Hello all,

    Has anyone tried to create a large sphere that uses a realistic
water look.
    I am trying to create a world that is covered with water, but all my
attempts have been far from perfect.
    The planet is a sphere 7000 units in diameter, with a scale of 1
unit per kilometer.
    One attempt looked good from afar, but from "ground" level, was a
disaster.

    Basically what I am trying to do is a scene based on the Arthur C
Clarke novel, Songs Of Distant Earth, which features a planet in the
early stages of developement, is almost all covered with water except
for a small archipelago where the story takes place.

    I have scaled the scene big, so that I can bring the camera down to
ground level to view the islands and, hence the need for a realistic
ocean.

    If you can help, thank you in advance.

--
  ,-._|\  Alex McMurray
 /  Oz  \ ale### [at] melbpcorgau               Melbourne PC User Group.
 \_,--.x/Melton. Vic.  3337                          Australia
       v

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Oceans have been done aplenty.  The trouble you might have most is to
get the correct appearance for both near and far.  That will possibly
entail doing texture shifting with distance.  In other words, adding the
camera distance value into textures in order to change them in a
predictable way.  And that might or might not be feasible.

Bob

"Alex McMurray" <ale### [at] melbpcorgau> wrote in message
news:392B7B3F.FF63CDF4@melbpc.org.au...
|
|     Has anyone tried to create a large sphere that uses a realistic
| water look.
|     I am trying to create a world that is covered with water, but all
my
| attempts have been far from perfect.
|     The planet is a sphere 7000 units in diameter, with a scale of 1
| unit per kilometer.
|     One attempt looked good from afar, but from "ground" level, was a
| disaster.

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Bob Hughes wrote:

> That will possibly entail doing texture shifting with distance.  In other
> words, adding the
> camera distance value into textures in order to change them in a
> predictable way.  And that might or might not be feasible.
>
> Bob
>

Thanks Bob, That was something I never thought of. I have had success using
camera distance values for other scenes, if I can find time to sit at the
confuser for a while, I will give it a go.
I was hoping to be able to animate a lift off from "ground" level up to an
orbiting platform, but I may not be able to if I use texture shifting.

--
  ,-._|\  Alex McMurray
 /  Oz  \ ale### [at] melbpcorgau               Melbourne PC User Group.
 \_,--.x/ P.O. Box 215 Melton. Vic.  3337                     Australia
       v

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Alex McMurray wrote in message <392B7B3F.FF63CDF4@melbpc.org.au>...
>    Has anyone tried to create a large sphere that uses a realistic
>water look.
...
>    One attempt looked good from afar, but from "ground" level, was a
>disaster.


You could try a physically realistic model, by making the ocean look good
from ground level, then doing extreme antialiasing for shots from higher up.
It might take a little while to render, though....

Mark

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Alex McMurray wrote:
> 
> Thanks Bob, That was something I never thought of. I have had success using
> camera distance values for other scenes, if I can find time to sit at the
> confuser for a while, I will give it a go.
> I was hoping to be able to animate a lift off from "ground" level up to an
> orbiting platform, but I may not be able to if I use texture shifting.
> 

Perhaps you could do a LOD (level of detail) shift as you go through the cloud
layer and the ground is briefly obscured. That's supposing a) you can keep the
two detail levels looking similar and b) you are planning a cloud layer.

Generally, what looks good at ground level _could_ be made to look good from
space, since that's how it works in nature :)

-- 
Margus Ramst

Personal e-mail: mar### [at] peakeduee
TAG (Team Assistance Group) e-mail: mar### [at] tagpovrayorg

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Margus Ramst wrote:

> Perhaps you could do a LOD (level of detail) shift as you go through the cloud
> layer and the ground is briefly obscured. That's supposing a) you can keep the
> two detail levels looking similar and b) you are planning a cloud layer.
>
> Generally, what looks good at ground level _could_ be made to look good from
> space, since that's how it works in nature :)
>
> --
> Margus Ramst
>

Hmmm, the suggestions by both you and Serge may be just what I am
looking for,
along with Bobs.  My son who is a little better at this kind of thing
than I am,
offered to help.  For me it will be a bit of a learning curve as I have
only done
LOD shifts with objects and not textures, but it should not be all that
much
different.

    Maybe I should be nature to do it for me!!  ;)

--
  ,-._|\  Alex McMurray
 /  Oz  \ ale### [at] melbpcorgau               Melbourne PC User Group.
 \_,--.x/ Melton. Vic.  3337                   Australia
       v

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Mark Wagner wrote:

> You could try a physically realistic model, by making the ocean look good
> from ground level, then doing extreme antialiasing for shots from higher up.
> It might take a little while to render, though....
>
> Mark

I am hoping to animate this at a later stage and with extreme AA, it may
be very
time consuming, but it is worth a try, you never know, there may even be
a work
around.

Thank you  Alex.

BTW Bob, your trace function for cameras over HF's was just what I was
looking for.   I have had a animation on the backburner for a while now,
because of a lack of knowledge or just plain laziness.

Thanks Alex.
--
  ,-._|\  Alex McMurray
 /  Oz  \ ale### [at] melbpcorgau               Melbourne PC User Group.
 \_,--.x/ Melton. Vic.  3337                          Australia
       v

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