POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : Povray for scientific use Server Time
8 Aug 2024 16:16:44 EDT (-0400)
  Povray for scientific use (Message 1 to 7 of 7)  
From: Dieter Gaffrey
Subject: Povray for scientific use
Date: 2 Nov 2000 10:53:23
Message: <3A018DF0.DE13C416@gaffrey.de>
Hi,

at our institute a future item of a diploma thesis
shall be the use of ray-tracing software
(i.e.: Povray because every student can
afford it ;-) ) for scientific, forestry related applications.

This can be
- visualisation of landscapes with real geometry (e.g., based
on GIS data) and with vegetation (with more
or less real architecture), 
- modelling the light regime in plant/forest communities
(under different light conditions, at different layers)
combined with image analysis to evaluate the photosynthesic 
potential ...,
- and and and

Therefore, I would be very glad if you can tell me any
Povray (or other) source which might go in this direction.

Many thanks in advance!

Dieter
-- 
**************************************************
University of Goettingen, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology
Institute of Forest Biometry and Informatics
Dr. Dieter Gaffrey                              | Phone: +49 (0)551
393460
Buesgenweg 4                                    | Fax:    +49 (0)551
393465
37077 Goettingen, Germany               | http://www.uni.gaffrey.de


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From: Gilles Tran
Subject: Re: Povray for scientific use
Date: 2 Nov 2000 13:54:37
Message: <3A01B85A.F55D72AB@inapg.inra.fr>
Dieter Gaffrey wrote:

> at our institute a future item of a diploma thesis
> shall be the use of ray-tracing software
> (i.e.: Povray because every student can
> afford it ;-) ) for scientific, forestry related applications.
>
> This can be
> - visualisation of landscapes with real geometry (e.g., based
> on GIS data) and with vegetation (with more
> or less real architecture),
> - modelling the light regime in plant/forest communities
> (under different light conditions, at different layers)
> combined with image analysis to evaluate the photosynthesic
> potential ...,

Do you want to use Pov to represent the output of the models (previously
calculated by an external programme) or to run the models themselves ?

A useful link, BTW : http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/ecosys/

G.


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From: Christoph Hormann
Subject: Re: Povray for scientific use
Date: 2 Nov 2000 15:38:01
Message: <3A01D0A5.72128BB@schunter.etc.tu-bs.de>
Dieter Gaffrey wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> at our institute a future item of a diploma thesis
> shall be the use of ray-tracing software
> (i.e.: Povray because every student can
> afford it ;-) ) for scientific, forestry related applications.
> 
[...]
> 
> Therefore, I would be very glad if you can tell me any
> Povray (or other) source which might go in this direction.

The most well known use of Povray for geographic applications is displaying DEMs
with povray's heightfield object which is quite effective for this purpose.  You
can also easily position objects like trees.

Not povray specific, but you might want to have a look at:

http://www.cs.utah.edu/vissim/bibliography/

especially:
http://www.cs.utah.edu/vissim/papers/snowTerrain/

The best povray related sources would probably be heightfield generators and
their documentations/samples.  I have a link collection focussed on synthetic
terrain on my Website, some things might be interesting:

http://www.schunter.etc.tu-bs.de/~chris/terlinks.html


Christoph

-- 
Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde>
Homepage: http://www.schunter.etc.tu-bs.de/~chris/


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From: Dieter Gaffrey
Subject: Re: Povray for scientific use
Date: 3 Nov 2000 03:38:12
Message: <3A027977.3777C9EC@gaffrey.de>
Dear Gilles,

> 
> Do you want to use Pov to represent the output of the models (previously
> calculated by an external programme) 

this was my original idea

> or to run the models themselves ?

but maybe, Povray can more (until now I did not spend 
much time to find out all of Povray's possibilities). Especially
I am interested whether (and how) Povray can be-directionally
handle databases. (?)


> 
> A useful link, BTW : http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/ecosys/

Thanks very much! 

Dieter

-- 
**************************************************
University of Goettingen, Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology
Institute of Forest Biometry and Informatics
Dr. Dieter Gaffrey                              | Phone: +49 (0)551
393460
Buesgenweg 4                                    | Fax:    +49 (0)551
393465
37077 Goettingen, Germany               | http://www.uni.gaffrey.de


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From: Simon Lemieux
Subject: Re: Povray for scientific use
Date: 3 Nov 2000 07:24:36
Message: <3A02BCD7.F078EDE0@yahoo.com>
> This can be
> - visualisation of landscapes with real geometry (e.g., based
> on GIS data) and with vegetation (with more
> or less real architecture),

For this, may I suggest looking at OpenGL? (MesaGL is free)
My brother is at the university in Biology-Computers and he made a program to
view atoms and molecule from data that come out of an old good machine...
The program is made in OpenGL and you can view the molecule, rotate, move
in/out, add some special effects such as lighting (casts shadows...), etc... and
you can also print the image to a file on the disk and they used povray for
this... they transfered the OpenGL code to povray code and the raytracer is so
much beautiful... but OpenGL is good for finding a good view spot!

> - modelling the light regime in plant/forest communities
> (under different light conditions, at different layers)
> combined with image analysis to evaluate the photosynthesic
> potential ...,

If those are calculation made by your program, C++ would be good for this, and
especially it includes OpenGL (it's a C++ library...), but IMHO, lights in
OpenGL are not very easy to learn and do not exactly what you want...

> - and and and

This was just a suggestion, see www.opengl.org for simple examples of what it
can also do... You would be amazed... and this is accelerated stuff! 25-100
Frames per second with a Voodoo3 2000!

-- 
+-------------------------+----------------------------------+
| Simon Lemieux           | Website : http://www.666Mhz.net  |
| Email : Sin### [at] 666Mhznet | POV-Ray, OpenGL, C++ and more... |
+-------------------------+----------------------------------+


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From: Gilles Tran
Subject: Re: Povray for scientific use
Date: 3 Nov 2000 07:46:08
Message: <3A02B378.C1248D4A@inapg.inra.fr>
Dieter Gaffrey wrote:

> > Do you want to use Pov to represent the output of the models (previously
> > calculated by an external programme)
>
> this was my original idea
>
> > or to run the models themselves ?
>
> but maybe, Povray can more (until now I did not spend
> much time to find out all of Povray's possibilities).

Povray script is a specialized programming language that cannot do everything
languages like C and C++ can do. Also, it's interpreted and thus slow. For a
computing-intensive task other than raytracing, it is certainly better to have
an external programme manage it, and then output the result to Povray. A Pov
script could then manage more graphic-related issues.
In the case of tree generation, your programme could output the positions of
the nodes, and Povray could pick up the nodes and build the tree. Or the
programme could output directly the tree geometry as a mesh.

> Especially I am interested whether (and how) Povray can be-directionally
> handle databases. (?)

Povray has no database connectivity, but you can make scripts that read and
write text files. Not really bi-directional though.
An ODBC-Pov or a SQL-Pov would be nice for some specialized uses...

G.


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From: Chuck Roberts
Subject: Re: Povray for scientific use
Date: 14 Nov 2000 15:28:22
Message: <3A11A09C.83798BF8@alleganisd.org>
You can see my raytracing links (mostly POV related) at: 
http://www.crosswinds.net/~robertsc/raytrac3.htm

I have listed many modellers, raytracers, animators, object
creators, and other raytracing related utilities. Perhaps that
will help you. 


Dieter Gaffrey wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> at our institute a future item of a diploma thesis
> shall be the use of ray-tracing software
> (i.e.: Povray because every student can
> afford it ;-) ) for scientific, forestry related applications.
> 

-- 
See my Free stuff page. It compares free website providers, and
lists free internet access providers.
http://www.crosswinds.net/~robertsc/free.htm

Win98 help file loaded with hints and tips, including securing a
Win 95/98 PC in a classroom setting. VB4 help file with lots of
code and hints. 
At http://www.crosswinds.net/~robertsc/


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