> Those were fun.  :D  I'de like more ... but I don't want
> you getting burned out by running them!

Actually it was only the scc3 that was time consuming, now that I
have the scripts set up things work moderately smoothly with the most
time consuming point being the final www page.

> >2. Special geometry. eg: Create a scene using only one high level primitive,
> >   but as many of them as you like, for example: a supershape.
> yeah, that could work (goes to read what a "supershape" is in  the docs)

See
   http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/surfaces/supershape3d/
These are an extension to superellipsoids. The idea would be that a macro
or two would be provided that implemented the supershape and no other 
primitive would be allowed. 

> >3. Create a 3D scene which when rendered from a particular position forms an
> >   image that tiles the plane.
> This last might be too easy to be a contest.  I believe there is
> an include file out there that will do it for you automatically.
> I think Chris colefax wrote it but I'm note sure off the top of
> my head.

I'd like a pointer to that if it does exist.

-- 
Paul Bourke
pdb_NOSPAMswin.edu.au

Post a reply to this message

> Volumetrics. No directly visible objects, the entire scene must be 
> composed of shapes only visible through interior attenuation or media. 
> Maybe refraction, as well...it'd allow some good photon scenes. And 
> maybe some severely restricted visible objects, such as a ground plane 
> or finite sky_sphere.
> Optics. Mirrors, prisms, lenses, etc. Nice caustic patterns, simulation 
> or illustration of specific optical effects, and so on.
> Radiosity only. Not much description needed...

The problem with these for competitions where the source is submitted
is that render times can be scary. I have not insignificant cluster
resources but even that is limited. Personally I like the idea of
keeping these source based, it keep people honest and is a great
learning resource for users. I've had lots of positive comments already
from people looking at how things are done by experts in the fractal
contest.

-- 
Paul Bourke
pdb_NOSPAMswin.edu.au

Post a reply to this message

> >> 3. Create a 3D scene which when rendered from a particular position
> >> forms an 
> >>    image that tiles the plane.
> > Whoa!  Sounds tough.  But radical.
> I dont think this is best idea, it is too hard without little pre-
> processing, even AA want work a bit strange around edges

I must admit that while this is an elegant idea, I think it is perhaps
too technical for a lot of people....myself included after trying to
make a good example myself. What I really want to see in these contests
is a good number of entries from a wide range of users.

Also, the idea initially was to create a scene that tiles due to its geometric
nature, it turns out quite easy to do with any scene and a couple of 
cleverly positioned mirrors.

-- 
Paul Bourke
pdb_NOSPAMswin.edu.au

Post a reply to this message

Wasn't it Paul Bourke who wrote:
>> >3. Create a 3D scene which when rendered from a particular position forms an
>> >   image that tiles the plane.
>> This last might be too easy to be a contest.  I believe there is
>> an include file out there that will do it for you automatically.
>> I think Chris colefax wrote it but I'm note sure off the top of
>> my head.
>
>I'd like a pointer to that if it does exist.
>

<http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/1434/tilegen.html>

-- 
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

Post a reply to this message

Paul Bourke wrote:
> I've run the short code and the fractal competitions, see
>    http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/povray/scc3/final/
>    http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/povray/povfrac/final/
> 
> Are you sick of these competitions or is there still interest?

Carry on with it, the last two contests were great and I'd love to see more - 
it's a nice alternative to the IRTC, and as such I don't think that the 
frequency is too high.

> If the later then how about another in the near future, what about these options?
> 1. Limited geometry. eg: Create a scene with no more than 10 objects from
>    the following list: sphere, cylinder, cone, box.
> 2. Special geometry. eg: Create a scene using only one high level primitive,
>    but as many of them as you like, for example: a supershape.
> 3. Create a 3D scene which when rendered from a particular position forms an
>    image that tiles the plane.

I like number 3.

> Feel free to suggest others.

How about a short-code-contets for animations? Perhaps a 100 frame loop rendered 
in 320x240, with some restrictions on the size of the code, the objects used, 
render-time,...
Just an idia.

Post a reply to this message

Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
> Radiosity only. Not much description needed...

  I actually like this one.

  Defining the rules should be rather easy: Use of light_sources (and
of course #includes) is forbidden.

-- 
plane{-x+y,-1pigment{bozo color_map{[0rgb x][1rgb x+y]}turbulence 1}}
sphere{0,2pigment{rgbt 1}interior{media{emission 1density{spherical
density_map{[0rgb 0][.5rgb<1,.5>][1rgb 1]}turbulence.9}}}scale
<1,1,3>hollow}text{ttf"timrom""Warp".1,0translate<-1,-.1,2>}//  - Warp -

Post a reply to this message

Paul Bourke wrote:

> Also, the idea initially was to create a scene that tiles due to its geometric
> nature, it turns out quite easy to do with any scene and a couple of 
> cleverly positioned mirrors.
> 
Wow.

Humorously, I had completely misunderstood what you meant anyway. 
Imagine a collection of objects floating in space.  When viewed from a 
particular point their outer edges all seem to exactly coincide in such 
a way that the objects combine to exactly fill the viewing plane without 
overlapping and without revealing any of the background.  Somehow that 
is what I thought you meant.

Post a reply to this message

In article <pdb_NOSPAM-47C71A.14152402052004@news.povray.org>,
 Paul Bourke <pdb### [at] swineduau> wrote:

> The problem with these for competitions where the source is submitted
> is that render times can be scary. I have not insignificant cluster
> resources but even that is limited. Personally I like the idea of
> keeping these source based, it keep people honest and is a great
> learning resource for users. I've had lots of positive comments already
> from people looking at how things are done by experts in the fractal
> contest.

True...pretty much all my suggestions had potential to be very slow.
You could take rendered submissions along with the generating source 
code, and the voting/verification period could be extended if necessary.

Verification would focus more on those who seem likely to win, making it 
less likely for a cheater to win before being found out. Also, you 
needn't render the entire image to catch a cheat, you could just render 
a couple strips and compare with the submitted version. Community 
backlash against a found-out cheater would be severe, and I think that 
successfully fooling everyone and winning the contest would be very 
unlikely.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: <chr### [at] tagpovrayorg>
http://tag.povray.org/

Post a reply to this message

Paul Bourke <pdb### [at] swineduau> wrote:
> 1. Limited geometry. eg: Create a scene with no more than 10 objects from
>    the following list: sphere, cylinder, cone, box.
> 2. Special geometry. eg: Create a scene using only one high level primitive,
>    but as many of them as you like, for example: a supershape.
> 3. Create a 3D scene which when rendered from a particular position forms an
>    image that tiles the plane.

I'd like the first two.
The third one as was pointed out is 1) too easy (with a downloaded plugin)
and
too technical I believe.

But I like the idea with the tools, I've read here somewhere.

Two more ideas:

..) How about a contest where every contestant has to use a certain tool to
   model the main part of his picture?
..) One (more or less simple) photo/image is given and each contestant tries
   to reach the reference as close as possible only using PoV.
   (The difficulty of this contest will strongly be influenced by the
selected
   picture of course.)


ciao

Mischa

Post a reply to this message

In article <web.4096259d176e05b8920860d40@news.povray.org>,
 "Mischa" <nomail@nomail> wrote:

> ..) How about a contest where every contestant has to use a certain tool to
>    model the main part of his picture?

Limits the competition to people on the platform that tool runs on. And 
the contest would be more about that tool than about POV.


> ..) One (more or less simple) photo/image is given and each contestant tries
>    to reach the reference as close as possible only using PoV.
>    (The difficulty of this contest will strongly be influenced by the
> selected picture of course.)

I like this idea...

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: <chr### [at] tagpovrayorg>
http://tag.povray.org/

Post a reply to this message