Hi again,

do you remember the fern I posted some weeks ago? Bad news: it starts over
again. If you are tired seeing fern pics, let me know.

Well... I posted the source once in p.b.s-f but it is outdated. After these
tests I collected all "plant-creation-specific" problems and wrote a more
geberic solition for these tasks by using POV macros (to use memory macros I
switched to MegaPov).

This set of macros (I call it for now a "plant-creation toolkit") can be
used to create plants in general. I know there are a lot of macros available
to create trees, grass or similar. However, I like to WRITE the code and
MODEL manually rather than just USING macros or using some 2nd, 3rd or 4th
party products. You may call me crazy ;-)

Although the fern is still a bit buggy I have a result I want to post here.
Please excuse the psychedelic background. It is just a bozo pattern giving
some colours which may occur in a wood-floor scene (greenish, browns and
orange/yellows). The vase is gone as well, this is a free-floating fern ;-)

Unfortunately the ill and dead leaves (features already implemented) aren't
visible here (they are but you have to know where). Randomisation is hard to
control after several hundrets of iterations....

have fun,
regards,
SY

PS: the second image is a very healthy test wing. Simple but nice.

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Attachments:
Download 'test.jpg' (22 KB) Download 'test2.jpg' (48 KB)

Preview of image 'test.jpg'

Preview of image 'test2.jpg'

I'd love to see more ferns! In fact I'm kind of disappointed that the folks
are not working on spline trees in pov and stuff like that ;-)

--
Apache
http://geitenkaas.dns2go.com/experiments/
apa### [at] yahoocom

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Nice. When will we get to see other plant-types.

 -Shay

Jürgen Scharfy <sch### [at] surfeuat> wrote in message
news:3c86337a@news.povray.org...

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> Nice. When will we get to see other plant-types.

When the fern is finished. But when is it finished...? I never know. Maybe I
should suspend it for a while and build other plants meanwhile. Would
improve the macros, too (I guess)

regards
SY

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> I'd love to see more ferns! In fact I'm kind of disappointed that the
folks
> are not working on spline trees in pov and stuff like that ;-)

You have been heard ;-)
There is no danger that I will spam the group with fern pics.... due to the
scary processing time :-O

regards
SY

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On Wed, 6 Mar 2002 17:00:01 +0100, "Apache" <apa### [at] yahoocom>
wrote:
>In fact I'm kind of disappointed that the folks
> are not working on spline trees in pov and stuff like that ;-)

who said not ?

ABX

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Will your set of macros be able of simulating wind and gravity and things
like that?

--
Apache
http://geitenkaas.dns2go.com/experiments/
apa### [at] yahoocom

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I'm talking about all those people who aren't ;-)

--
Apache
http://geitenkaas.dns2go.com/experiments/
apa### [at] yahoocom

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"Jürgen Scharfy" wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> This set of macros (I call it for now a "plant-creation toolkit") can be
> used to create plants in general. I know there are a lot of macros available
> to create trees, grass or similar. However, I like to WRITE the code and
> MODEL manually rather than just USING macros or using some 2nd, 3rd or 4th
> party products. You may call me crazy ;-)

No, but if you want others to use your toolkit too you should take care of
making it easy to use and write some documentation, if people need to dig
through the whole code to customize the parameters there won't be many who
will use it.

And even if you write things yourself it's often useful to have a look at
similar tools that have previously been made.

Christoph

-- 
POV-Ray tutorials, IsoWood include,                 
TransSkin and more: http://www.tu-bs.de/~y0013390/  
Last updated 21 Feb. 2002 _____./\/^>_*_<^\/\.______

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On Wed, 6 Mar 2002 16:19:50 +0100, "J�rgen Scharfy" <sch### [at] surfeuat>
wrote:
> do you remember the fern I posted some weeks ago?

Yes

> I like to WRITE the code and
> MODEL manually rather than just USING macros

perhaps you can be interested in
http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html

ABX

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> Will your set of macros be able of simulating wind and gravity and things
> like that?

Huh! No. (Not yet?)
Parsing time is 1 1/2 h on a 500MHz PIII. This is the PC I (illegally) used
in my office. At home I have a PRE-MMX Pentium 200Mhz.... I guesstimate
(according to previous rendering comparisons) that parsing time would be at
least 5-8 hours. Each frame... All is done in POV macros no external
programs. I once thought about porting to Delphi but this would cut my
chances of developing the code to 1/3. Simply undoable. It is just a set of
handy (plant-related) tools. Not a simulation prog.

However, beside the parsing time it would be rather easy to implement. At
least a "fake" simulation and not really a fully computed one. Manipulating
the stem(s) and the arrangement of the leaves is very easy and modular. But
I could never try it out! .-)

regards
SY

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> > party products. You may call me crazy ;-)
>
> No, but if you want others to use your toolkit too you should take care of
> making it easy to use and write some documentation, if people need to dig
> through the whole code to customize the parameters there won't be many who
> will use it.

Thank you for the explanation :-)
Now I know what I did wrong the last 10 years I was busy as software
developer :-)))
Just kidding.

Beside that I don't expect that anyone will use these macros (except
myself), as separate Windows-native code applications exist for shure which
make possible better results within few seconds....
It doesn't make sense to write these macros beside the fact that I can be
proud of myself that I managed a challenge which wouldn't exist if I'd use
ready-for-use code *g*
See?

> And even if you write things yourself it's often useful to have a look at
> similar tools that have previously been made.

It is my speciality NOT to look at others code. Re-inventing the weel is fun
and prevents of making the same mistakes while it simultaneously gives the
chance of making completely new ones! *lol*

have fun,

regards
SY

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> > do you remember the fern I posted some weeks ago?
>
> Yes

Good *g*

> perhaps you can be interested in
> http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibonacci/fibnat.html

Very interesting summary about Fibonacci numbers. Thanks for posting.
regards
SY

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"Jürgen Scharfy" <sch### [at] surfeuat> wrote in message
news:3c86337a@news.povray.org...
> Hi again,

> to create trees, grass or similar. However, I like to WRITE the code and
> MODEL manually rather than just USING macros or using some 2nd, 3rd or 4th
> party products. You may call me crazy ;-)

Sometimes, reinveinting the wheel can be most amusing and intellectually
challenging, I think.

Congratulations on those excellent ferns!

Fernando.

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I think that porting it to delphi/pascal or c when the macros are 100%
finished wouldn't be a very difficult thing to do (providing that you don't
use the trace() functionalities). If I'd ever find the time/energy/appetite
to do that I can do that (only with your permission of course).

--
Apache
http://geitenkaas.dns2go.com/experiments/
apa### [at] yahoocom

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Reinventing the wheel is a nice thing to do. Especially when those new
wheels turn out to be better ones.  ;-)

--
Apache
http://geitenkaas.dns2go.com/experiments/
apa### [at] yahoocom

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> I think that porting it to delphi/pascal or c when the macros are 100%
> finished wouldn't be a very difficult thing to do (providing that you
don't

No, I don't think so either.

> use the trace() functionalities). If I'd ever find the
time/energy/appetite
> to do that I can do that (only with your permission of course).

Not at all. The macros are very simple in syntax and run even on 3.1g. I
just used megaPov due to the memory macros which speed up things
significantly.

Feel free to modify the code (when I posted it). However, there is a
disadvantage in using anything else than POV macros. Since it is only a
toolset you need to write some code to model your own plants. On a ported
version you'd need C,C++, Java or Delphi or whatever to do this. Macros can
be used by anyone who uses PoV.

With the time I expect to have a small set of plants ready for use. But
whenever I create a new plant it would have to be ported again (beside some
enhancements in the toolset or new macros).....

Developing is not the difficult part. The challenge is to maintain the
software and to keep it alive while improving it at the same time. :)

regards
SY

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> Reinventing the wheel is a nice thing to do. Especially when those new
> wheels turn out to be better ones.  ;-)

*g*
at least my wheel will probably not better but at least *different*.
Somehow.

regards
SY

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> Sometimes, reinveinting the wheel can be most amusing and intellectually
> challenging, I think.

Indeed.

> Congratulations on those excellent ferns!

Thanks a lot.
Today I'll fix the bug in the wrinkles and enhance the leaf's stems. They
aren't flexible enough yet.

regards
SY

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On Wed, 6 Mar 2002 23:09:29 +0100, "Apache"
<apa### [at] yahoocom> wrote:

>Reinventing the wheel is a nice thing to do. Especially when those new
>wheels turn out to be better ones.  ;-)

I hope you don't mean "better" as in what I did with my mass-spring
model -- invented a triangular wheel to improve the square one by
removing one bump per revolution :)


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

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> I hope you don't mean "better" as in what I did with my mass-spring
> model -- invented a triangular wheel to improve the square one by
> removing one bump per revolution :)

*lol*
if you drive fast enough it will work ... and computers get faster and
faster .... .-)

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