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From: philguy
Subject: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 22 May 2009 05:15:00
Message: <web.4a166bd8be4096595a8d9d390@news.povray.org>
In some of my pov-projects I came up with a helpful way of manipulating objects
- something I call "nonlinear scaling". For instance, when I have an upright
cylinder and I want to make it "wavy", I would set the x- and z-scaling to
depend on the y-coordinate. Here's a code snippet:

#declare slicecount = 0;
#declare delta_y = .01;
#while (slicecount < 5)
intersection{
  cylinder{<0,0,0>,<0,5,0>,1 pigment{rgb <0,1,.5>}}
  box{<-2,0,-2>,<2,delta_y,2> pigment{rgb <0,1,.5>}translate y*slicecount}
scale<sin(slicecount*5)/3+2/3,1,sin(slicecount*5)/3+2/3>}
#declare slicecount = slicecount + delta_y;
#end

If you render this, you see the original cylinder{<0,0,-3>,<0,5,-3>,1
pigment{rgb <0,.5,1>}} was transformed just as I wanted. I could use any
arbitrary function for scaling in any direction. Okay, I could use some
isosurface with this, bun once you exchange the cylinder with a larger csg this
is no longer an option.

Why "feature request"? If you render the above, you will see black artifacts on
the cylinder. Even increasing delta_y to ever so minute amounts will not
eliminate these (but parsing times soar). So it would be neat-o if there were
some way of "optimizing" that, just like the difference between placing a
million spheres and the sphere sweep.

Alternatively, is there any other way to achieve something like this? Or maybe
reduce the spots? I am aware that povray programm(ing/er) time is scarce and
precious, but maybe somebody has a flash of genius :) Or just share your
thoughts on this.


Attached is the image for the following code:

camera{location<20,10,0>*.6 look_at <0,0,0> right x*2}
light_source{<10,20,10> rgb <1,1,1>}
plane{y,0 pigment {rgb 1}}

cylinder{<0,0,-6>,<0,5,-6>,1 pigment{rgb <0,.5,1>}}

#declare slicecount = 0;
#declare delta_y = .01;
#while (slicecount < 5)
intersection{
  cylinder{<0,0,0>,<0,5,0>,1 pigment{rgb <0,1,.5>}}
  box{<-2,0,-2>,<2,delta_y,2> pigment{rgb <0,1,.5>}translate y*slicecount}
scale<sin(slicecount*5)/3+2/3,1,sin(slicecount*5)/3+2/3> translate z*-3}
#declare slicecount = slicecount + delta_y;
#end

#declare c1 = <0,0,-1>;
#declare c2 = <0,0,1>;
#declare c3 = <0,1,0>;
#declare c4 = <0,2,0>;
#declare c5 = <0,3,-1>;
#declare c6 = <0,3,1>;

#declare stickguy = union{
cylinder{c1,c3,.1}
cylinder{c2,c3,.1}
cylinder{c3,c4,.1}
cylinder{c4,c5,.1}
cylinder{c4,c6,.1}
torus{.5,.1 rotate z*90 translate y*3}}

object{stickguy pigment{rgb <1,.5,0>} rotate y*45 translate z*6}

#declare slicecount_2 = 0;
#declare delta_y_2 = .05;
#while (slicecount_2 < 5)
intersection{
  object{stickguy pigment{rgb <1,0,.5>}}
  box{<-2,0,-2>,<2,delta_y_2,2> pigment{rgb <0,1,.5>}translate y*slicecount_2}
translate x*1 scale<sin(slicecount_2*5)/4+.75,1,1> translate x*-1 rotate y*45
translate z*3}
#declare slicecount_2 = slicecount_2 + delta_y_2;
#end


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Attachments:
Download 'nonlin2.png' (38 KB)

Preview of image 'nonlin2.png'
nonlin2.png


 

From: clipka
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 22 May 2009 13:20:01
Message: <web.4a16de08366f124692f9e9e10@news.povray.org>
"philguy" <phi### [at] googlemailcom> wrote:
> Why "feature request"? If you render the above, you will see black artifacts on
> the cylinder. Even increasing delta_y to ever so minute amounts will not
> eliminate these (but parsing times soar). So it would be neat-o if there were
> some way of "optimizing" that, just like the difference between placing a
> million spheres and the sphere sweep.

The problem here is that while a sphere sweep can be represented by
(comparatively) nice and straightforward math, this is not the case for
arbitrary CSG objects.

To do this smoothly for an arbitrary shape, there's only one answer.

You won't like it.

The answer is "Isosurface".

>
> Alternatively, is there any other way to achieve something like this? Or maybe
> reduce the spots? I am aware that povray programm(ing/er) time is scarce and
> precious, but maybe somebody has a flash of genius :) Or just share your
> thoughts on this.

As long as you're not scaling, but just translating the slices, you should get
superior results by shearing them, in such a manner that the "cut surfaces"
coincide again.

Of course this only work for translation, not for scaling or rotation of the
individual slices.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 22 May 2009 15:41:05
Message: <4a16ffd1@news.povray.org>
philguy <phi### [at] googlemailcom> wrote:
> Alternatively, is there any other way to achieve something like this? Or maybe
> reduce the spots?

  Unfortunately, if there was an easy way of performing non-linear
transformations on arbitrary surfaces, it would have been already
implemented years ago.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: MDenham
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 22 May 2009 16:55:00
Message: <web.4a171064366f12461007ff4c0@news.povray.org>
Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> philguy <phi### [at] googlemailcom> wrote:
> > Alternatively, is there any other way to achieve something like this? Or maybe
> > reduce the spots?
>
>   Unfortunately, if there was an easy way of performing non-linear
> transformations on arbitrary surfaces, it would have been already
> implemented years ago.
>
> --
>                                                           - Warp

Rather, if there was an easy way of performing _arbitrary_ non-linear
transformations on arbitrary surfaces.  (Throwing in simple polynomial
transforms should be reasonably feasible, however; I'll see if I can hash
something up to try it out here sometime in the next few weeks.)


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 22 May 2009 18:48:54
Message: <4a172bd6@news.povray.org>
MDenham <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Rather, if there was an easy way of performing _arbitrary_ non-linear
> transformations on arbitrary surfaces.  (Throwing in simple polynomial
> transforms should be reasonably feasible, however; I'll see if I can hash
> something up to try it out here sometime in the next few weeks.)

  No, it's just not possible to perform *any* non-linear transformations
to arbitrary surfaces. Not in any efficient and accurate way.

  The reason is that non-linear transformations (ie. those which cannot
be expressed with a 4x4 transformation matrix) would require curved rays
to raytrace, and that's just not feasible.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: MDenham
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 24 May 2009 04:40:00
Message: <web.4a190720366f12461fb989ad0@news.povray.org>
Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> MDenham <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > Rather, if there was an easy way of performing _arbitrary_ non-linear
> > transformations on arbitrary surfaces.  (Throwing in simple polynomial
> > transforms should be reasonably feasible, however; I'll see if I can hash
> > something up to try it out here sometime in the next few weeks.)
>
>   No, it's just not possible to perform *any* non-linear transformations
> to arbitrary surfaces. Not in any efficient and accurate way.
>
>   The reason is that non-linear transformations (ie. those which cannot
> be expressed with a 4x4 transformation matrix) would require curved rays
> to raytrace, and that's just not feasible.
>
> --
>                                                           - Warp

It's possible to do it without using curved rays, actually; the problem is that,
for meshes, it turns into "take a triangle-like section of a polynomial surface
for every triangle in the mesh", which is (1) ugly to code (2) slow (3) not
possible to improve (unfortunately).  For everything else, it turns into
"substitute these polynomials for the coordinates, then re-solve"; this is also
slower, but somewhat more reasonable.  It is, essentially, the equivalent of
"convert everything that uses polynomial transforms to an isosurface", only
automatic.  Since all of the primitives, except mesh/mesh2, can be represented
fairly easily as an equation, or a relatively small set of equations, this
method should be reasonable to implement.


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 24 May 2009 04:54:27
Message: <4a190b43@news.povray.org>
MDenham <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Since all of the primitives, except mesh/mesh2, can be represented
> fairly easily as an equation, or a relatively small set of equations, this
> method should be reasonable to implement.

  Meshes are not the only problematic primitives.

  Besides height_field (rather obviously, as it's just a "disguised" mesh),
you also have the julia_fractal object, which is traced iteratively rather
than solving an equation.

  Then there are the primitives which are generated using splines, such as
lathe, sor and, I think technically speaking, the text object. While you
probably can express the splines as single polynomials (rather than a group
of polynomials as splines usually are solved), they probably become really
complicated for larger splines. It might be possible to create specialized
code for transforming spline-based objects, though.

  Then there are the infinite surfaces, which do not present problems
from the transformation point of view per se, but from the raytracing
point of view. Rather ironically, the poly object might be hard to
transform freely if the poly object represents an infinite surface:
Yes, you can calculate the transformed equation, but how will you
trace it? Isosurfaces always need some boundaries to be traced. Only
if the transformed poly object is another valid poly object, it becomes
possible.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Chambers
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 25 May 2009 04:21:18
Message: <4a1a54fe$1@news.povray.org>
The only way to support this is to use nonlinear lines.  It would 
certainly allow some interesting distortions, but I'm not sure how 
useful it would be in general when isosurfaces already give us 
equivalent functionality.

-- 
Chambers


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From: Warp
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 25 May 2009 10:47:51
Message: <4a1aaf97@news.povray.org>
Chambers <Ben### [at] gmailcom_no_underscores> wrote:
> The only way to support this is to use nonlinear lines.  It would 
> certainly allow some interesting distortions, but I'm not sure how 
> useful it would be in general when isosurfaces already give us 
> equivalent functionality.

  Isosurfaces don't really give equivalent functionality because you can't
model everything with isosurfaces.

-- 
                                                          - Warp


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From: Chambers
Subject: Re: Feature request: nonlinear scaling
Date: 25 May 2009 13:27:17
Message: <4a1ad4f5$1@news.povray.org>
Warp wrote:
> Chambers <Ben### [at] gmailcom_no_underscores> wrote:
>> The only way to support this is to use nonlinear lines.  It would 
>> certainly allow some interesting distortions, but I'm not sure how 
>> useful it would be in general when isosurfaces already give us 
>> equivalent functionality.
> 
>   Isosurfaces don't really give equivalent functionality because you can't
> model everything with isosurfaces.

To clarify: Isosurfaces give us equivalent functionality to the original 
nonlinear scaling request.

Other than that, I'd be interested in hearing what finite primitives 
cannot be modeled with isosurfaces?

(And the only reason you can't model an infinite primitive is because it 
must be bound by a finite shape).

-- 
Chambers


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