Hi guys

A cosine surface done with k3dsurf, and my very first rendering with
radiosity (been around for years, o'course, I never got around to it until
yesterday).

In flights of fancy, a freon ocean on a small planet in a distant solar
system, with a twinned sun and moon.

Simple planes and a standard povray sky, with a Colefax galaxy and
lensflare.

Code in scene-files, if anybody's interested.
-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

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Preview of image 'floater.jpg'

"Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
news:42ef9453@news.povray.org...
> Hi guys
>
> A cosine surface done with k3dsurf, and my very first rendering with
> radiosity (been around for years, o'course, I never got around to it until
> yesterday).
>
> In flights of fancy, a freon ocean on a small planet in a distant solar
> system, with a twinned sun and moon.
>
> Simple planes and a standard povray sky, with a Colefax galaxy and
> lensflare.
>
> Code in scene-files, if anybody's interested.
> --

Nice scene, Stefan!
Perhaps de clouds towards the horizon are somewhat weird. There seems to be
no perspective there...

Time to do also the Solaris ocean, don't you think so? Has been one of my
old old wishes....

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot spake:


> Nice scene, Stefan!
> Perhaps de clouds towards the horizon are somewhat weird. There seems to
> be no perspective there...

Erm.. you are absolutely correct of course. Hmm...
 
> Time to do also the Solaris ocean, don't you think so? Has been one of my
> old old wishes....

Victory! Somebody has read Cosmos as well. A sea named Solaris...

Thanks for the comments.

Regards,
-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

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"Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
news:42f0b2c5@news.povray.org...
>
> Victory! Somebody has read Cosmos as well. A sea named Solaris...
>

err... I mean Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, with its sentient ocean. Is that the
one you mean? Or is that a different Solaris?

thomas

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Stefan Viljoen <spamnot@ wrote:
> Hi guys
> 
> A cosine surface done with k3dsurf, and my very first rendering with
> radiosity (been around for years, o'course, I never got around to it until
> yesterday).
> 
> In flights of fancy, a freon ocean on a small planet in a distant solar
> system, with a twinned sun and moon.
> 
> Simple planes and a standard povray sky, with a Colefax galaxy and
> lensflare.
> 
> Code in scene-files, if anybody's interested.
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
Cool scene Stefan.  Is it something about South Africa?  Gail Shaw once 
did a similar scene.  Maybe this one?
http://gail.rucus.net/images/Titan.jpg
Where the liquid is only liquid at very cold temperature.

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"Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlnet> wrote:
> "Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
> news:42f0b2c5@news.povray.org...
> >
> > Victory! Somebody has read Cosmos as well. A sea named Solaris...
> >
>
> err... I mean Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, with its sentient ocean. Is that the
> one you mean? Or is that a different Solaris?
>
> thomas

I knew which Solaris you meant! :) I've only read the novel (many years
ago); I'm yet to see the movie.  Trying to do POV images to illustrate some
of Lem's work could be a real challenge... I've read quite a few of his
short stories & several of his novels. I think I prefer the short stories,
although "The Futurological Congress" was pretty mind-blowing.

I'd like to see a POV render of a pair of Lem's robotic 'constructors'
engaged in one of their philosophical debates.

I read another wonderful SF novel a couple of years ago that had a sentient
ocean as one of its protagonists. The name escapes me ATM, but it was a
humourous, slightly cyberpunk, romp around the galaxy, containing all sorts
of neat goodies.

This novel had another interesting liquid life-form, which could be fun to
render. In its native state it just sits there looking like a beautiful
glowing blue pool, but when a human or other sentient entity touches the
liquid, they begin to have a telepathic experience. If they allow
themselves to go with this experience, the liquid will merge with them
symbiotically, giving the person an extended lifespan, permanent telepathic
& telekinetic ability, as well as the ability to pass the symbiote on to
others. Encountering this liquid life-form caused great change & division
in the human race!

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Stefan Viljoen <spamnot@<removethis>polard.com> wrote:
> Hi guys
>
> A cosine surface done with k3dsurf, and my very first rendering with
> radiosity (been around for years, o'course, I never got around to it until
> yesterday).

Wow! I wish my first radiosity pic looked this good, Stefan. Well done!

> In flights of fancy, a freon ocean on a small planet in a distant solar
> system, with a twinned sun and moon.

Is Freon really blue in bulk? Anyway, it looks nice and it does look like a
low density liquid to my untrained eyes. :)

> Simple planes and a standard povray sky, with a Colefax galaxy and
> lensflare.

I would expect a planet with a Freon ocean to have *very* severe rainstorms,
as the atmosphere attempts to condense at nightfall. :) E.E 'Doc' Smith
wrote about a planet with a hydrosphere like that, where they had 40 feet
of rain every night.

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PM 2Ring spake:

> "Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlnet> wrote:
>> "Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
>> news:42f0b2c5@news.povray.org...
>> >
>> > Victory! Somebody has read Cosmos as well. A sea named Solaris...
>> >
>>
>> err... I mean Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, with its sentient ocean. Is that
>> the one you mean? Or is that a different Solaris?
>>
>> thomas

I saw the movie which was a bit naff IMHO. On the Cosmos LP (can you
remember those?!) there was a song called "A sea named Solaris" which I
thought you were referring to. I should actually have said "listened
Cosmos".

Regards,
-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

Post a reply to this message

PM 2Ring spake:

> I knew which Solaris you meant! :) I've only read the novel (many years
> ago); I'm yet to see the movie.  Trying to do POV images to illustrate

The movie is confusing and a bit of a disappointment. But then, I may have
below-average intelligence and bad taste...!

> some of Lem's work could be a real challenge... I've read quite a few of
> This novel had another interesting liquid life-form, which could be fun to
> render. In its native state it just sits there looking like a beautiful

Hmm - sounds like an Alien to me! :)

-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

Post a reply to this message

PM 2Ring spake:

> Stefan Viljoen <spamnot@<removethis>polard.com> wrote:
>> Hi guys
>>
>> A cosine surface done with k3dsurf, and my very first rendering with
>> radiosity (been around for years, o'course, I never got around to it
>> until yesterday).
> 
> Wow! I wish my first radiosity pic looked this good, Stefan. Well done!

Thanks! Sometimes, this hobby feels like cheating - you rustle something up,
render it and BAM! It looks nice (most of the time...) You just never know
how it is going to come out - THAT is why I raytrace. Answer undefined!
 
>> In flights of fancy, a freon ocean on a small planet in a distant solar
>> system, with a twinned sun and moon.
> 
> Is Freon really blue in bulk? Anyway, it looks nice and it does look like
> a low density liquid to my untrained eyes. :)

No idea - freon should only be liquid at quite high pressure and thus most
likely high temperature as well (sucking my thumb a bit here - not a
scientist, me). Maybe it will be blue? Who knows. I made it blue
deliberately to subconciously trigger "ocean" in the viewers mind...
Ommmmm......

>> Simple planes and a standard povray sky, with a Colefax galaxy and
>> lensflare.
> 
> I would expect a planet with a Freon ocean to have *very* severe
> rainstorms, as the atmosphere attempts to condense at nightfall. :) E.E
> 'Doc' Smith wrote about a planet with a hydrosphere like that, where they
> had 40 feet of rain every night.

I really don't know - IMHO at human-livable pressures and temperatures freon
is a gas, only coalescing at "human-relative" very high pressures. I would
expect a planet with naturally ocurring freon oceans to have quite a high
gravity as well, and maybe be as big (or bigger than) Jupiter, for example.
This might also imply a very hot planet (guessing here) and an absolutely
lethal environment for an unprotected human. Percipitation seems highly
unlikely, since that is drivent by waxing and waning solar energy (school
geography is LONG ago) and not variations in ambient gas pressures...

But anyway, thanks for the compliment and looking at my pic.

Kind regards,
-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

Post a reply to this message

Stefan Viljoen <spamnot@ nous apporta ses lumieres en ce 2005-08-05 16:55:
> PM 2Ring spake:
> 
> 
>>Stefan Viljoen <spamnot@<removethis>polard.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Hi guys
>>>
>>>A cosine surface done with k3dsurf, and my very first rendering with
>>>radiosity (been around for years, o'course, I never got around to it
>>>until yesterday).
>>
>>Wow! I wish my first radiosity pic looked this good, Stefan. Well done!
> 
> 
> Thanks! Sometimes, this hobby feels like cheating - you rustle something up,
> render it and BAM! It looks nice (most of the time...) You just never know
> how it is going to come out - THAT is why I raytrace. Answer undefined!
>  
> 
>>>In flights of fancy, a freon ocean on a small planet in a distant solar
>>>system, with a twinned sun and moon.
>>
>>Is Freon really blue in bulk? Anyway, it looks nice and it does look like
>>a low density liquid to my untrained eyes. :)
> 
> 
> No idea - freon should only be liquid at quite high pressure and thus most
> likely high temperature as well (sucking my thumb a bit here - not a
> scientist, me). Maybe it will be blue? Who knows. I made it blue
> deliberately to subconciously trigger "ocean" in the viewers mind...
> Ommmmm......
> 
> 
>>>Simple planes and a standard povray sky, with a Colefax galaxy and
>>>lensflare.
>>
>>I would expect a planet with a Freon ocean to have *very* severe
>>rainstorms, as the atmosphere attempts to condense at nightfall. :) E.E
>>'Doc' Smith wrote about a planet with a hydrosphere like that, where they
>>had 40 feet of rain every night.
> 
> 
> I really don't know - IMHO at human-livable pressures and temperatures freon
> is a gas, only coalescing at "human-relative" very high pressures. I would
> expect a planet with naturally ocurring freon oceans to have quite a high
> gravity as well, and maybe be as big (or bigger than) Jupiter, for example.
> This might also imply a very hot planet (guessing here) and an absolutely
> lethal environment for an unprotected human. Percipitation seems highly
> unlikely, since that is drivent by waxing and waning solar energy (school
> geography is LONG ago) and not variations in ambient gas pressures...
> 
> But anyway, thanks for the compliment and looking at my pic.
> 
> Kind regards,
You CAN find some freons that are liquid at ambient presure and room temperature!
Freon is a family 
on chloro-fluoro carbons, small molecules  vaporize early while big molecules stay
liquid at much 
higher temperature. Just look at printed circuit boards cleaning, the washer I saw in
a documentary 
had a large sliding transparent pannel that was hand closed over the component to be
cleaned! It 
looked hardly airtight, it was more like a splash guard.
Anyway, you don't want to go on any planet that have freon oceants, whatever that
passes as "air" 
will not be breathable.

Alain

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"Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
news:42f3b3c6@news.povray.org...
> PM 2Ring spake:
>
> > I knew which Solaris you meant! :) I've only read the novel (many years
> > ago); I'm yet to see the movie.  Trying to do POV images to illustrate
>
> The movie is confusing and a bit of a disappointment. But then, I may have
> below-average intelligence and bad taste...!
>
There are two movies: one by Tarkovsky, which is far the best one but rather
lengthy and sometimes cryptic, but follows well the book; the other is a US
remake from a few years ago, but where the focus is shifted to the love
story. I only saw the first one (and not completely...). From what you
write, I suppose you have seen the Tarkovsky one?  :-)

Thomas

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"PM 2Ring" <nomail@nomail> schreef in bericht
news:web.42f33e32bb739016a196ebe30@news.povray.org...
>
> I would expect a planet with a Freon ocean to have *very* severe
rainstorms,
> as the atmosphere attempts to condense at nightfall. :) E.E 'Doc' Smith
> wrote about a planet with a hydrosphere like that, where they had 40 feet
> of rain every night.
>

Greetings, Lensman...

thomas

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Alain spake:

>> 
>> Kind regards,
> You CAN find some freons that are liquid at ambient presure and room
> temperature! Freon is a family

See? A scientist... :)

> on chloro-fluoro carbons, small molecules  vaporize early while big
> molecules stay liquid at much higher temperature. Just look at printed
> circuit boards cleaning, the washer I saw in a documentary had a large
> sliding transparent pannel that was hand closed over the component to be
> cleaned! It looked hardly airtight, it was more like a splash guard.
> Anyway, you don't want to go on any planet that have freon oceants,
> whatever that passes as "air" will not be breathable.

So I thought... but hey! It's just a piccy...
-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

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Thomas de Groot spake:

> 
> "Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
> news:42f3b3c6@news.povray.org...
>> PM 2Ring spake:
>>
>> > I knew which Solaris you meant! :) I've only read the novel (many years
>> > ago); I'm yet to see the movie.  Trying to do POV images to illustrate
>>
>> The movie is confusing and a bit of a disappointment. But then, I may
>> have below-average intelligence and bad taste...!
>>
> There are two movies: one by Tarkovsky, which is far the best one but
> rather lengthy and sometimes cryptic, but follows well the book; the other
> is a US remake from a few years ago, but where the focus is shifted to the
> love story. I only saw the first one (and not completely...). From what
> you
> write, I suppose you have seen the Tarkovsky one?  :-)

Well I only knew of the new American remake - didn't know there was another.
All that was nice about the recent US made one was the music. But, I
suspect, like all films of published books, the film will always
disappoint...
-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

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Among other things, Stefan Viljoen saw fit to write:

> No idea - freon should only be liquid at quite high pressure and thus most
> likely high temperature as well (sucking my thumb a bit here - not a
> scientist, me).

Usually, to liquefy a gas, you either raise the pressure or lower the
temperature (or both). So no, it can't be a liquid under higher
temperature, unless the effect of the pressure is more important. There are
some substances which melt (from solid to liquid) under pressure (water is
the paramount example), and recently some mixtures have been discovered to
solidify when heated, but I'm not aware of such "strange" behaviours
existing for the liquid/gas conversion.

According to google, some usual freons have boiling points around -30
degrees (Celsius or Fahrenheit, they're the same at -32) at 1 atm, that
means they can be liquid under normal pressure and not too low temperature.

-- 
light_source{9+9*x,1}camera{orthographic look_at(1-y)/4angle 30location
9/4-z*4}light_source{-9*z,1}union{box{.9-z.1+x clipped_by{plane{2+y-4*x
0}}}box{z-y-.1.1+z}box{-.1.1+x}box{.1z-.1}pigment{rgb<.8.2,1>}}//Jellby

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Jellby spake:

> Among other things, Stefan Viljoen saw fit to write:
> 
>> No idea - freon should only be liquid at quite high pressure and thus
>> most likely high temperature as well (sucking my thumb a bit here - not a
>> scientist, me).
> 
> Usually, to liquefy a gas, you either raise the pressure or lower the
> temperature (or both). So no, it can't be a liquid under higher

I stand corrected... but the image still stands... get it? The image still
STANDS...

Geez I suck at 0235 in the morning. 

-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

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I found this site about Lem's Solaris, with renders of the Ocean in Bryce:

http://www.hansego.de/LEM/Solaris_1972/solaris_1972.html

Interesting. However, I think we can do better in POV :-)

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot spake:

> I found this site about Lem's Solaris, with renders of the Ocean in Bryce:
> 
> http://www.hansego.de/LEM/Solaris_1972/solaris_1972.html
> 
> Interesting. However, I think we can do better in POV :-)
> 
> Thomas

Hmm - those images look pretty nice anyway...

-- 
Stefan Viljoen
Software Support Technician / Programmer
Polar Design Solutions

Post a reply to this message

"Stefan Viljoen polard.com>" <spamnot@<removethis> schreef in bericht
news:4308cb84@news.povray.org...
>
> Hmm - those images look pretty nice anyway...
>
True. I like them too, and they are pretty close to what Lem describes.
Still... I am thinking about isosurfaces, meshes, and media... I am
currently re-reading the book and I admit that often Lem is confusing or
contradictory in his descriptions of the Ocean, and particularly the strange
artifacts it generates (mimoids, symmetriads, extensors, agilus...).

Thomas

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"Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlnet> wrote:
> "PM 2Ring" <nomail@nomail> schreef in bericht
> news:web.42f33e32bb739016a196ebe30@news.povray.org...
> >
> > I would expect a planet with a Freon ocean to have *very* severe
> rainstorms,
> > as the atmosphere attempts to condense at nightfall. :) E.E 'Doc' Smith
> > wrote about a planet with a hydrosphere like that, where they had 40 feet
> > of rain every night.
> >
>
> Greetings, Lensman...

Greetings, Lensman!
FWIW, I sell disposable contact lenses. :)

> thomas

Hi Thomas,

Sorry I didn't reply earlier - I've either been too sick (with the flu) or
too busy at work.

I've been reading a lot of old "Astounding" mags from the 1950s recently.
Now I'll have to reread all those Lensman stories again. :) The first time
was more than 30 years ago, so I'm sure I've forgotten heaps.

To render a Lensman's Lens would be fun... I guess it will take media and
animation to do it properly. I just did a quick Google Image search, & it
doesn't look like anyone's tried to do one yet...

Also, it'd be fun to do a Doc Smith style space battle, but I doubt I have
the memory for thousands of space ships arranged in concentric spheres.

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