files in their texture folder.

  I though this was an event where people can submit spaceship models as
include files which will be then rendered in one big scene. Since eg. the
textures of the model are intrinsicly bound to that model, why should the
author be worried about his texture names colliding with other texture
names? If I create an iron texture for my model, I see no reason why
I couldn't call it "Iron", as long as I declare it with #local in the
include file.

  If someone sees the rendered model and thinks "woah, that's a really
great iron texture" and wants to use it in his own models, I don't see
what stops him from copying the texture definition to his own project.
If the name "Iron" happens to collide with something he already has,
he can quite easily rename it.
  This is in no way different from me distributing some scene of mine.
Why should I worry if someone somewhere wants to use the same texture?
He can copy it and rename it if needed.
  I didn't think that "sharing textures" is the point in this event, but
to create spaceship models for a scene.

  IOW, I see no point in requiring people to use overly long and
cumbersome identifier names in their include file, as long as they
create the identifiers with #local.
  Naturally if someone *wants* to use unique long identifier names,
he is completely free to do so, but I see no point in requiring
everyone to do it.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

"Sven Littkowski" <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote in message 
news:44609aba$1@news.povray.org...

> What does the #local keyword help me within the SDL if the OS overwrites 
> different files with new ones having the same name?


A simple example...  Let's say you've got two files, each defining two 
different objects (space ships, I gather, in your case):

File #1:

#local MyTexture = texture{ ... Lotsastuff ... }

#declare Ship001 =
union {
  blah blah blah
  texture {MyTexture}
}


File #2:

#local MyTexture = texture { ... Different Lotsastuff ... }

#declare Ship002 =
union {
  blah blah blah
  texture {MyTexture}
}

Now, you've got to have a main scene file somewhere to utilize these neat-o 
ships, right?

Main File:

object {Ship001}
object {Ship002}


These ships will come out with different textures, even though the actual 
files (#1 and #2) have the SAME texture names.  That's all Warp is saying. 
Take a look at the docs for more info about the #local vs. #declare 
differences.

It sounds, though, like you may be hinting at having include files that only 
include the *textures* for other people to use.  A texture repository, 
instead of an object repository.  Notice in the example above, the 
'#declare'd ships must have different names (001 vs 002).  If you're looking 
at giving a bunch of users access to pre-defined textures, then you'll need 
unique texture names (as you have been saying).  But Warp's point is that 
you can simply make sure each object (spacecraft) has a unique name, and 
require everybody to use #local variables when they create their object. 
Then, it doesn't matter if two people both define 'CoolBlue' in their 
objects... the local variable space will treat each one separately.

- How

Thanks, How Camp, for your answer.

I understand now much better the sense of the #local keyword. But that would 
apply only to texture names within the SDL, but not to the filenames itself 
(*.jpg, *.png, etc.).

And my concern is just the file name on the harddrive. Because if the 
texture JPGs aren't saved on the harddrive, it just won't work and I end up 
being the beta tester for all kind of error messages!   :-)

No, again: the problem is not the texture name within the SDL, but the file 
names of texture graphics supplied by each artist. And I, personally, don't 
have fun to work with many different folders - I prefer just one folder for 
all POV-Ray texture graphic files.

Greetings to everyone,

Sven




"How Camp" <hac### [at] gmailcom> schrieb im Newsbeitrag 
news:4460a919$1@news.povray.org...
>
> "Sven Littkowski" <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote in message 
> news:44609aba$1@news.povray.org...
>
>> What does the #local keyword help me within the SDL if the OS overwrites 
>> different files with new ones having the same name?
>
>
> A simple example...  Let's say you've got two files, each defining two 
> different objects (space ships, I gather, in your case):
>
> File #1:
>
> #local MyTexture = texture{ ... Lotsastuff ... }
>
> #declare Ship001 =
> union {
>  blah blah blah
>  texture {MyTexture}
> }
>
>
> File #2:
>
> #local MyTexture = texture { ... Different Lotsastuff ... }
>
> #declare Ship002 =
> union {
>  blah blah blah
>  texture {MyTexture}
> }
>
> Now, you've got to have a main scene file somewhere to utilize these 
> neat-o ships, right?
>
> Main File:
>
> object {Ship001}
> object {Ship002}
>
>
> These ships will come out with different textures, even though the actual 
> files (#1 and #2) have the SAME texture names.  That's all Warp is saying. 
> Take a look at the docs for more info about the #local vs. #declare 
> differences.
>
> It sounds, though, like you may be hinting at having include files that 
> only include the *textures* for other people to use.  A texture 
> repository, instead of an object repository.  Notice in the example above, 
> the '#declare'd ships must have different names (001 vs 002).  If you're 
> looking at giving a bunch of users access to pre-defined textures, then 
> you'll need unique texture names (as you have been saying).  But Warp's 
> point is that you can simply make sure each object (spacecraft) has a 
> unique name, and require everybody to use #local variables when they 
> create their object. Then, it doesn't matter if two people both define 
> 'CoolBlue' in their objects... the local variable space will treat each 
> one separately.
>
> - How
>
>

Sven Littkowski <sve### [at] jamaica-focuscom> wrote:
> No, again: the problem is not the texture name within the SDL, but the file 
> names of texture graphics supplied by each artist. And I, personally, don't 
> have fun to work with many different folders - I prefer just one folder for 
> all POV-Ray texture graphic files.

  So if 100 people send you their submission and each one uses, like 50
image files, you end up having 5000 image files in one directory.

  I seriously think that it would be a good idea to use a more hierarchical
system: Each entry in its own directory. Easier to manage and it's easy
to see what belongs to what project. After all, that's the whole point
in directories.

-- 
                                                          - Warp