Is it possible with POV Ray 3.1 to put in a background image.  I know about
the sky sphere, but I would like to have my objects in the foreground, and
then a bitmap (or some other graphic format) in the back, like a picture of
some snowy mountians.  Is this possible without actually modelling the
mountains?  I know that many software packages have features like this, but
I'm at a loss to find anything mentioned in the POV documentation on it.

-Val

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Val, please see POV-Ray documentation, section 4.7.1.5 - "Image Maps".
Yes, an image can be used as a background or mapped to objects. Photo
images of people, product labels, or even other rendered images may be
used.

On Thu, 6 Jan 2000 21:20:40 -0800, in message
<3875761d@news.povray.org>, "Valerie Robbins" <vro### [at] earthlinknet>
wrote:

>Is it possible with POV Ray 3.1 to put in a background image.  I know about
>the sky sphere, but I would like to have my objects in the foreground, and
>then a bitmap (or some other graphic format) in the back, like a picture of
>some snowy mountians.  Is this possible without actually modelling the
>mountains?  I know that many software packages have features like this, but
>I'm at a loss to find anything mentioned in the POV documentation on it.

-- 
Alan - ako### [at] povrayorg - a k o n g <at> p o v r a y <dot> o r g
http://www.povray.org - Home of the Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer

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There's no way in povray to say "if the first ray shot from the camera
doesn't hit anything, then take that pixel from this image".
  This could be an interesting feature, though.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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mr.art <mr.### [at] gcinet> wrote:
: sky_sphere takes a pigment. A pigment can use an image map. And an 
: image_map can use map_type 1.
: sky_sphere { pigment { image_map {png "I:\Images\earth.png " map_type
: 1}}}

  It's not the same thing.
  My idea was that if the ray shot from the first pixel doesn't hit
anything, then the first pixel of the image is taken, and so on. This
regardless of the position of the camera.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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You could use one of the text positioning macros that I have seen
posted here. Just use the same math to place a plane or sphere segment
in the camera direction of view (camera normal?) and then put your image
on that. Everywhere you look, the image would be sure to follow.

Nieminen Juha wrote:
> 
> mr.art <mr.### [at] gcinet> wrote:
> : sky_sphere takes a pigment. A pigment can use an image map. And an
> : image_map can use map_type 1.
> : sky_sphere { pigment { image_map {png "I:\Images\earth.png " map_type
> : 1}}}
> 
>   It's not the same thing.
>   My idea was that if the ray shot from the first pixel doesn't hit
> anything, then the first pixel of the image is taken, and so on. This
> regardless of the position of the camera.
> 
> --
> main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
> ):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

-- 
Mr. Art

"Often the appearance of reality is more important 
than the reality of the appearance."
Bill DeWitt 2000

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In article <3875c1c9@news.povray.org> , Nieminen Juha 
<war### [at] punarastascstutfi>  wrote:

>   There's no way in povray to say "if the first ray shot from the camera
> doesn't hit anything, then take that pixel from this image".
>   This could be an interesting feature, though.

Yes, for 3.5?


    Thorsten


____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich, Duisburg, Germany
e-mail: tho### [at] trfde

Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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This can be done using image maps... see my site:
http://www.angelfire.com/md2/castlewrks/

While my use wasn't explicitely backgrounds, the technique can be used in
that fashion.

My own personal interest is in being able to build multiple image maps of
background terrain and plant materials that would be impossible to model
with the memory constraints current imposed by POVRAY.

Regards,
Robert J Becraft
aka cas### [at] aolcom

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In article <387600c5@news.povray.org>, "Robert J Becraft" 
<cas### [at] aolcom> wrote:

> My own personal interest is in being able to build multiple image maps of
> background terrain and plant materials that would be impossible to model
> with the memory constraints current imposed by POVRAY.

What memory constraints? The limit on the number of objects is so large 
I highly doubt you would ever reach it by accident. And to reach it on 
purpose would require a huge system, huge being an understatement.

-- 
Chris Huff
e-mail: chr### [at] yahoocom
Web page: http://chrishuff.dhs.org/

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"mr.art" wrote:
> 
> sky_sphere takes a pigment. A pigment can use an image map. And an
> image_map can use map_type 1.
> sky_sphere { pigment { image_map {png "I:\Images\earth.png " map_type
> 1}}}
> 
> I used a large png file.

Mr Art,

 Could you please refrain from posting images to this group. If necessary
post in .images and tell where it is posted.

-- 
Ken Tyler -  1300+ Povray, Graphics, 3D Rendering, and Raytracing Links:
http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html http://www.povray.org/links/

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Well ... maybe it wouldn't be *too* hard to write a little macro to position
a plane (or a flat box) a specified number of units (few thousand) away,
perpendicular to the camera's vector, and map an image onto at the right
size and ratio. If one knows one's mathematics that is .. hmm ...

--
Paul Vanukoff
van### [at] primenetcom


Nieminen Juha wrote in message <3875c1c9@news.povray.org>...
>  There's no way in povray to say "if the first ray shot from the camera
>doesn't hit anything, then take that pixel from this image".
>  This could be an interesting feature, though.
>
>--
>main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
>):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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