> Fast render
> Concern: Getting the vote formula "just right".
True. Perhaps running a dummy contest first and try different formulas 
on the result and vote on which formula should be used.


> Short time
> Concern: Choosing a topic that minimises the chance of someone
> having a scene already on hand.
Additionally to a preclaimer like the IRTC one (image must be created 
for the contest), limiting the size of the file should be a good tool to 
keep the usage of already finished objects low.
> Concern: Dealing with time zones.
Don't think so. Either let the contest start two hours later each time 
(if it'll run several times) or choose a zone which covers most povers 
in a reasonable way (i.e. the competition falls for example somewhere 
from saturday morning 6am to saturday evening 12pm, which would cover 
already 18 hours).


> Limited geometry
> we assign a rating to each
> primitive and the scene has to be built where the sum of the ratings
> don't exceed some value.
Or an approach like the one with the inverse time: You may use as many 
objects as you like but you're points will be divided by the amount of 
objects (may be interesting to also count for example macros, textures, 
etc.).

> 3D fractals
> Concern: These often require many primitives and therefore lots of 
> memory.
Limit the memory: "Your scene is not allowed to use more than XX MB of 
memory. The value will be taken from the "peak memory" field of the 
render stats".
> Concern: There may be some debate on whether some forms are fractal or 
> not.
I would go for the fun and easy way here: It should look like a fractal. 
Letting only images of real fractals take part in the contest will IMHO

IMHO combining some of these would be cool:

"create an image which consists of a maximum of 10 spheres and 100 boxes 
which will render on <insert your machine here> in less than 1 hour. The 
scene may not contain more than 500 bytes and may not use any additional 
files. You got exactly 2 hours from 12:00 1st of April GMT."

Post a reply to this message

> I would go for the fun and easy way here: It should look like a fractal. 
> Letting only images of real fractals take part in the contest will IMHO

Now that happens if you push the "send button" by accident :(

here's the whole paragraph:
I would go for the fun and easy way here: It should look like a fractal.
Letting only images of real fractals take part in the contest will IMHO 
only limit the amount of contributors. Allowing a "it looks like a 
fractal, so it is one"-situation would not harm the competition (why 
should one enter a fractal round with sth. non "fractal"?) and would 
allow more artistic freedom.

Florian
*goes off and tries that send button one more time*

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"Florian Brucker" <tor### [at] torfboldcom> wrote in message
news:406585c6$1@news.povray.org...

> > Short time
> > Concern: Choosing a topic that minimises the chance of someone
> > having a scene already on hand.


There's a random idea generator out there that will randomly juxtapose a
verb and noun and an adverb.   The topic could be whatever came up when the
coordinator hit it at a certain time.   And then make it 24 hours (perhaps
starting like a Friday midnight local Australia time??).   I actually like
the SCC as it was, but this is one way to do this scenario.

Post a reply to this message

"Florian Brucker" <tor### [at] torfboldcom> wrote in message
news:406585c6$1@news.povray.org...
>
> > Fast render
> > Concern: Getting the vote formula "just right".
> True. Perhaps running a dummy contest first and try different formulas
> on the result and vote on which formula should be used.
>
>
> > Short time
> > Concern: Choosing a topic that minimises the chance of someone
> > having a scene already on hand.
> Additionally to a preclaimer like the IRTC one (image must be created
> for the contest), limiting the size of the file should be a good tool to
> keep the usage of already finished objects low.
> > Concern: Dealing with time zones.
> Don't think so. Either let the contest start two hours later each time
> (if it'll run several times) or choose a zone which covers most povers
> in a reasonable way (i.e. the competition falls for example somewhere
> from saturday morning 6am to saturday evening 12pm, which would cover
> already 18 hours).
>
>
> > Limited geometry
> > we assign a rating to each
> > primitive and the scene has to be built where the sum of the ratings
> > don't exceed some value.
> Or an approach like the one with the inverse time: You may use as many
> objects as you like but you're points will be divided by the amount of
> objects (may be interesting to also count for example macros, textures,
> etc.).
>
> > 3D fractals
> > Concern: These often require many primitives and therefore lots of
> > memory.
> Limit the memory: "Your scene is not allowed to use more than XX MB of
> memory. The value will be taken from the "peak memory" field of the
> render stats".
> > Concern: There may be some debate on whether some forms are fractal or
> > not.
> I would go for the fun and easy way here: It should look like a fractal.
> Letting only images of real fractals take part in the contest will IMHO
>
> IMHO combining some of these would be cool:
>
> "create an image which consists of a maximum of 10 spheres and 100 boxes
> which will render on <insert your machine here> in less than 1 hour. The
> scene may not contain more than 500 bytes and may not use any additional
> files. You got exactly 2 hours from 12:00 1st of April GMT."
>
>


Any time based contest limits people with older hardware. Sure, you can
preview things with low quality, no textures, etc. But someone with the
latest greatest 3GHz machine will have a testing turnaround time advantage
over me with my puny 3 year old mobile duron space heater.


ross.

Post a reply to this message

> Any time based contest limits people with older hardware. Sure, you can
> preview things with low quality, no textures, etc. But someone with the
> latest greatest 3GHz machine will have a testing turnaround time advantage
> over me with my puny 3 year old mobile duron space heater.

That is, of course, true. But you have to admit that this goes for every 
contest which has a deadline. With a 3Ghz monster you can create more 
complex (in means of render time) scenes. Even a two month period like 
the IRTC can be short if you wanted to do some great isosurface 
landscapes on a 800Mhz PC.
I agree that the difference is bigger when the deadline is shorter. 
There is however, always the possibility to do simpler scenes. Tek's 
winning image of the last round is a perfect example for that.
Additionally, the shorter the time, the less complex the entries will be.

I personally see no problem in a short deadline. I have to admit that 
I'm using an Athlon XP2600 with 1 Gig RAM, though :)

Florian

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