Greetings, Raytracers!

I've been lurking around here for a few months & have decided it's about
time I joined in the fun. :) See my message "A sphere (or two) and a
checkered floor" in the binary.images group.

//POV-Ray 3.1+ Scene File. Classic Pickover shell.
global_settings{max_trace_level 256 assumed_gamma 1}
#macro Shell(N,A,B,C,K)#local D=(11/3-A)/N;union{#local I=1;
#while(I<N)#local T=I/N;#local R=B*exp(A*K);sphere{R*<1,0,C/B>
R rotate z*A*360 pigment{rgb<T,.6,1-T*T>}finish{reflection{0,1}
phong .7}}#local I=I+1;#local A=A+D;#end rotate x*9 translate
<0,3,9>}#end Shell(99,-2,.15,.35,.75)plane{y,-9 pigment{checker
rgb 0 rgb 1 scale 5 rotate 45*y}finish{reflection 1 ambient 0}
rotate -x*35}light_source{<2,4,-8>rgb 1.3}

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PM 2Ring wrote:
> Greetings, Raytracers!
> 
> I've been lurking around here for a few months & have decided it's about
> time I joined in the fun. :) See my message "A sphere (or two) and a
> checkered floor" in the binary.images group.
> 
> //POV-Ray 3.1+ Scene File. Classic Pickover shell.
> global_settings{max_trace_level 256 assumed_gamma 1}
> #macro Shell(N,A,B,C,K)#local D=(11/3-A)/N;union{#local I=1;
> #while(I<N)#local T=I/N;#local R=B*exp(A*K);sphere{R*<1,0,C/B>
> R rotate z*A*360 pigment{rgb<T,.6,1-T*T>}finish{reflection{0,1}
> phong .7}}#local I=I+1;#local A=A+D;#end rotate x*9 translate
> <0,3,9>}#end Shell(99,-2,.15,.35,.75)plane{y,-9 pigment{checker
> rgb 0 rgb 1 scale 5 rotate 45*y}finish{reflection 1 ambient 0}
> rotate -x*35}light_source{<2,4,-8>rgb 1.3}
> 
Oooo... I like it. All it needs is for the end to be open, then it will 
make soem really nice shells. A macro with various options to change and 
randomize the shell would also be cool. :)

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Derrick J Houy <djh### [at] pawzaorg> wrote:
> PM 2Ring wrote:
> > Greetings, Raytracers!
> >
> > I've been lurking around here for a few months & have decided it's about
> > time I joined in the fun. :) See my message "A sphere (or two) and a
> > checkered floor" in the binary.images group.
> >
> > //POV-Ray 3.1+ Scene File. Classic Pickover shell.
> > global_settings{max_trace_level 256 assumed_gamma 1}
> > #macro Shell(N,A,B,C,K)#local D=(11/3-A)/N;union{#local I=1;
> > #while(I<N)#local T=I/N;#local R=B*exp(A*K);sphere{R*<1,0,C/B>
> > R rotate z*A*360 pigment{rgb<T,.6,1-T*T>}finish{reflection{0,1}
> > phong .7}}#local I=I+1;#local A=A+D;#end rotate x*9 translate
> > <0,3,9>}#end Shell(99,-2,.15,.35,.75)plane{y,-9 pigment{checker
> > rgb 0 rgb 1 scale 5 rotate 45*y}finish{reflection 1 ambient 0}
> > rotate -x*35}light_source{<2,4,-8>rgb 1.3}
> >
> Oooo... I like it. All it needs is for the end to be open, then it will
> make soem really nice shells. A macro with various options to change and
> randomize the shell would also be cool. :)

Thanks, Derrick! Feel free to play around with the existing parameters to
see what they do. I'll give you hints if you like. :)

I'll post a few more of my shell scenes and textures, but they're fun to
experiment with yourself. They look nice in glass, if you have the time,
either as a union or as a merge.

The Pickover shell was devised by the great Clifford Pickover quite a few
years back when he thought of the idea of modelling such complex curved
surfaces with spheres. See http://www.pickover.com/ for one of the most
amazing pages on the Web.

The predecessor of POV, DKBTrace, came with a Pickover shell utility written
in C which generated big lists of spheres (DKB didn't have #while loops,
etc). I've been playing around with this shell ever since.

I'll just convert a chocolate shell to .png and pop it into p.b.i. in the "A
sphere (or two) and a checkered floor" thread.

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