I'm not a real expert on texturing, but maybe you should remove the 
diffuse and ambient statements from the finish. Or at least change their 
values to a number (between 0 and 1 i think) instead of D_GoldE and 
A_GoldE. It might work, it might not work, but it doesn't hurt trying 
it.

Good Luck

JWV
  "Christina B." <ccb### [at] tampabayrrcom> wrote in message 
news:3ec45e76$1@news.povray.org...
  I really appreciate your explanation - too bad you didn't write the 
documentation!  I didn't catch the difference between diffuse and 
specular before.  I will try changing the coding.

  Excuse the feeble coding because I have just been doing this this week 
- here is what I have now - 

  So far the cross is still 2 separate boxes - I haven't put them 
together yet.  (I'll have to read the documentation for union vs. 
merge.)  The coding I have now is -

  #declare F_MetalE  =
  finish {
      brilliance 6
      diffuse D_GoldE
      ambient A_GoldE
      
      metallic M
      specular 0.80
      roughness 1/120
  } 

  box { <.6, .5, 3>, <1.2, .65, 3> 
   texture{
    F_MetalE}
    finish
    {ambient .1
     } 
    } 
   box { <.8, -.4, 3>, <.95, 1, 3> 
    texture{
    F_MetalE}
     finish {ambient .1
     }}   
  -- 

  I haven't yet made the 2 boxes into one object.  I would have been 
happy to get any kind of light onto any part of either one of those but 
no matter which way  I change the location and look_at of light sources, 
they never show up.  I have sometimes seen a little light on the plane 
but it doesn't seem to be coming from a direction consistent with my 
coding, so obviously I am doing something awfully wrong.  The 
documentation isn't really helpful in this for me.

  Christina

  http://www.ccbrundage.net/saints/
  http://www.ccbrundage.net/
  http://web.tampabay.rr.com/ccb/
  http://www.thecelticplanet.com/
    "Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message 
news:3ec43c7a@news.povray.org...
      Posting the scene file in question would help finding the problem 
in
    this case.

      Let me introduce a rather technical explanation about how objects 
"shine"
    when light hits them and how this is achieved in a renderer like 
POV-Ray.

      It's clear that light reflects from objects and that's why we see 
these
    objects in the first place. However, this is a simplification. Light 
can
    reflect from the surface of an object in different ways depending on 
the
    properties of the surface.
      In a simplified lighting model (which is usually enough for making
    good-looking images) there are two ways light can reflect from a 
surface:
    Diffusely and specularly.

      Diffuse reflection assumes the surface is extremely rough at 
microscopic
    level and thus reflects light equally to all directions (all 
directions
    that can be seen from the surface, naturally). Less-technical 
synonyms for
    a diffuse surface are "matte" and "dull". The brightness of the 
surface
    is not dependent on the direction you are looking at it.

      Specular reflection assumes a very smooth surface, with little 
roughness,
    which causes light to be reflected mostly like a mirror does. The 
brightness
    of the surface is highly dependant on where do you look at it from: 
If
    the light is reflected directly at your eye, you see a bright spot 
at
    that place in the surface.

      Since most real-life surfaces are not purely diffuse nor specular, 
but
    something in between, this is simulated by calculating both 
properties
    and adding them together (even though it might not be 100% 
physically
    correct, it gives a result which looks good enough).

      Now, shiny surfaces are shiny because they have a very high 
specular
    property to them. They reflect a lot of light specularly (ie. in the
    reflected direction).
      This means that to get a shiny object, you have to specify a high
    specular property to it.

      One requirement for the object to look shiny is that light 
reflects
    from its surface to the camera. That is, parts of the surface must 
be
    oriented so that this happens.
      One problem which might arise is if you use objects with sharp 
edges
    and planar (ie. flat) surfaces. There simply might not be any 
surface on
    the object which is oriented correctly to show a shiny highlight.

      Objects in real life have seldom sharp edges and perfectly planar
    surfaces. Rounding the edges of your object helps a lot (the 
specular
    highlights will usually appear on the rounded edges because part of
    them will have the right orientation). Naturally positioning the 
camera
    and the light source so that they are at the proper angle with 
respect
    to a planar surface of the object will give a (usually big) 
highlight
    on this surface, but that's usually quite artificial (even though
    sometimes it gives a great look to the object).

      So from the above technical mumbo-jumbo we can conclude two 
requirements
    to make your object look shiny:

      1. Define a "finish { specular 1 }" (or a variant) in your object.

      2. Round the edges of your object. (This usually requires some 
modelling
         skills, but that's what rendering is all about.)

    -- 
    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

Attachments:
Download 'windows-1252' (8 KB)

And don't forget old cornedbeef that's already a bit green

Post a reply to this message