Hi all,

In my current WIP I'm trying to place some objects (spheres) onto another
set of objects and I'm not having much success. I've tried JRG's Scatter
macro, but can't get the results I want (but still a kick-ass macro). As far
as I understand the scatter macro searches for three points of contact,
which of course doesn't truly happen for a sphere (without intersection
anyway). So I was thinking that using one of the particle systems (hope I
got the name right - it's the ones with the bouncing balls) to position the
objects and just taking the final frame.

So which one's best (or at least easiest to use)?

thanks in advance
jim

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Not sure I understand what you are trying to do,
but it sounds like an ancient utility called SUDS
might do the trick.

http://freespace.virgin.net/r.jennings/suds.htm

HB

"James Taylor" <jim### [at] blueyondercouk> wrote in message
news:3d0923a5@news.povray.org...
> Hi all,
>
> In my current WIP I'm trying to place some objects (spheres) onto another
> set of objects and I'm not having much success. I've tried JRG's Scatter
> macro, but can't get the results I want (but still a kick-ass macro). As
far
> as I understand the scatter macro searches for three points of contact,
> which of course doesn't truly happen for a sphere (without intersection
> anyway). So I was thinking that using one of the particle systems (hope I
> got the name right - it's the ones with the bouncing balls) to position
the
> objects and just taking the final frame.
>
> So which one's best (or at least easiest to use)?
>
> thanks in advance
> jim
>
>

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On Thu, 13 Jun 2002 23:54:21 +0100, "James Taylor"
<jim### [at] blueyondercouk> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> In my current WIP I'm trying to place some objects (spheres) onto another
> set of objects and I'm not having much success.

Is your set of objects builded with simple primitives like torus, sphere,
cylinder, cone, plane etc ? Then you can use iso_csg library to create
equivalent of this set as function and sample this function for specified
distance. Tell me if you want an example. But since you want place only
spheres you can just use trace function and move intersection about
normal*radius. This simple method was used by me in
http://news.povray.org/kk1f1u0tvda2ul55rclt1or8opfkah6i5j%404ax.com

ABX

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Definitely NOT the best:
http://www.geocities.com/pterandon/boids.html

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"Harold Baize" <bai### [at] itsaucsfedu> wrote in message
news:3d093d3d$1@news.povray.org...
> Not sure I understand what you are trying to do,
> but it sounds like an ancient utility called SUDS
> might do the trick.
>

I've modelled one of those ball-bearings in a puzzle things and wanted to
use the particle system to drop the balls onto the puzzle, let them roll
around until they came to a stop and use that as my 'still' scene.

Thanks for the link, I'll look into it.

jim

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news:312jgu09ciplov4348vptgplu5u3k58o0l@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 13 Jun 2002 23:54:21 +0100, "James Taylor"
> <jim### [at] blueyondercouk> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > In my current WIP I'm trying to place some objects (spheres) onto
another
> > set of objects and I'm not having much success.
>
> Is your set of objects builded with simple primitives like torus, sphere,
> cylinder, cone, plane etc ? Then you can use iso_csg library to create
> equivalent of this set as function and sample this function for specified
> distance. Tell me if you want an example. But since you want place only
> spheres you can just use trace function and move intersection about
> normal*radius. This simple method was used by me in
> http://news.povray.org/kk1f1u0tvda2ul55rclt1or8opfkah6i5j%404ax.com
>
> ABX

Thanks for the link - it'll certainly be useful be for future use, but in
this instance, I only needed to place 12 objects and was being lazy (I'm
new(ish) to pov <6 months and didn't want to figure out the
maths+code)...anyway I placed them by hand instead (and now have a self
satisfied glow that I figured it out)

cheers
jim

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