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Thread: POVRay 101: A Beginner's Guide

  1. #11
    Guild Journeyer Vandy's Avatar
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    Info POV Ray Tutorial, Part II Link now available in the Tutorials in PDF Format Thread

    Hi, All.

    Just wanted to let you know that I've created a link for Part II of Crayons' POV RAY tutorial. You can find it in the Tutorials in PDF Format thread in the Tutorials/How-To Forum.

    The link is located in the "POVRay-Related Tutorials" section of Post 2 on Page 1.

    Enjoy.

    Regards,

    Vandy
    In the end you will see, you is you and me is me.
    © May 29, 1980

  2. #12

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    I haven't read through the tutorial yet bu thanks for posting them.

    I wanted to point out that inkscape can export pov splines to make extruded shapes like the eyeglasses example.

    -Rob A>

  3. #13

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    After somewhat of an excessive delay here is Part 3 of the Beginner's Tutorial which covers aspects of texture and image mapping, albeit very briefly!

    Click image for larger version. 

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    --
    "I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man"

    My Finished Stuff
    ............. Some of my 3D Stuff (POVRay)

  4. #14
    Administrator Redrobes's Avatar
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    Cool stuff, thanks. Can POV not set a texture to be 'cube mapped' then ? That's dead convenient for this sort of stuff where it looks at the normal and snaps it to the closest 90deg plane and then maps the texture in that direction. Perfect for this since its all very nearly in perfect 90deg faces already.

  5. #15

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    Unless I missed a trick, no, there is no equivalent of a normal "snap" for image_maps or normals.
    Well, that said, "normals" by definition do, but in reality, don't have to! You can rotate normals.
    I tend to think of normals as being like "solid (mathematical) patterns", a bit like pudding-stone. If you carve it into a cube you get the same effect on all sides as the pattern is basically sort of homogeneous.
    Something like "brick", unfortunately, is a "sided" sort of pattern - if you "slice" through it "across the pattern, you don't get the same pattern. There's also a highly annoying aspect if your cube side aligns directly with the mortar part of the pattern between bricks on the "good" side. You get brick-thick mortar stripes down the side.
    Mapping Images is a separate issue relating to what on earth to do with the edges!!!??? I guess. If there is text involved then the image map on the far side of your cube is in "mirror writing" and so forth. They've accommodated cylinders with "once" so you can do a dandy coke can but footling with "once" for other shapes is - well, something to experiment with!
    One could almost get the impression that POVRay writers rather frown on image_mapping unless it's essential - perhaps it smacks of "skins" too much (e.g. as per game avatars etc)!! ???
    The pragmatic approach I use when using non-homogeneous normals or image_maps is to use two cubes (for example) offset by a minuscule amount. 90 degree rotation on the "paintworks". It ups your object count but...

    That said, I'd be delighted to hear if anyone knows a better way of doing this in POV!!
    --
    "I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man"

    My Finished Stuff
    ............. Some of my 3D Stuff (POVRay)

  6. #16

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    Isn't there a mapping_type for cubes? I think it is only for image maps but there should be some (memory intensive) texture-to-image_map-feature hidden somewhere.

  7. #17

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    Sorry, but not that I have seen.
    I did have another search and re-discovered something I had forgotten though. As well as "once" there is also "map_type N" where N is an integer. Values of N being 0, 1, 2 and 5 give mapping for the default planar, spherical, cylindrical and toroidal but I haven't experimented with these, I confess. However, there is more than just planar and cylindrical....
    Map_types 3 and 4 are "in development".
    --
    "I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man"

    My Finished Stuff
    ............. Some of my 3D Stuff (POVRay)

  8. #18

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    Hello,

    Ran across your post. Though the post was written in 2010, I thought the topic interesting. Many years ago, I studied digital cartography. Eventually, I Combined my knowledge of POV-Ray with cartography and did some work. One of the things I did was to produce animated gifs. One was a U.S.G.S. quadrangle topographic map with DEM data creating the illusion of a transition from a flat map to a map with the image draped over a DEM for the same quadrangle. I used U.S.G.S. quadrangle topographic maps in GeoTiff format along with their D.E.M. (Digital Elevation Maps) equivalent.
    The version of POV-Ray I was using(MLPov) allowed the creation of realistic shadows that far surpassed any hillshade I could produce using carto software, ,e.g. E.S.R.I. Arcview.
    I'm currently examining the possibility of creating an animation that will illustrate the movement and coverage of shadows cast by a string of evergreen trees on a solar panel array. The employment of calculations may allow me to calculate the approximate energy lost by the shade. The alternative is a program, Radiance Raytracer for Architects.
    Hope your work with POV-Ray and cartography went well.

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