http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-103776.html
Freekin 30 meg StarGate.blend file. Doh.

Spent like 10 minutes trying write a Wavefront file with Blender,
gave up at around a 150meg obj file thinking I could make my own in less time!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_%28device%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Milky_way_stargate_with_very_detailed_glyphs2.svg

Any skilled ideas out there?

Something more like this, only not 30 or 150 megabytes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SG1stargate.jpg
or even like this:
http://www.stephenmeli.net/images/irisopen.jpg

Just to inflict interest, here a poor man's attempt:
Needs so much work. Like building a model, argh. Crude bumped disk so far.

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Attachments:
Download 'stargate2.png' (360 KB)

Preview of image 'stargate2.png'

wondering about a 3d-disc or cave-man wheel, a torus with right angles. how does
that get made? probably several ways, but the skilled way...

make it in parts for animation. add stationary bumped rings, certainly not
megabytes. Materials would be everything, ganite perhaps.

back to the drawing board as it were.
oh, who can make that lit up water effect in Stephen's version? way cool

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> Just to inflict interest, here a poor man's attempt:
> Needs so much work. Like building a model, argh. Crude bumped disk so far.

I've watched the show enough to know the stargate consists of 6 parts,
The outer ring, the inner ring, the chevrons, the top lights, the side 
lights,
and the water fountain effect in the middle.

The outer ring is just a cylinder ring with some gear-like crenellations
around the inside lip. It's mostly textured with a stone-like normal,
and a smooth spot where the locks might engage.

The inner ring has all the interesting glyphs (39?), I think you could
save those out as heightfield images, it's probably most of the detail
of the stargate. There's some ribs between the glyphs, more
crenellation on a lip, and a tapered inner edge.

The chevrons are the same shape all the way around the ring,
they're T shaped, following the same curve as the disk, the
V shaped part has grating for lights (there is an inner solid
lip unlike the model you linked to, and I think there's more than
six slots for light). The chevrons move in and out to lock the
gate in position.

The top lights are brighter, along with it's 4 chevron lights,
which shine thru the chevron grates. The light frame is
mostly translucent, and doesn't move.

The side lights are dimmer, I think they might only have
2 side lights shining through the chevron grates as well.
The bottom lights are the same as the side lights,
you just never see them usually, in Stargate: Atlantis you
see them in space sometimes.

The center effect probably could be done with something
like Rune's particle system.
http://runevision.com/3d/include/particles/

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"Tim Attwood" <tim### [at] comcastnet> wrote:
> > Just to inflict interest, here a poor man's attempt:
> > Needs so much work. Like building a model, argh. Crude bumped disk so far.
>
> I've watched the show enough to know the stargate consists of 6 parts,
> The outer ring, the inner ring, the chevrons, the top lights, the side
> lights,
> and the water fountain effect in the middle.
>
> The outer ring is just a cylinder ring with some gear-like crenellations
> around the inside lip. It's mostly textured with a stone-like normal,
> and a smooth spot where the locks might engage.
>
> The inner ring has all the interesting glyphs (39?), I think you could
> save those out as heightfield images, it's probably most of the detail
> of the stargate. There's some ribs between the glyphs, more
> crenellation on a lip, and a tapered inner edge.
>
> The chevrons are the same shape all the way around the ring,
> they're T shaped, following the same curve as the disk, the
> V shaped part has grating for lights (there is an inner solid
> lip unlike the model you linked to, and I think there's more than
> six slots for light). The chevrons move in and out to lock the
> gate in position.
>
> The top lights are brighter, along with it's 4 chevron lights,
> which shine thru the chevron grates. The light frame is
> mostly translucent, and doesn't move.
>
> The side lights are dimmer, I think they might only have
> 2 side lights shining through the chevron grates as well.
> The bottom lights are the same as the side lights,
> you just never see them usually, in Stargate: Atlantis you
> see them in space sometimes.
>
> The center effect probably could be done with something
> like Rune's particle system.
> http://runevision.com/3d/include/particles/

Whoa! The long version. heh.
AS I see it the milky way portal has 9 Chevrons, 7 of which are used for a
7-symbol address. Actually this design could only have come from "myth leakage"
the reality of horizontal "Mills" or concentric circles that aligned symbols on
them, powered by the vortex created by nature spirits co-mingling from above
and below ... oops there i go again speaking truth unrecognizable to current
mortals.

I can handle assembly, clearly the challenge is in creating theses shapes to
assemble. You mention cylinder and I think need only give cylinder thickness.

cave-man wheel should be a primative, either a square torus or thick cylinder.
The sum of shapes and materials = what one has the ability to create.

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Sorry, left ya hangin' on that last one didn't I.
Might be interesting to see the faces that read this, some with a gleam in their
eye, some with a blank stare.

If you imagined it correctly, you have seen not a doughnut with a hole in the
middle, but a solid disc with symbols upon which the Elder stood. The outer
"doughnuts" rotate and align to point the way, "that way". Rarely reaching the
edge and poof he was gone.

Responsibility managed the destruction of 13 of the "Mills" because
inexperienced ones ended up places in which they could not afford or even be
aware. There were 14 but only 13 were known.

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"alphaQuad" <alp### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
> http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-103776.html
> Freekin 30 meg StarGate.blend file. Doh.

That Blender mesh purportedly weighs in at around a billion polygons, yikes!

> Spent like 10 minutes trying write a Wavefront file with Blender,
> gave up at around a 150meg obj file thinking I could make my own in less time!
>

> Any skilled ideas out there?

Well, after seeing the render of the Blender model at
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=103776 I'm inspired to try
making one too... I'm thinking a lot of CSG and some heightfields should do it
for the most part, along with a few detail pieces modeled in Wings3d. I see
lots of greebling around the discs too, hmmm.

Looks like fun :)

-Rob

Post a reply to this message

"Robert McGregor" <rob### [at] mcgregorfineartcom> wrote:
> "alphaQuad" <alp### [at] earthlinknet> wrote:
> > http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-103776.html
> > Freekin 30 meg StarGate.blend file. Doh.
>
> That Blender mesh purportedly weighs in at around a billion polygons, yikes!
>
> > Spent like 10 minutes trying write a Wavefront file with Blender,
> > gave up at around a 150meg obj file thinking I could make my own in less time!
> >
>
> > Any skilled ideas out there?
>
> Well, after seeing the render of the Blender model at
> http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=103776 I'm inspired to try
> making one too... I'm thinking a lot of CSG and some heightfields should do it
> for the most part, along with a few detail pieces modeled in Wings3d. I see
> lots of greebling around the discs too, hmmm.
>
> Looks like fun :)
>
> -Rob

CSG was term I was looking for. POV can do it on its own, with the right author
I thought. Can't wait, presuming I might learn a thing or two. aQ

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"Tim Attwood" <tim### [at] comcastnet> wrote in message 
news:485eec4c$1@news.povray.org...
>> Just to inflict interest, here a poor man's attempt:
>> Needs so much work. Like building a model, argh. Crude bumped disk so 
>> far.
>
> The inner ring has all the interesting glyphs (39?), I think you could
> save those out as heightfield images, it's probably most of the detail
> of the stargate. There's some ribs between the glyphs, more
> crenellation on a lip, and a tapered inner edge.
>

Sounds like a perfect collaborative project for the object collection.

I reckon I can do the Glyphs for the Milky Way stargate pretty quickly 
because there's an SVG by Max Willis on the Wiki, so I can convert them into 
prism objects using Inkscape and cut them out of the inner disk using CSG.

So does the inner ring have a wedge shaped cross-section?

Regards,
Chris B.

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Robert McGregor wrote:

> Well, after seeing the render of the Blender model at
> http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=103776 I'm inspired to try
> making one too... I'm thinking a lot of CSG and some heightfields should do it
> for the most part, along with a few detail pieces modeled in Wings3d. I see
> lots of greebling around the discs too, hmmm.

You could always try my HFArch include file at lib.povray.org. It's very 
flexible for doing these kinds of things. I haven't thoroughly tested it 
with the POV-Beta, but I know that the first example won't render 
without a change in the minor radius of the arch. It works perfectly 
with the official version.

http://lib.povray.org/collection/hfarch/sam%201.0/stbhfarch.jpg
http://lib.povray.org/collection/hfarch/sam%201.0/stbhfarch.html


Sam

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"Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote in message 
news:485feae7$1@news.povray.org...
>
> "Tim Attwood" <tim### [at] comcastnet> wrote in message
> news:485eec4c$1@news.povray.org...
>>> Just to inflict interest, here a poor man's attempt:
>>> Needs so much work. Like building a model, argh. Crude bumped disk so
>>> far.
>>
>> The inner ring has all the interesting glyphs (39?), I think you could
>> save those out as heightfield images, it's probably most of the detail
>> of the stargate. There's some ribs between the glyphs, more
>> crenellation on a lip, and a tapered inner edge.
>>
> I reckon I can do the Glyphs for the Milky Way stargate pretty quickly
> because there's an SVG by Max Willis on the Wiki, so I can convert them 
> into
> prism objects using Inkscape and cut them out of the inner disk using CSG.
>

I've posted the 39 Glyphs as prism objects on povray.binaries.scene-files 
along with this very crude scene file that cuts them out of segments of a 
ring and assembles the segments into a circle. If anyone wants to use them 
to make a stargate I'd be happy to go through and scale and centre them as 
needed.

Regards,
Chris B.

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Attachments:
Download 'Stargate.JPG' (20 KB)

Preview of image 'Stargate.JPG'