At long last, I've managed to get a full render of my IRTC Entry, Into the 
Abyss.  This isn't a perfect print, some of the lights were erroneously not 
area lights, and I didn't use radiosity, but since it took 6+ hours on 15 PIIs 
running PVMegaPov, I'm not complaining just now.  I'll fix that stuff for the 
final render.

The one major problem I see is that ugly line of bricks just behind the glows. 
  It must be something in this version of Pov, because it doesn't show up 
under Windows.  Has anyone encountered isos doing strange things under Linux 
and/or PVM?  I'd like to talk to you if so.

So, comments?

Geoff

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in <3AC### [at] darwincwruedu> Geoff Wedig wrote:

>At long last, I've managed to get a full render of my IRTC Entry,
>Into the Abyss.

Geoff,
great sky!

The green stuff on the tower on the right doesn't look good. It stops 
abrubtly at the edges of the stones on the upper left side. Actualy the 
stones in this region also look somewhat strange, as if a seam is in 
the tower.

Ingo

-- 
Photography: http://members.home.nl/ingoogni/
Pov-Ray    : http://members.home.nl/seed7/

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ingo <ing### [at] homenl> wrote:

> in <3AC### [at] darwincwruedu> Geoff Wedig wrote:

>>At long last, I've managed to get a full render of my IRTC Entry,
>>Into the Abyss.

> Geoff,
> great sky!

Can't take (much) credit, as it's mainly the galaxy include.  I've tweaked
it some, primarily to make it work under radiosity with ambient really low,
but it's basically pure.  I did have to try a dozen or so 'skies' to find
one that fit stylistically, then had to tweak the colors around, etc.

> The green stuff on the tower on the right doesn't look good. It stops 
> abrubtly at the edges of the stones on the upper left side. Actualy the 
> stones in this region also look somewhat strange, as if a seam is in 
> the tower.

Yeah, the moss under the spouts needs work.  I don't see what seam you're
talking about.  Can you clarify?

Thanks!

Geoff

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Geoff Wedig <wed### [at] darwincwruedu> wrote in message
news:3AC### [at] darwincwruedu...
> At long last, I've managed to get a full render of my IRTC Entry, Into the
> Abyss.  This isn't a perfect print, some of the lights were erroneously
not
> area lights, and I didn't use radiosity, but since it took 6+ hours on 15
PIIs
> running PVMegaPov, I'm not complaining just now.  I'll fix that stuff for
the
> final render.

> So, comments?

Wow. That's really nice.

A couple of nit-picks...

The green stuff on the tower on the right. If that's supposed to be a result
of
stuff coming from the pipe then it's a little too wide at the top. Cone
shaped
would probably look better.

Is the man throwing that glow ball, or just standing watching it. I get
the impression that it is the latter. If it's supposed to be the former,
maybe a
more dramatic posture would be better.

The smoke looks great, but I'm not sure about the speckly background.
What's it supposed to be?

Gail
--
*************************************************************************
* gsh### [at] monotixcoza                *   Step into the abyss,           *
* http://www.rucus.ru.ac.za/~gail/   *   and let go.        Babylon 5   *
*************************************************************************
* The difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer *
*************************************************************************

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Gail Shaw <gsh### [at] monotixcoza> wrote:


> Wow. That's really nice.

Thanks.

> A couple of nit-picks...

> The green stuff on the tower on the right. If that's supposed to be a result
> of
> stuff coming from the pipe then it's a little too wide at the top. Cone
> shaped
> would probably look better.

It is, or rather it's a parabola, but the top is a little too flattened. 
I'm going to have to tweak it.

> Is the man throwing that glow ball, or just standing watching it. I get
> the impression that it is the latter. If it's supposed to be the former,
> maybe a
> more dramatic posture would be better.

Well, he did throw it, but now he's watching it fall. ;)  A drammatic pose
would go against the mood I'm going for, so I went with something a little
more subtle.


> The smoke looks great, but I'm not sure about the speckly background.
> What's it supposed to be?

Abstract mainly. :/  I don't want the picture to feel entirely real.

Geoff

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in <3ac1e0e4@news.povray.org> Geoff Wedig wrote:

>I don't see what seam you're
>talking about.  Can you clarify?
>

See picture

Ingo

-- 
Photography: http://members.home.nl/ingoogni/
Pov-Ray    : http://members.home.nl/seed7/

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ingo <ing### [at] homenl> wrote:

> in <3ac1e0e4@news.povray.org> Geoff Wedig wrote:

>>I don't see what seam you're
>>talking about.  Can you clarify?
>>

> See picture

Ah.

I think that's just the angle.  There isn't actually a seam there, but
because there is a run of blocks with close to the same vertical edge,
coupled with the ange where those edges are really thin, and inadequate AA
(ugh, I've got to go *higher* again?) it has an odd spot.  At least, that's
what I think is going on.  Maybe if I give it a different random seed,
that'll go away.

Geoff

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Wow Geoff, that's beautiful!

What makes it take so long to render on so
many computers? The blocks being isosurfaces?

You could just put something in front of those
blocks that line up just behind the glows, perhaps
a pipe or ladder. You could also remove the focus
from that area by moving the main glow futher
out and maybe even increase the arc.

I love the moss! Is it textural or procedural? Is it
applied per block or on the whole structure? It
looks a little strange on the right side where it
abruptly stops below a pipe or ladder or something.

I think the vapor looks great now, strong in the center
and gets wispy towards the edges. Is it just one
mass of media or several or what?

What is the little red light on the far left turret?

I think the background sky doesn't live up to the rest
of the picture.

Still, a totally awesome render!
=Bob=

"Geoff Wedig" <wed### [at] darwincwruedu> wrote in message
news:3AC### [at] darwincwruedu...
: At long last, I've managed to get a full render of my IRTC Entry, Into the
: Abyss.  This isn't a perfect print, some of the lights were erroneously
not
: area lights, and I didn't use radiosity, but since it took 6+ hours on 15
PIIs
: running PVMegaPov, I'm not complaining just now.  I'll fix that stuff for
the
: final render.
:
: The one major problem I see is that ugly line of bricks just behind the
glows.
:   It must be something in this version of Pov, because it doesn't show up
: under Windows.  Has anyone encountered isos doing strange things under
Linux
: and/or PVM?  I'd like to talk to you if so.
: So, comments?
: Geoff

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=Bob= <bob### [at] threestrandscom> wrote:

> Wow Geoff, that's beautiful!

Thanks.

> What makes it take so long to render on so
> many computers? The blocks being isosurfaces?

Well, partly that, lots of media, high AA settings, several area lights and
realizing afterwards that I was running the debug build and not the
optimized one. ;)  The current run is 1/3 done after < 1 hour.  Of course,
the media is in the lower half.

> You could just put something in front of those
> blocks that line up just behind the glows, perhaps
> a pipe or ladder. You could also remove the focus
> from that area by moving the main glow futher
> out and maybe even increase the arc.

It ended up to be another case of max_gradient that, for whatever reason,
didn't show up under Windows.  I've adjusted the max_grad for that section
of walling, but not elsewhere.

> I love the moss! Is it textural or procedural? Is it
> applied per block or on the whole structure? It
> looks a little strange on the right side where it
> abruptly stops below a pipe or ladder or something.

Er, it's a procedural texture.  Each block with moss is independently
textured, though the blocks above the path level are a single texture.  Each
block is textured based upon it's placement and a few random numbers.  The
moss under the pipes is especially complex, and I'm still tweaking it to get
it right.

> I think the vapor looks great now, strong in the center
> and gets wispy towards the edges. Is it just one
> mass of media or several or what?

Primarily one.  There is a thick, gradient media lower down, to hide the
ground, but it's only really thickening the media lower down.  There's also
a few bubbles (spheres) of thick media to hide stuff that I didn't want to
show. ;)

> What is the little red light on the far left turret?

If you look closely (really closely), it's a control panel of some sort,
with a few lights, mostly red.  Just another bit of abandonned tech.

> I think the background sky doesn't live up to the rest
> of the picture.

It has lost a bit without radiosity.  The colors have faded and I need to
tweak it.

> Still, a totally awesome render!

Thanks.  Appreciate the comments and the favorable review.

Geoff

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Coming along nicely. Doesn't look so flat/papery or uniform.

--
David Fontaine  <dav### [at] faricynet>  ICQ 55354965
My raytracing gallery:  http://davidf.faricy.net/

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