Hi Folks,

I just downloaded POV Ray 3.1g.r2 for the Mac, and I read through the
documentation to see if there was an easy way to drape a full-color
image over a height field. I didn't see any recipe. 

I have a full-color (satellite) image that is co-registered to a height
field (a real digital elevation model). The two have the same pixel
size, etc. How can I tell POV Ray that the image and height field have
the same size?  

Also does POV Ray support any image formats other than TARGA?

Thanks.

					++Eric Fielding

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"Eric Fielding" <eri### [at] sierrasjplnasagov> wrote in message
news:396B3B20.D5865411@sierras.jpl.nasa.gov...
|
| I just downloaded POV Ray 3.1g.r2 for the Mac, and I read through the
| documentation to see if there was an easy way to drape a full-color
| image over a height field. I didn't see any recipe.
|
| I have a full-color (satellite) image that is co-registered to a height
| field (a real digital elevation model). The two have the same pixel
| size, etc. How can I tell POV Ray that the image and height field have
| the same size?
|
| Also does POV Ray support any image formats other than TARGA?

Hi Eric, yes, PNG.  Or at least it should on your Mac version too I would
expect.
Just remember that image_map and height_field are on two different planes.
Images go onto the xy plane and HF onto the xz plane.  So you will need to
rotate the image down onto the HF by doing a rotate 90*x in the pigment
statement.
Short example:

height_field { tga "dempic.tga"  // the dem data
  pigment {
   image_map { tga "picdem.tga"}  // the satellite image
   rotate 90*x }  // fold image over onto HF surface (both are 1 unit square)
 scale <300,3,300> // xz resolution (width/height) of images used, y being
vertical scale size
}

Both start out square with their lower-left and near-left corners at <0,0,0>
so to scale up will go to that number of units far-right on the xz plane.
Doing a translate <-0.5,0,-0.5> before the scaling will center it.
Hope that's of some use to you.

Bob

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> "Eric Fielding" <eri### [at] sierrasjplnasagov> wrote in message
> news:396B3B20.D5865411@sierras.jpl.nasa.gov...

.... hmm, NASA. Thank god POV doesn't support inches and centimeters ;)

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In article <396B3B20.D5865411@sierras.jpl.nasa.gov> , Eric Fielding 
<eri### [at] sierrasjplnasagov>  wrote:

> Also does POV Ray support any image formats other than TARGA?

Of course it does.  Go to Edit-> Render Settings->Output->Save Image As.

You find a full explanation of the various settings in the file "POV-Ray
MacOS Read Me" in the Documentation folder.  The complete manual for POV-Ray
is in the file "pov.doc".


     Thorsten


____________________________________________________
Thorsten Froehlich
e-mail: mac### [at] povrayorg

I am a member of the POV-Ray Team.
Visit POV-Ray on the web: http://mac.povray.org

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Eric Fielding wrote:
> 
[...]
>
> I have a full-color (satellite) image that is co-registered to a height
> field (a real digital elevation model). The two have the same pixel
> size, etc. How can I tell POV Ray that the image and height field have
> the same size?
> 

You will probably also recognize some other problems using satellite images, for
example they already have some shading because of the sun lighting that will
interfere with the povray light.  Never the less it can lead to impressive
pictures.  

Hope to see some results of you soon :-)

Christoph

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

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Tom Melly wrote:
> 
> > "Eric Fielding" <eri### [at] sierrasjplnasagov> wrote in message
> > news:396B3B20.D5865411@sierras.jpl.nasa.gov...
> 
> .... hmm, NASA. Thank god POV doesn't support inches and centimeters ;)

Thanks for remembering ;-).

Seriously, this brings up the question of what the POV units do
represent. I guess they are normalized somehow? Maybe I read the
documentation too fast...

			++Eric

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Bob Hughes wrote:
> 
> | Also does POV Ray support any image formats other than TARGA?
> 
> Hi Eric, yes, PNG.  Or at least it should on your Mac version too I would
> expect.

Thorsten Froehlich wrote:
> 
> Of course it does.  Go to Edit-> Render Settings->Output->Save Image As.

I see PICT (MacOS), PNG, Targa, PPM, and QuickTime (MacOS). I was hoping
for TIFF or JPEG since those are the ones I use most, but I think I can
get my images into PNG or PPM format.

I assume that POV can read all of the formats that it can write (except
QuickTime, of course)?

> Just remember that image_map and height_field are on two different planes.
> Images go onto the xy plane and HF onto the xz plane.  So you will need to
> rotate the image down onto the HF by doing a rotate 90*x in the pigment
> statement.
> Short example:
> 
> height_field { tga "dempic.tga"  // the dem data
>   pigment {
>    image_map { tga "picdem.tga"}  // the satellite image
>    rotate 90*x }  // fold image over onto HF surface (both are 1 unit square)
>  scale <300,3,300> // xz resolution (width/height) of images used, y being
> vertical scale size
> }
> 
> Both start out square with their lower-left and near-left corners at <0,0,0>
> so to scale up will go to that number of units far-right on the xz plane.
> Doing a translate <-0.5,0,-0.5> before the scaling will center it.
> Hope that's of some use to you.

This looks like exactly what I need to get started. Thanks!!

Cheers,

				++Eric

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"Eric Fielding" <eri### [at] sierrasjplnasagov> wrote in message
news:396BEB7C.C96D9B77@sierras.jpl.nasa.gov...
|
| I see PICT (MacOS), PNG, Targa, PPM, and QuickTime (MacOS). I was hoping
| for TIFF or JPEG since those are the ones I use most, but I think I can
| get my images into PNG or PPM format.
|
| I assume that POV can read all of the formats that it can write (except
| QuickTime, of course)?

Jpeg format has always been tossed about as something POV-Ray should have (not
by any developers I suppose though?) but it always comes down to the fact it
is such a lossy file format it gets passed by.
I think you're safe to say that anything it outputs it reads as well.  People
have also talked plenty about a Mpeg or Avi output for the Windows platform
(among others too I guess).  Same subject comes up though about doing a
lengthy hard-working rendering of frames only to end up with a possible
problem dealing with compressed images and no way to get back to original
uncompressed images.
Call it fool-proofing if you will  :-)
Happy to hear you are getting to where you're going there.

Bob

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In article <396BE9AC.3BBBEB2C@sierras.jpl.nasa.gov>, Eric Fielding 
<eri### [at] sierrasjplnasagov> wrote:

> Seriously, this brings up the question of what the POV units do
> represent. I guess they are normalized somehow? Maybe I read the
> documentation too fast...

They really just represent whatever you want...they don't correspond to 
any actual physical measure. They are just "POV-Units".

-- 
Christopher James Huff - Personal e-mail: chr### [at] maccom
TAG(Technical Assistance Group) e-mail: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
Personal Web page: http://homepage.mac.com/chrishuff/
TAG Web page: http://tag.povray.org/

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In article <396BEB7C.C96D9B77@sierras.jpl.nasa.gov>, Eric Fielding 
<eri### [at] sierrasjplnasagov> wrote:

> I see PICT (MacOS), PNG, Targa, PPM, and QuickTime (MacOS). I was hoping
> for TIFF or JPEG since those are the ones I use most, but I think I can
> get my images into PNG or PPM format.
> 
> I assume that POV can read all of the formats that it can write (except
> QuickTime, of course)?

It can read PICT on the Mac version(as "sys"), PNG, TGA, POT, PPM, IFF, 
PGM, and GIF. GIF support may be dropped in future versions due to 
problems with the Unisys patent, and JPEG input will likely be added(but 
not output).

-- 
Christopher James Huff - Personal e-mail: chr### [at] maccom
TAG(Technical Assistance Group) e-mail: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
Personal Web page: http://homepage.mac.com/chrishuff/
TAG Web page: http://tag.povray.org/

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