POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.advanced-users : Suggested / desired new ray / trace functions : Suggested / desired new ray / trace functions Server Time
26 Apr 2024 00:12:05 EDT (-0400)
  Suggested / desired new ray / trace functions  
From: Bald Eagle
Date: 20 Jul 2018 12:25:00
Message: <web.5b520bd35c9d6fb1c437ac910@news.povray.org>
After playing around for too long, and far too late with Mike's 3D offset
surface, I was thinking about how to expand on this and make it a broadly useful
tool.

Simply mapping the convex hull of a simple object would allow conversion to a
union of triangles, or a proper mesh{}, and "bumping it out" by a scalar
multiple of the normal vector would allow the generation of a (I find)
frequently desired nesting shape.

In order to model, meshify, and offset more complex objects, I was thinking that
an advanced version of trace() and perhaps a user-accessible version of the ray
intersection testing used for inside/outside or crossing tests could help define
such complex objects.

If the latter could return a scalar count, then the advanced trace () function
could return the position and normal of those crossing points, or just the
first, or second, or whichever one desired.


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