Hello,

I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but a search through this
newsgroup has not unearthed it...

Anyway, I would like to use Chris Colefax's hair macro with Moray to
produce a nice grassy field.  However, every attempt I've made has
failed.  Could anyone kindly explain how I can get Moray and the hair
macro to talk to each other?

My ultimate dream is to create a small heightfield, grass it up, and
then let PR render it.  I would be very appreciative if someone could
give as specific an example as possible...

Thanks in advance,

Dan

Post a reply to this message

Hmm, if you have any sort of programming skills, you could make a plugin.
Otherwise, you should probably just model the rest of your scene in Moray,
then export it to POV-Ray, where you then grass up the heightfield using
the include file(or whatever it is).

If you do choose the former, I think that everyone here would appreaciate
it greatly!

PS- I don't think this has been covered on the newgroup.

Dan wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but a search through this
> newsgroup has not unearthed it...
>
> Anyway, I would like to use Chris Colefax's hair macro with Moray to
> produce a nice grassy field.  However, every attempt I've made has
> failed.  Could anyone kindly explain how I can get Moray and the hair
> macro to talk to each other?
>
> My ultimate dream is to create a small heightfield, grass it up, and
> then let PR render it.  I would be very appreciative if someone could
> give as specific an example as possible...
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Dan



--
You Know You've Been Raytracing Too Long When:
 You watch the Making of Mist video to see what modeler they use

Post a reply to this message

Alex Magidow wrote:

> Hmm, if you have any sort of programming skills, you could make a plugin.
> Otherwise, you should probably just model the rest of your scene in Moray,
> then export it to POV-Ray, where you then grass up the heightfield using
> the include file(or whatever it is).
>
> If you do choose the former, I think that everyone here would appreaciate
> it greatly!
>
> PS- I don't think this has been covered on the newgroup.
>
> Dan wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but a search through this
> > newsgroup has not unearthed it...
> >
> > Anyway, I would like to use Chris Colefax's hair macro with Moray to
> > produce a nice grassy field.  However, every attempt I've made has
> > failed.  Could anyone kindly explain how I can get Moray and the hair
> > macro to talk to each other?
> >
> > My ultimate dream is to create a small heightfield, grass it up, and
> > then let PR render it.  I would be very appreciative if someone could
> > give as specific an example as possible...
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> >
> > Dan
>
> --
> You Know You've Been Raytracing Too Long When:
>  You watch the Making of Mist video to see what modeler they use

Well,

Chris Colefax has once again jumped into the breach.  He showed me how to do
it, and it's actually very easy and very effective.  You just need his hair
macro, the mesh compression macro, and the ability to have Moray export .raw
files...

Dan

PS Thanks, Chris!

Post a reply to this message

How does that work? The compressed mesh and hair files don't deal with .raw...do
they? If so, where can I get them? Do they export to non-POV formats?

Dan wrote:

> Alex Magidow wrote:
>
> > Hmm, if you have any sort of programming skills, you could make a plugin.
> > Otherwise, you should probably just model the rest of your scene in Moray,
> > then export it to POV-Ray, where you then grass up the heightfield using
> > the include file(or whatever it is).
> >
> > If you do choose the former, I think that everyone here would appreaciate
> > it greatly!
> >
> > PS- I don't think this has been covered on the newgroup.
> >
> > Dan wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but a search through this
> > > newsgroup has not unearthed it...
> > >
> > > Anyway, I would like to use Chris Colefax's hair macro with Moray to
> > > produce a nice grassy field.  However, every attempt I've made has
> > > failed.  Could anyone kindly explain how I can get Moray and the hair
> > > macro to talk to each other?
> > >
> > > My ultimate dream is to create a small heightfield, grass it up, and
> > > then let PR render it.  I would be very appreciative if someone could
> > > give as specific an example as possible...
> > >
> > > Thanks in advance,
> > >
> > > Dan
> >
> > --
> > You Know You've Been Raytracing Too Long When:
> >  You watch the Making of Mist video to see what modeler they use
>
> Well,
>
> Chris Colefax has once again jumped into the breach.  He showed me how to do
> it, and it's actually very easy and very effective.  You just need his hair
> macro, the mesh compression macro, and the ability to have Moray export .raw
> files...
>
> Dan
>
> PS Thanks, Chris!



--
You Know You've Been Raytracing Too Long When:
 You start playing "Guess The Rendering App" during raytraced scenes in movies,
to the
annoyance of all your friends watching with you..  (they have *no* idea what
you're
talking about)

Post a reply to this message

Alex Magidow wrote:

> Hmm, if you have any sort of programming skills, you could make a plugin.
> Otherwise, you should probably just model the rest of your scene in Moray,
> then export it to POV-Ray, where you then grass up the heightfield using
> the include file(or whatever it is).

What a wonderful world we live in, where "Grass" has become a verb overnight
:)

Post a reply to this message

Man, you should be proud to view etymology at work.Imagine what a person from 90
years ago would have thought of the way american english has changed. This is
the kind of change that goes down in history now.

Ok, I'll get off my soapbox and try to dissolve this illusion of self
importance.
Happy tracing!

Simon de Vet wrote:

> Alex Magidow wrote:
>
> > Hmm, if you have any sort of programming skills, you could make a plugin.
> > Otherwise, you should probably just model the rest of your scene in Moray,
> > then export it to POV-Ray, where you then grass up the heightfield using
> > the include file(or whatever it is).
>
> What a wonderful world we live in, where "Grass" has become a verb overnight
> :)



--
You Know You've Been Raytracing Too Long When:
 You start playing "Guess The Rendering App" during raytraced scenes in movies,
to the
annoyance of all your friends watching with you..  (they have *no* idea what
you're
talking about)

Post a reply to this message

Alex Magidow wrote:

> How does that work? The compressed mesh and hair files don't deal with .raw...do
> they? If so, where can I get them? Do they export to non-POV formats?
>

Here is what Chris told me:

"After quickly loading up Moray and running a few tests, I have to agree
about the mesh support - the only possibilities seem to be to load up a
RAW file, or a UDO converted from some other format.  Using the first
method, I loaded the CHESS.RAW example mesh that comes with Moray into a
basic scene, rotating, translating, and texturing it as I wanted.

Then, I exported the scene to a POV file, which also creates a *.INC
file with the scene textures, and a *.IN1 file (that's a numeral one on
the end) with the triangle mesh definition.  To use the Hair Growth
macro file I first compressed this *.IN1 file using Warp's Mesh
Compressor, default settings (note that Warp has just released a new
Windows version which you can download from my site).

With the MESH.IN1 file converted to a MESH.PCM file, I now edited the
exported POV file, changing:

  #include "MESH.IN1"
  object {RAWTriangleObjectName
     [transformations and textures]}

to:

  #include "PCMHAIR.MCR"
  [hair options]
  object {read_mesh ("MESH.PCM")
     [transformations and textures]}"

HTH,

Dan

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