|
 |
The POV-Ray Object Collection is a place where you can freely store and
retrieve objects, macros, textures etc. under a common, very open license.
Geocities Project
------------------
Geocities, a free web hosting service that has been about for many years,
has announced that they're closing down on Oct 26th. This service has been
quite popular with successive generations of POV-Ray users as a place to
store their objects, macros, tutorials, galleries etc. There's currently an
effort being organised through the povray.general newsgroup to try and
preserve as much content of interest to the POV-Ray community as possible.
Part of that effort is to harvest some of the models for this collection. If
you're interested in helping in any way, please pick up the thread at
http://news.povray.org/povray.general/.
New Stuff
-----------
Earlier this month Bill Pragnell added the 5 Platonic, 13 Archimedean and 13
Catalan solids into the object collection. Each object can be rendered as a
mesh2 or in a wireframe/skeletal form showing the edges and vertices. The
include files also hold the coordinates of the vertices in an array, so that
you can use that data procedurally, for example to position copies of an
object at each vertex of your favourite shape. Each group is contained in
its own include file. See:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=ArchimedeanSolids&contributorTag=Bill
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=PlatonicSolids&contributorTag=Bill
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=CatalanSolids&contributorTag=Bill
In July Charles R provided a Bubble macro to add some randomly spaced
streams of bubbles as you might get from a fizzy drink. See:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=bubble&contributorTag=charlesr
The new DisplayCase macros produce a range of glass cases intended to show
off whatever you wish to exhibit. Using a single macro call you can produce
"Spherical", "Oblong", "Cylindrical" or "Box" shaped cases, using dimensions
and textures of your choice. The same macro enables you to place any of
these cases on top of a "Pedestal", "Tree", "Wallmount", "RoundPillar" or
"RectangularPillar" style mount. For illustrations of what it can do, see:
http://lib.povray.org/collection/displaycase/chrisb%201.0/displaycase.html
The PeriodicTable object is largely of academic interest, but could be handy
if you're keen on Chemistry. It's quite easy to change colors, textures,
font-style etc. for the various groups of elements. See:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=PeriodicTable&contributorTag=chrisb
The very latest additions are from Tim Atwood who has added his daffodil and
pillars objects and pipemrg macro (previously hosted on a geocities site) to
the collection.
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=daffodil&contributorTag=Tim%20A
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=pillars&contributorTag=Tim%20A
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/index2.php?objectName=PipeMrg&contributorTag=Tim%20A
Downloads
-----------
Downloads for the year-so-far are just over 15,000. There are currently 68
separate downloads available, many incorporating, or able to generate, lots
of separate objects.
The monthly download league table is at:
http://lib.povray.org/searchcollection/downloadsummary.php?rollup=1&sort=total.
Contributing
------------
Preparing stuff to go into the collection mainly just means following the
naming standards described at
http://lib.povray.org/usersguide/04contributing.html#prep. Self registration
takes a few minutes. When you subsequently log on as a registered user you
get access to the 'Contribute' button to enable you to submit an object.
Contributing objects usually only takes a few minutes once you've gotten
used to the form.
The submission form is just a single screen and is hopefully fairly
self-explanatory. Just in case, relevant hints are displayed at the top of
the screen as you pass from field to field and if you really get stuck, each
field is described in greater detail at
http://lib.povray.org/usersguide/04contributing.html#submission.
Support
--------
This newsgroup can be used for any questions related to contributing to the
collection, support on using any of the files in the collection or for
general discussions on the direction you'd like to see the collection take.
Regards,
Chris B.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
|
|
"Stephen" <mcavoysAT@aolDOTcom> wrote in message
news:p3l4c5dfgmh9b8fv2ffdu7n6ti28f5nb9f@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 10:22:22 +0100, "Chris B" <nom### [at] nomail com> wrote:
>
>>Downloads for the year-so-far are just over 15,000.
>
> It makes me wonder what the Pov user base is. </OT> :)
> --
>
> Regards
> Stephen
Yes, it would be interesting to know. This figure of course doesn't give us
any idea of that :-)
The closest indicator I suspect we'd be likely to get is to know the number
of reads for the more popular postings on the povray.general newsgroup over
the space of a few weeks. I don't know if that's even recorded anywhere
though.
The total number of downloads for a particular version of the executables
could also be a reasonable indicator.
Regards,
Chris B.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
|
|
On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:59:59 +0100, "Chris B" <nom### [at] nomailcom> wrote:
>> It makes me wonder what the Pov user base is. </OT> :)
>> --
>>
>Yes, it would be interesting to know. This figure of course doesn't give us
>any idea of that :-)
>
It would and it doesn't :)
>The closest indicator I suspect we'd be likely to get is to know the number
>of reads for the more popular postings on the povray.general newsgroup over
>the space of a few weeks. I don't know if that's even recorded anywhere
>though.
>
>The total number of downloads for a particular version of the executables
>could also be a reasonable indicator.
It ties in with the sub-sub thread earlier of who have you met who has heard of
PovRay. It is a nice to know.
--
Regards
Stephen
Post a reply to this message
|
|
