"[GDS|Entropy]" <gds### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message 
news:498ef8c1@news.povray.org...
> Well, they are kinda cool now I think, though  S_S_MediaTest3.pov 
> seems...wrong somehow...maybe its the darker clouds being on top? I don't 
> know. That file is the culmination of S_S2.inc and the media example 
> provided by Bob Hughes, the other image is just a segment of S_S2.inc, and 
> will likely be deprecated to an option of the final macro, once altered to 
> increase realisim.
>
> I would like peoples advice, optimizations and opinions before I turn this 
> into an animation/weather cabable macro, which I will do upon receipt of 
> any requisite advice or optimization from the community.

I only got a look at this tonight and right away noticed a few problems.

You scaled the low and high clouds differently, the original intent I had 
was for the scaling to match up so they blend together, keeping the same 
overall shape. Differing scales mismatch the low to high cloud blending.

The max_trace_level apparently caused the darkest parts in the clouds of the 
"Test3" scene, I put global_settings{max_trace_level 15} in and it caused 
that to brighten.

The transparency values in each density isn't needed (or used IIRC).

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but those density_map entries shouldn't be 
whole numbers, I think these were getting ignored since it should take 
values between 0 and 1 instead.

I spent some time making adjustments to the Test3 file and never got 
anything really usable once I began changing it. I'm guessing the stacked 
plane media idea might be trouble when attempting varying appearances.

Replacing your plane pigment's to keep them fully transparent to start with, 
so I don't know if they must be semi-transparent like you had made them 
(actually, the first set of planes as posted is rgbft 0.85*1.25=1.0625 so a 
slight bit more than the usual 1 max.)

All that aside, I'm surprised the renders posted here look as good as they 
do. Not saying that in a bad way or anything, I know what it's like trying 
to get media clouds to look right.

To be honest, I'm not sure this plan about stacking media planes will work 
well, especially considering how much slower it is. That, and it seems 
difficult to make changes to it and get a satisfying result each time. But 
don't let me stop you.
: )

Bob

Post a reply to this message