Is POVRay as complicated as it seems?

[captainj2410]

Alright, I haven't asked for much help recently, but I really need it now. I just installed POVRay the other night, and I can't make heads or tails of it. All I see is 140189 lines of code for triangle coordinates, textures, and colors. In the AC3D Manual, it says you can add POVRay textures in the Object Data Editor. All I've found is Object Property Editor, and that has no POVRay properties in it. Also, the POVRay images I have tried were of low quality compared with the images in the 3d window of AC3D. I'm doing something wrong, aren't I?

[PerFnurt]

You can put POVRay stuff in the "Object data text" field in the Object property editor.

The "Use object data for POV files" should be checked (File menu->Settings->Files) but I think it is by default.

As for all the triangles - yes that is the way an AC3D model is represented in POVRay.

[captainj2410]

Thanks, I was messing around with it and got a glass sphere. I guess that's a start. I suppose I just need to get used to a couple hundred thousand lines of code... :cry:

[nightoftheroundtable]

povray kinda reminds me of C++ not really user friendly and it deals alot with hard coding... good luck though with povray

[USSWINGER]

i really dont like much POVRAY too much plms. i just want all once in AC3D that it.

starship usswinger

[nightoftheroundtable]

whats plms?

[captainj2410]

Do you mean like:

'Parse Warning: No pigment specified'

or

'Parse Warning: Degenerate Triangle - Please Remove'

in every other line of the message window?

PS: I think I'm getting the hang of this now. And you're definitely right about the C++ thing, I'm a student of Visual Basic :oops: .

[captainj2410]

One million + lines of code is way too much...

[luuckyy]

PoseRay will maybe help you then ...

http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/index.htm

[luuckyy]

And here's another free scene renderer :

http://www.artofillusion.org/index

[captainj2410]

I think I'm getting the hang of it now.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/captainj2410/Publicity/Shuttles/Battosai/BattosaiClassFighterPublicityShot17.jpg

[captainj2410]

Trippy:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/captainj2410/Publicity/Shuttles/Battosai/BattosaiClassFighterPublicityShot16.jpg

[captainj2410]

Definitely more professional looking now,
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a153/captainj2410/Publicity/Shuttles/Battosai/BattosaiScreensaver2.jpg
Battosai in a display case...I wish...

[nightoftheroundtable]

did you program that in povray. if you did can you explain to me how you did such nice work in povray. I would like to learn how to do some of that with povray.

[nightoftheroundtable]

One million + lines of code is way too much...

you can never have enough coding. I have seen what people can do with robots just to get them to function properly. you think that is alot of code, thats way to much work.

[allen]

OK, you guys got me into this. It has been a very long time since I last logged onto this site. Andy, Woody, and I were working on this problem and we got it figured out too. If you guys really want a tutorial on how to make ac3d stuff work with povray, visit my site. http://allen.emailnuts.com I hope to have a tutorial uploaded soon. But for now, you can look at the work I have done using ac3d with pov.

The degenerative triangle means that there are two vertices for two or more triangles in the exact same location, sadly that can not be fixed. What I have started to do is use ac3d for seeing how an image will look, then I convert it to pov myself to get rid of that problem. However, I still have to export the more complex models.

I will be happy to help anyone who needs it. My site has a shoutbox, so feel free to post questions in it, I will try to answer as soon as possible. Good luck :)

[allen]

~bump~

http://allen.emailnuts.com/

[luuckyy]

The degenerative triangle means that there are two vertices for two or more triangles in the exact same location, sadly that can not be fixed.

But does that problem affect the rendered geometry in PovRay ?
Or is it just a warning message ?

[allen]

Yes, it does...For every triangle that you get the warning, that triangle will not render. There is no way to fix this problem.

[captainj2410]

I've settled on going to the lines of code with the errors and just deleting them.

[captainj2410]

did you program that in povray. if you did can you explain to me how you did such nice work in povray. I would like to learn how to do some of that with povray.

Picture number 1 I don't remember...
Picture number 2 I put the Battosai into a box, made it have about .4 reflectivity with mainly blue ambience
Picture number 3 I made the display case in ac3d, merged all the objects of the Battosai and gave it the Old Gold povray texture, and created the rear wall in povray by making its code manually.

[foxa]

You know - if you shop around you can get Cararra Studio 3 for pretty cheap. I don't like the modelling tools but the renderer is great, and the material / texture editors are very powerful.

Art

[captainj2410]

Well, I have no job or money, i'm still in high school. I may wait on that one.

[BigDAS]

PovRay is difficult to master as a standalone, but works best when used as a raytracer exporter from other programs, like AC3D, which writes the code automatically.

[captainj2410]

I suppose it's just a matter of getting used to it.