I say "crap" because it turned out so differently from what I had planned it
that it's almost an insult to post it. My fireflies are too bright and the
A0.5 really ruined it. I wanted it to render faster, after the power outage
and all, so I set it like that. What a stupid decision. Anyway, until I
figure out a way to speed up the rendering or something, here's "Fireflies
at night".

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Attachments:
Download 'mygrass2.jpg' (33 KB)

Preview of image 'mygrass2.jpg'

It's still kinda neat, doesn't look all that bad if you realize what you're
supposed to be seeing.  The fireflies here (known as lightning bugs) are around
the trees instead, probably because I have no lawn, and usually seem to go
higher as the night goes on.

Bob

"TonyB" <ben### [at] panamac-comnet> wrote in message
news:38dd8a53@news.povray.org...
| I say "crap" because it turned out so differently from what I had planned it
| that it's almost an insult to post it. My fireflies are too bright and the
| A0.5 really ruined it. I wanted it to render faster, after the power outage
| and all, so I set it like that. What a stupid decision. Anyway, until I
| figure out a way to speed up the rendering or something, here's "Fireflies
| at night".
|
|
|

Post a reply to this message

>It's still kinda neat, doesn't look all that bad if you realize what you're
>supposed to be seeing.

Thanks... I guess. :)

>The fireflies here (known as lightning bugs) are around
>the trees instead, probably because I have no lawn, and usually seem to go
>higher as the night goes on.

I've seen two types here in Panama. One type looks like a cockroach, only
smaller. It doesn't glow continuously, but rather flickers like a spark. It
is orange. I've seen those only in grassy areas (a playground was where I
first spotted them). The other type is green. It's also like a roach, only
thinner and smaller. They glow nice and softly for... well, I've never seen
them turn off. They're my favorite type.

If anyone has seen the anime/manga Rurouni Kenshin, the fireflies I was
shooting for were the type from the "goodbye" scene, when Kenshin says
"sayonara" to Kaoru for the "last time", and goes off to fight Makoto
Shishio. Beautiful scene (the kind that brings tears to your eyes). Great
music (Cavalleria Rusticana, Pedro Mascagniani).

PS: If anyone wants me to, I can post a screenshot of that episode.

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BTW, I ran into a strange "bug" while creating this scene. The only way I
got it to render was with -UL. As you can imagine, each firefly is a
lightsource. There are about 100+ of them. The problem occurs when you don't
have -UL. First it reports an error "Slab building error" and then a box
comes out saying "Failed to allocate memory for message string.", when I
click "OK" it reports "Returned from render (non-zero return value)". If I
press the "Stop" button, then a message fills up the message pane really
quickly and it crashes, blaming it on kernel32.dll*. Is this bad?


*
MEGAPOV caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 0257:bff7b997.
Registers:
EAX=00000000 CS=0257 EIP=bff7b997 EFLGS=00000246
EBX=bff7b97e SS=025f ESP=01f4e9c0 EBP=03092e78
ECX=000000ac DS=025f ESI=0051a400 FS=74b7
EDX=00000000 ES=025f EDI=00000008 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
ff 76 04 e8 26 89 ff ff 5e c2 04 00 56 8b 74 24
Stack dump:
0050d528 004b3610 0051a400 00000000 0050d528 03092e78 00000008 0051508e
bff54579 bff7b97e 004b35b1 00000fe8 00916b4f 00916b00 bff7b97e 00000000

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On Sat, 25 Mar 2000 23:22:01 -0500, "TonyB"
<ben### [at] panamac-comnet> wrote:

>I've seen two types here in Panama. One type looks like a cockroach, only
>smaller. It doesn't glow continuously, but rather flickers like a spark. It
>is orange. I've seen those only in grassy areas (a playground was where I
>first spotted them).

In late May or Early June these buggers gather around for mating.
There are thousands of them on a tree. What strikes me is that they
flash in perfect unison, giving a very surreal look to granny's town.


Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
Personal e-mail : pet### [at] usanet
TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

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http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1281/MeganM5.html

Pictures of Fireflies. We have lots where people don't spray their yards
with Chem-Lawn or whatever... But I have never seen them blink in unison.

"Peter Popov" <pet### [at] usanet> wrote in message
news:qb7dOPTsf+gc+X4DbYDqVcSQKXUz@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 25 Mar 2000 23:22:01 -0500, "TonyB"
> <ben### [at] panamac-comnet> wrote:
>
> >I've seen two types here in Panama. One type looks like a cockroach, only
> >smaller. It doesn't glow continuously, but rather flickers like a spark.
It
> >is orange. I've seen those only in grassy areas (a playground was where I
> >first spotted them).
>
> In late May or Early June these buggers gather around for mating.
> There are thousands of them on a tree. What strikes me is that they
> flash in perfect unison, giving a very surreal look to granny's town.
>
>
> Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
> Personal e-mail : pet### [at] usanet
> TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

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On Sun, 26 Mar 2000 07:51:47 -0500, "Bill DeWitt"
<the### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:

>http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1281/MeganM5.html
>
>Pictures of Fireflies. We have lots where people don't spray their yards
>with Chem-Lawn or whatever... But I have never seen them blink in unison.

The unison seems to be localised in domains of a couple of meters in
size. If two trees are adjacent it way happen that the touching parts
flash together. Or if a tree is big enough several big flashing spots
may be observed. It is a yet unexplained phenomenon afaik.


Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
Personal e-mail : pet### [at] usanet
TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

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I have a few photos the type of lightning (yes, not spelled lightening) bug we
have in these parts.  Not very good photographs but does show one lit up.
Just a sidebar on these names using the AOL dictionary:

lightning bug (noun)

First appeared 1778

 : FIREFLY
fire*fly (noun)

First appeared 1658

 : any of various winged nocturnal beetles (esp. family Lampyridae) that produce
a bright soft intermittent light by oxidation of luciferin esp. for courtship
purposes.


Bob

"Peter Popov" <pet### [at] usanet> wrote in message
news:HGbeOFZo1mK6yX6naQrxEY7iv4Lb@4ax.com...
| On Sun, 26 Mar 2000 07:51:47 -0500, "Bill DeWitt"
| <the### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
|
| >http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/1281/MeganM5.html
| >
| >Pictures of Fireflies. We have lots where people don't spray their yards
| >with Chem-Lawn or whatever... But I have never seen them blink in unison.
|
| The unison seems to be localised in domains of a couple of meters in
| size. If two trees are adjacent it way happen that the touching parts
| flash together. Or if a tree is big enough several big flashing spots
| may be observed. It is a yet unexplained phenomenon afaik.
|
|
| Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
| Personal e-mail : pet### [at] usanet
| TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'litnngbg.jpg' (12 KB)

Preview of image 'litnngbg.jpg'

Speaking of Lightning bugs, you might want to check this out:
http://www.raph.com/3dartists/jesus1.jpg

Do hope you enjoy.

--
H.E. Day

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>Do hope you enjoy.


Oh, I did. :) Nice. How did he do that? And why don't others do it more
often?

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