Version 2 now.  Skipped over 1, and yes I named the previous Zip with a
number 3 for three files in it.  Mistake, maybe I'll cancel that to prevent
confusion since it wasn't a good macro to begin with.

I made plenty of changes so this thing would be more versatile, my crude way
of macroing has improved a little (maybe).  Its no miracle of POVing but it
works.

Zip file has both a small Mpeg and Jpeg included for you to look at
immediately (the animation was from early on so it's bad, sorry).

There's a message stream to tell you the current position (approx.) and a
couple other things.  I almost switched to the Clock Modifier Macro but kept
with ClockMod.inc for now.  It isn't needed for stills but making a frame
from animation is what I do.

The Pov test scene file is your guide to the many parameters.  And pay
little attention to the scenery... wasn't meant to be extravagant.

Careful how you use this macro, high winds can be dangerous  :-)
Ok, I've said enough by now I think.

Bob H.
--
http://webpages.charter.net/omniverse/omniverse.htm

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Attachments:
Download 'macro_tornado.zip' (169 KB)

Noticed just after getting this file posted that the file with the macro in
it, macro tornado.mcr, says 1 POV unit = 1 Meter and it should say 10
meters.  Not that I really tried to accurately scale it and it's fairly a
users concept as to what the right scale might be in their scenes, but 10
times is a ways off.
Plus, I probably shouldn't have used the MCR extension as the CodeMax editor
completely ignores it.  You can't get the file open via context menu,
right-clicking on it as #include "macro tornado.mcr" is useless.  Is okay up
until you want to edit it.
Oh well, I was going to replace it here but my Internet access broke down
for three and one-half days immediately following that upload.  Think I'll
just wait and see if I have another update to it later on instead.

Bob H.

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the movie was impressive.  i tried to run it in 3.1 and found out
that it was a megapov thing.  will it run in 3.5?  i'm a newbie and
i've got my hands full with learning 3.1 so i think i should avoid
3.5 until it comes out officially, but i loved the tornado and am
interested to know if it will "fly" in it.  i'm scared of megapov...
i believe a certain level of expertise beyond mine is a requirement
for running unofficial pov versions.

thank you, miker


"Bob H." <omn### [at] msncom> wrote in message
news:3b28a558@news.povray.org...
> Version 2 now.  Skipped over 1, and yes I named the previous Zip with a
> number 3 for three files in it.  Mistake, maybe I'll cancel that to
prevent
> confusion since it wasn't a good macro to begin with.
>
> I made plenty of changes so this thing would be more versatile, my crude
way
> of macroing has improved a little (maybe).  Its no miracle of POVing but
it
> works.
>
> Zip file has both a small Mpeg and Jpeg included for you to look at
> immediately (the animation was from early on so it's bad, sorry).
>
> There's a message stream to tell you the current position (approx.) and a
> couple other things.  I almost switched to the Clock Modifier Macro but
kept
> with ClockMod.inc for now.  It isn't needed for stills but making a frame
> from animation is what I do.
>
> The Pov test scene file is your guide to the many parameters.  And pay
> little attention to the scenery... wasn't meant to be extravagant.
>
> Careful how you use this macro, high winds can be dangerous  :-)
> Ok, I've said enough by now I think.
>
> Bob H.
> --
> http://webpages.charter.net/omniverse/omniverse.htm
>
>
>

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MR wrote:

> interested to know if it will "fly" in it.  i'm scared of megapov...
> i believe a certain level of expertise beyond mine is a requirement
> for running unofficial pov versions.

There is nothing inherently more difficult about MegaPov than there
is the official version. Every feature that is in the official verison
is also in MegaPov and works the same way. The only real difference
is the added feature set in MegaPov. That said it would be wise at
this time to get used to POV-Ray v3.5 in the near future as it will
become the new standard.

-- 
Ken Tyler

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Sorry for not having stated in this message about MegaPOV.  The prior
posting a few posts back does say this though.  Don't know why I failed to
mention it this time.

"MR" <a### [at] bnet> wrote in message news:3bb85a47$1@news.povray.org...
> the movie was impressive.  i tried to run it in 3.1 and found out
> that it was a megapov thing.  will it run in 3.5?  i'm a newbie and
> i've got my hands full with learning 3.1 so i think i should avoid
> 3.5 until it comes out officially, but i loved the tornado and am
> interested to know if it will "fly" in it.  i'm scared of megapov...
> i believe a certain level of expertise beyond mine is a requirement
> for running unofficial pov versions.

Well, it would run in official v3.1 okay if not for one thing I believe.
That being sphere_sweep.  It's a perfect object for the tornado shapes.
blob could be used but for the equivalent shapes it might be much slower.
Aside from that, media methods are the only other non-3.1 thing (if I recall
my file right) and can be changed to have no 'method'.

Needless to say this thing is very slow to animate even at low quality media
settings.  With high enough samples to get a decent render it isn't
animatable within a day or two on moderate machines.  But foregoing more
perfect results it can be animated small with low samples in a relatively
short time.

As Ken has said, you'd be doing yourself a favor by moving on to v3.5.  I
just don't recommend you doing so until it's final release while it goes
through changes and needs many reinstalls.  The MegaPOV aspect of it isn't
really an issue, v3.5 is just a upgraded POV-Ray (obviously).  Using MegaPOV
in itself along with v3.1 is actually easy too, just put the executable into
the \bin\ subfolder and run it instead of the pvengine.exe.  It is seamless
enough and you can use Shortcut links (Windows anyhow) to either one you
wish.  It isn't a whole new installation.  Besides that the difference in
running scripts depends only on adding the #version unofficial MegaPov
directive if not already present or using none for official files (it still
renders officially too).

You could have a look at the tornado script I posted to
povray.text.scene-files in the meantime too.  It uses cone and torus
instead, just not comparable to this macro tornado.

MegaPOV link just in case:  http://www.nathan.kopp.com/patched.htm

Bob H.

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