"Cousin Ricky" <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> The blue and gold are my high school alma mater's colors.  Sorry, no kitchen
> probe.
>
> Lessons learned:
>
> - Higher order polynomials are very sensitive to floating point error.  Use
>   isosurfaces instead.
>
> - Isosurfaces are slow.  Use higher order polynomials instead.
>
> - Counterintuitively, applying split_union off to the entire object slowed
>   down rendering by an order of magnitude.
>
> - Applying split_union off to Round_Box_Union and Round_Cylinder_Union (and
>   to similar custom-written macros) cut rendering times in half.
>
> - Area_light can be interminable.  This image was first rendered without
>   area lights.  The shadows of the handle and reflective sphere were done
>   in partial renders, then patched into the main image.

That is some very impressive modeling.  Wow.  Just wow.

 - Ricky

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I really like the selective reflection in the blue-and-gold texture, an effect
not usually attempted in most image posts I've seen. The entire image is
superb.

Ken W.

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Cousin Ricky nous illumina en ce 2008-05-18 12:27 -->
> The blue and gold are my high school alma mater's colors.  Sorry, no kitchen
> probe.
> 
> Lessons learned:
> 
> - Higher order polynomials are very sensitive to floating point error.  Use
>   isosurfaces instead.
> 
> - Isosurfaces are slow.  Use higher order polynomials instead.
> 
> - Counterintuitively, applying split_union off to the entire object slowed
>   down rendering by an order of magnitude.
> 
> - Applying split_union off to Round_Box_Union and Round_Cylinder_Union (and
>   to similar custom-written macros) cut rendering times in half.
> 
> - Area_light can be interminable.  This image was first rendered without
>   area lights.  The shadows of the handle and reflective sphere were done
>   in partial renders, then patched into the main image.
You realy need to add "adaptive" to your area_light. It will greatly improve 
your rendering time.
Start with adaptive 0, and increase it if you get artefacts.
With adaptive 0, it's beter to use some specific array samples: 5x5, 9x9, 17x17, 
33x33, 65x65,... this due to the way the adaptive sampling is conducted. If you 
use a treshold larger than adaptive 0, start with the next value in the list.
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
Very nice twist on an old cliché.

-- 
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

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"Cousin Ricky" <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> The blue and gold are my high school alma mater's colors.  Sorry, no kitchen
> probe.
>
.....
I think your pun image beats mine hands down, but I believe they make an
interesting pair. So, here it is for the sake of company.

Best Regards,
Mike C.

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Attachments:
Download 'rsocppop.jpg' (89 KB)

Preview of image 'rsocppop.jpg'

On Wed, 21 May 2008 17:11:30 EDT, "Mike the Elder" <nomail@nomail>
wrote:

>"Cousin Ricky" <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
>> The blue and gold are my high school alma mater's colors.  Sorry, no kitchen
>> probe.
>>
>.....
>I think your pun image beats mine hands down, but I believe they make an
>interesting pair. So, here it is for the sake of company.
>
That sphere is looking very reflective :)

Maybe we could have a RSOACP library?
-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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Jim Charter <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote:
> That's some beautiful modelling and texturing.  The piece of the plane
> next to the grip at the top looks like it is off center?  Perhaps an
> unfortunate illusion that it comes nearer the grip than it really does?

Thanks.  The blade is centered; the off-center look is an unfortunate illusion
that i didn't notice when i was placing the lamps.

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Alain <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
> You realy need to add "adaptive" to your area_light. It will greatly improve
> your rendering time.
> Start with adaptive 0, and increase it if you get artefacts.
> With adaptive 0, it's beter to use some specific array samples: 5x5, 9x9, 17x17,
> 33x33, 65x65,... this due to the way the adaptive sampling is conducted. If you
> use a treshold larger than adaptive 0, start with the next value in the list.

Let's see... (Double-checking "lamp.inc"...)

I'm using 5x5 with circular orient adaptive 1.


> Very nice twist on an old cliché.

Thank you.

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Cousin Ricky nous illumina en ce 2008-05-21 23:19 -->
> Alain <ele### [at] netscapenet> wrote:
>> You realy need to add "adaptive" to your area_light. It will greatly improve
>> your rendering time.
>> Start with adaptive 0, and increase it if you get artefacts.
>> With adaptive 0, it's beter to use some specific array samples: 5x5, 9x9, 17x17,
>> 33x33, 65x65,... this due to the way the adaptive sampling is conducted. If you
>> use a treshold larger than adaptive 0, start with the next value in the list.
> 
> Let's see... (Double-checking "lamp.inc"...)
> 
> I'm using 5x5 with circular orient adaptive 1.
> 
> 
>> Very nice twist on an old cliché.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
5x5 with adaptive 1 give you almost no gain over non-adaptive. It start at 3x3 
and occasionaly samples in between. You can go much higher.
In your case, adaptive 0 will very probably give good results. The area_light is 
relatively small compared to the light-object distance. The object receiving the 
shadow is close to the one casting it. The parts of the shadow that could cause 
problems are not visible.

Using 9x9 and adaptive 0 will be faster.

-- 
Alain
-------------------------------------------------
A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their
own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth
of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson

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Cousin Ricky wrote:
> The blue and gold are my high school alma mater's colors.  Sorry, no kitchen
> probe.
> 
> Lessons learned:
> 
> - Higher order polynomials are very sensitive to floating point error.  Use
>   isosurfaces instead.
> 
> - Isosurfaces are slow.  Use higher order polynomials instead.
> 
> - Counterintuitively, applying split_union off to the entire object slowed
>   down rendering by an order of magnitude.
> 
> - Applying split_union off to Round_Box_Union and Round_Cylinder_Union (and
>   to similar custom-written macros) cut rendering times in half.
> 
> - Area_light can be interminable.  This image was first rendered without
>   area lights.  The shadows of the handle and reflective sphere were done
>   in partial renders, then patched into the main image.

Fantastic!  Love the model and the concept.  Regarding isosurfaces, you 
may want to check out the isosurface approximation macro by Kevin Loney, 
  Jaap Frank, and Tor Olav Kristensen.  The latest version I know of was 
posted to this message:
   http://news.povray.org/47cc76fd%40news.povray.org

I've used it a couple times quite recently with excellent results.  Once 
you have an isosurface as you like it, you can have the macro make it 
into a mesh.  Then just use the mesh, which is quite fast to render. 
Its allowed me use some surfaces which I wasn't going to because they 
were just too slow (especially when I needed to render over and over.)

-- 
-The Mildly Infamous Blue Herring

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"Mike the Elder" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> "Cousin Ricky" <ric### [at] yahoocom> wrote:
> > The blue and gold are my high school alma mater's colors.  Sorry, no kitchen
> > probe.
> >
> .....
> I think your pun image beats mine hands down, but I believe they make an
> interesting pair. So, here it is for the sake of company.
>
> Best Regards,
> Mike C.

What, no prop-blur?

Nah, I'm just kidding, you guys are great.
Flexo

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