The perfect really is the enemy of the good.  I downloaded POV-Ray in
2003, and quickly learned about the RSOCP tradition, yet it took me
nearly 4 years of careful overconsideration before I made my first PBI
post.  In the meantime, I accumulated a folder full of subfolders of
RSOCPs, which I didn't consider perfect enough to post at the time.  In
recent years, though, I've been posting occasional renders from these
subfolders.

Here are samples from one series from one of those subfolders, showing
improved metallic textures over the years.

metalballs.jpg was created a month after I downloaded POV-Ray.  At that
early date, I didn't yet realize that the 'metallic' keyword could apply
to reflections as well as highlights.  metalballs1a.jpg is a
much-improved redux a little over a year later, using my second attempt
at what would eventually become RC3Metal in the Object Collection.

metal_balls1.jpg was an early attempt at blurred reflection, combining
micronormals with my first attempt at what would eventually become
RC3Metal.  This was just short of 10 months using POV-Ray.

metalballs2.jpg was created after 11 months of using POV-Ray, using my
second attempt at what would eventually become RC3Metal.

metalballs2a-s1.jpg was more than 2 years after that, using my third
attempt at a set of metal macros.  The metals are different than with
metalballs2.jpg, but little progress was made with the textures
themselves.  Major progress would not come until 2013, after the
introduction of the 'albedo' keyword in POV-Ray 3.7 and some lessons
from clipka.

metalballs2b.jpg uses RC3Metal and incorporates lessons learned since
2013, mainly relying on micronormals for diffuse reflection, rather than
using a low reflection-to-diffuse ratio as in previous renders.  I also
used my latest pre-fab render rig, which has a better implementation of
Fresnel gloss than in the prior images, and has a darker sky for higher
contrast.  (The sky still needs major work; the reduction in hue and
saturation of the blue from zenith to horizon is not simulated here.)
To smooth out the microtextures and the highlights on the tile edges, I
rendered the scene at 3x size in EXR, then reduced the image.

metalballs2b-lb.jpg is the same scene with simulated iris diffraction.

The metal textures aren't perfect, and I don't anticipate that they ever
will be; but they're certainly good enough to post.

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Download 'metalballs.jpg' (45 KB) Download 'metalballs1a.jpg' (52 KB) Download 'metal_balls1.jpg' (21 KB) Download 'metalballs2.jpg' (147 KB) Download 'metalballs2a-s1.jpg' (154 KB) Download 'metalballs2b.jpg' (173 KB) Download 'metalballs2b-lb.jpg' (177 KB)

Preview of image 'metalballs.jpg'

Preview of image 'metalballs1a.jpg'

Preview of image 'metal_balls1.jpg'

Preview of image 'metalballs2.jpg'

Preview of image 'metalballs2a-s1.jpg'

Preview of image 'metalballs2b.jpg'

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