PovRay Source Code...

Chris M. Thomasson

unread,

Nov 21, 2022, 1:55:22 AM11/21/22

to

Iirc, somebody who posts "here" (comp.lang.c and/or comp.lang.c++)
worked on the PovRay source code base... I am interested in conversing
about it because I want to see if we can possibly integrate one of my
special low-level mutations into its ray marcher/caster on a fairly low
level. Low level in the sense that the mutations are performed _before_
any points and normals are fed into the marcher/caster logic...

Juha Nieminen

unread,

Nov 21, 2022, 7:04:18 AM11/21/22

to

You may want to ask at the news.povray.org usenet server, or
http://news.povray.org/groups/ (which is a kind of mirror of it).

Chris M. Thomasson

unread,

Nov 21, 2022, 6:57:11 PM11/21/22

to

Perfect. Thank you for the heads up, Juha. Btw, did you ever contribute
to the PovRay codebase in any way, shape or form? For some god damn
reason I am under the impression that somebody here worked on it. I
could of swore that I noticed a name. Actually, I think it was you,
Juha? Where am I going wrong? Sorry for prying. Fwiw, my special ray
marcher can reap results like:

https://youtu.be/IVR5I5mnrsg

If you do not like my experimental MIDI music by all means, please mute
it... If you think the animation itself is crap, stop it early. :^)

Here is one with no music. Exposing a Mandelbulb to my marcher logic:

https://youtu.be/XpbPzrSXOgk

The ray marcher is humble, yet generates some interesting results. I am
wondering if it can be rather easily integrated into existing ray
tracers and/or marchers. Fwiw, my marcher is based on distance
estimation to the objects in the scene.

Juha Nieminen

unread,

Nov 22, 2022, 1:45:48 AM11/22/22

to

In comp.lang.c++ Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.t...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Perfect. Thank you for the heads up, Juha. Btw, did you ever contribute
> to the PovRay codebase in any way, shape or form?

I have contributed a bit of code to it, but not a lot.

> Fwiw, my special ray marcher can reap results like:
>
> https://youtu.be/IVR5I5mnrsg

Is it different from an isosurface?

http://www.povray.org/documentation/3.7.0/r3_4.html#r3_4_5_1_6

Chris M. Thomasson

unread,

Nov 22, 2022, 2:04:45 AM11/22/22

to

Yes, it is different from an isosurface. Actually, I remember where I
posted some code in the form of a GLSL shader for it. Does the following
link run for you? My code is in there for all to see:

https://www.shadertoy.com/view/fdBSzm

Tell me what you think. Can it possibly be integrated into PovRay logic
before the points are even passed into the ray marcher? Btw, does PovRay
even use distance estimation? I think it should almost have to.

Chris M. Thomasson

unread,

Nov 22, 2022, 2:08:59 AM11/22/22

to

On 11/21/2022 10:45 PM, Juha Nieminen wrote:

> In comp.lang.c++ Chris M. Thomasson <chris.m.t...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Perfect. Thank you for the heads up, Juha. Btw, did you ever contribute
>> to the PovRay codebase in any way, shape or form?
>
> I have contributed a bit of code to it, but not a lot.
>
>> Fwiw, my special ray marcher can reap results like:
>>
>> https://youtu.be/IVR5I5mnrsg
>
> Is it different from an isosurface?

Fwiw, I have tried to gain the ray march in a volumetric form, the
problem is that my points stop iterating/marching when they drop down
into an epsilon trap on an object. If you are on FB, here is one of my
tries. I modeled it like a 3d printer wrt the z-axis as the printer head:

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=857878912037775

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=856982285460771

The point cloud blues...

Juha Nieminen

unread,

Nov 22, 2022, 4:31:57 AM11/22/22

to

These questions are better asked at news.povray.org because there are way
more people with way more knowledge about the internals of the program
(including the developers themselves) there.