Hi all!
Following an (old) discussion (1999 I think) between Margus Ramst, Chris
Huff and myself, I rediscovered the simple way to create an Infinity Box,
using interior_texture in MegaPOV, and playing with max_trace_level in the
global_settings.
Here is the code. An image will be posted in p.b.i.
Enjoy!

Thomas

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Attachments:
Download 'infinityboxtest.pov.txt' (5 KB)

Wow!

Erm, I'm kind of new to megapov so could you possibly explain how that
works? 'cause I've read the source and I can't see where the cool pattern
comes from!

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com


Thomas de Groot <t.d### [at] internlnet> wrote in message
news:3af2776c@news.povray.org...
> Hi all!
> Following an (old) discussion (1999 I think) between Margus Ramst, Chris
> Huff and myself, I rediscovered the simple way to create an Infinity Box,
> using interior_texture in MegaPOV, and playing with max_trace_level in the
> global_settings.
> Here is the code. An image will be posted in p.b.i.
> Enjoy!
>
> Thomas
>
>
>

Post a reply to this message

"Tek" <tek### [at] evilsuperbraincom> schreef in bericht
news:3af3786c@news.povray.org...
> Wow!
>
> Erm, I'm kind of new to megapov so could you possibly explain how that
> works? 'cause I've read the source and I can't see where the cool pattern
> comes from!
>
Sure!
I won't pretend to understand all the (technical POV) ins and out concerned,
but basically, I used a hollow cube and textured the outside with a
transparant glass (Glass_1), like you would texture any object. But I added
the MegaPOV feature interior_texture, developped by Chris Huff. In this
image, interior_texture is Chrome_Metal_3 as a mirror. I verified that the
glass was perfectly transparant (Filter and/or Transmit values in the
pigment command) and the mirror perfectly reflective (finish/reflection =
1). I also increased the ambient of the mirror.
Inside de cube, I added a small yellow light and a small sphere. This way,
the cube acts as if constructed of one-way mirrors: Everything inside will
be reflected infinitely, but you can look inside through the one-way glass.
Then I added the ribs of the cube.
I then discovered that increasing max_trace_level increased the depth of
rendering of the reflections. When you put its value at 10, for instance,
the reflections are only two or three levels deep. The value 100
approximates infinity (at least visually) although you can see the limit of
the last reflection rendered on several places in the image (I let you
discover yourself!).
I discovered also incidentally, that if you render the cube without the
ribs, render time increases dramatically. This is probably due to the
increasingly small and infinite(?)  reflections near the mirror "joints".
Interestingly, if you turn on the interior ior of the cube (Commented out in
the source file) you will get different refractions of the infinite world
inside. In my opinion, less 'natural' looking than without the ior. You can
also turn off the hollow statement, but that does not seem to change much...

Thomas

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Oh I get it! The only thing I didn't understand was the interior_texture,
and when I saw your image I couldn't figure out what was going on! It looked
like a wierd kind of fractal or something :)

BTW, the ambient 1 on the chrome should have no effect as the pigment is rgb
0, 0, 0. And if the pigment wasn't black each successive reflection would
actually get brighter (which could look pretty cool). I tried using a sphere
instead of the cube, it looks pretty cool if you offset the light inside a
bit.

That's a nice trick, thanks for the explanation!

--
Tek
http://www.evilsuperbrain.com


Thomas de Groot <t.d### [at] internlnet> wrote in message
news:3af3ada7@news.povray.org...
> "Tek" <tek### [at] evilsuperbraincom> schreef in bericht
> news:3af3786c@news.povray.org...
> > Wow!
> >
> > Erm, I'm kind of new to megapov so could you possibly explain how that
> > works? 'cause I've read the source and I can't see where the cool
pattern
> > comes from!
> >
> Sure!
> I won't pretend to understand all the (technical POV) ins and out
concerned,
> but basically, I used a hollow cube and textured the outside with a
> transparant glass (Glass_1), like you would texture any object. But I
added
> the MegaPOV feature interior_texture, developped by Chris Huff. In this
> image, interior_texture is Chrome_Metal_3 as a mirror. I verified that the
> glass was perfectly transparant (Filter and/or Transmit values in the
> pigment command) and the mirror perfectly reflective (finish/reflection =
> 1). I also increased the ambient of the mirror.
> Inside de cube, I added a small yellow light and a small sphere. This way,
> the cube acts as if constructed of one-way mirrors: Everything inside will
> be reflected infinitely, but you can look inside through the one-way
glass.
> Then I added the ribs of the cube.
> I then discovered that increasing max_trace_level increased the depth of
> rendering of the reflections. When you put its value at 10, for instance,
> the reflections are only two or three levels deep. The value 100
> approximates infinity (at least visually) although you can see the limit
of
> the last reflection rendered on several places in the image (I let you
> discover yourself!).
> I discovered also incidentally, that if you render the cube without the
> ribs, render time increases dramatically. This is probably due to the
> increasingly small and infinite(?)  reflections near the mirror "joints".
> Interestingly, if you turn on the interior ior of the cube (Commented out
in
> the source file) you will get different refractions of the infinite world
> inside. In my opinion, less 'natural' looking than without the ior. You
can
> also turn off the hollow statement, but that does not seem to change
much...
>
> Thomas
>
>

Post a reply to this message