EMAIL: famrom@ran.es NAME: Guillermo Sanz Romero TOPIC: Great Engineering Achievements COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. TITLE: Mach 1.020 WEBPAGE: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/4774/index.html RENDERER USED: POVRay 3.02.msdos.wat-cwa and POVRay 3.02.win32.proton TOOLS USED: DOS Edit, Terrain Maker, PP5 & PP7 RENDER TIME: Original over 53h, final less than 45m HARDWARE USED: PC iP55-166MHz(MMX) IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Serious info: Date: 15th October 1997 Place: Black Rock Desert, Nevada, USA Car: ThrustSSC Driver: Andy Green Speed: 763.035mph, Mach 1.020 Non-serious info: "Some have seen the plate of that car? It have exceeded the speed limit." While searching data about the car, I found a funny image from previous records, spdlimit.jpg at Roadster site, so I mix it with my first ideas to add a special touch (maybe I should try to do an animation...). DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: I started modelling the car with sPatch. I changed the textures and re-used some layers (sPatch uses layers to separate objects) to create the decals. These decals where made with PP5 based on images from Internet, and applied to the copies, that are place a little bit moved from their original position. Using this technique I can place decals easily, and what is more important: the images appear only in the correct side of the objects. The next step was creating ground, sky and mountains. They are rather simple. Some planes (ground and sky), disc (ground, cracked zone), a sky_sphere (to have a background for the plane) and some heightfields for the mountains. I also added the "Speed Limit 750" signal, made with boxes and cylinders. At this point the image looked OK, the car texture and logos were good, the ground's cracks maybe too thick, and the global image composition was like some car advertisments. ;] Then the "pain" began: I tried to use halos to build the dust, and after some small test that looked OK, I started the final render (over 53h) under NT, so I can use the computer if needed (daily email and some browsing). When it finished, I opened the image and... argghhh!!! 53h wasted. The halo sucks. It is not realistic. I send a jpeg with the old result, if you want to watch it. After thinking that POVRay halos are too much "experimental", and with some hours to save the submission... I tried the old "orthographic camera" trick. I used the original image to create a mask image. Then I used that mask to do a real (OK, not 100% real, but at least it is more real than the original) dust cloud. I re-rendered the original image, but without halo and then used this new pic as base for the composition. With the mask and a texture loop, the final image was done in a few hours (1 hour to draw the mask and do some texture tests, about 40 min for new base image, less than 2 min composition render). Lesson: do not waste time with halos, better use the "object simulates clouds" (like lensflares includes) or "compose image using the renderer" (legal, and what is more, the POVRay textures can be even better than creanting them with an image editor like PP or Photoshop).