Ray tracing (POV)

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This picture created in 2005 is a synthetic (or "virtual") image I made on my Macintosh using Persistence Of Vision (POV) Ray-tracing. The image is built geometrically, using so-called "Constructive Spatial Geometry".

All the objects are created and assembled by geometrical programming using POV. A virtual camera and virtual light sources are then set, and the picture is created ("rendered") by "ray tracing". By moving the camera around, you can take any number of 3D pictures of the same scene (see the house project), including panoramic views. You can also make animated GIFs (see the moving train). Textures and patterns are programmed with POV. I am particularly proud of my "Orient Express" section.

The Mac fans will notice that the iMac G4 is a little simplified. The screen itself is a dump from my own Mac.

Biplane
(1500 x 750, 280 kB)
Landed - Swiss mountains

Douglas DC-3
(1024 x 768, 220 kB)
Flying

Caravelle
(1024 x 768, 100 kB)
Front view

Zeppelin
(1024 x 768, 91 kB)
Rear view

The Titanic
(1500 x 750, 235 kB) ^[1]
Other view

Three-master
(1200 x 900, 240 kB)
Starboard view
Furled sails, Skipper

Railcar
(1500 x 750, 235 kB)
At the station - Front view

My kitchen
(1280 x 720, 134 kB)
Reversed - The sink
Bird’s view

Fondue
(1024 x 768, 185 kB)

Furnished room
(2400 x 1800, 738 kB)
Reversed
Night view

Trombone
(1000 x 750, 52 kB)

Rocket to the Moon
(800 x 800, 100 kB)
Hergé's version

Submarine
(1000 x 750, 129 kB)

Drone
(1000 x 750, 180 kB)
Flying

The Eiffel Tower
(1440 x 900, 215 kB)
Reversed view

Roses
(750 x 750, 97 kB)

Vintage car
(1024 x 768, 160 kB)
See the original car
and a variation

Citroën 5 HP
(1024 x 768, 150 kB)
See the original car
and Hergé's version

Citroën 2 CV
(1024 x 768, 144 kB)
See the original car
and Hergé's version

Jeep Willys
(1024 x 768, 166 kB)
Back view
Destination Moon

Sailboat
(1024 x 768, 204 kB)

Terrace
(1024x768, 193 kB)

Small house
(1200x900, 264 kB)
Back view|Side view

Piano
(1024 x 768, 138 kB)

Basin
(1200 x 900, 211 kB)

Marble table
(1024 x 768, 211 kB)

Village
(1024 x 768, 167 kB)

Flowers
(1024 x 768, 210 kB)

A flying bee
(1000 x 750, 91 kB)
Sitting bee

Bicycle
(1024 x 768, 197 kB)

Secretaire
(1024 x 768, 172 kB)

Antique table
(1024 x 768, 159 kB)

Sideboard
(1000 x 1000, 154 kB)

Mississippi boat
(1024 x 768, 146 kB)
See more here.

Glasses
(1024x768, 156 kB)

Gold coin
(1000x750, 117 kB)

Rotring
(1024x768, 156 kB)

iPhone & lighter
(1024 x 768, 128 kB)

Bronze clock
(1024x768, 146 kB)

Compass
(1024x768, 115 kB)

Magnifier
(1024x768, 173 kB)

Tree
(1024 x 768, 203 kB)

Pot with orange tree
(1024 x 768, 211 kB)

Tree in container
(1024 x 768, 222 kB)

Garden table
(1024 x 768, 166 kB)

Deckchair
(1024 x 768, 223 kB)

Wine
(1024 x 768, 201 kB)

The flying boat
(1024 x 768, 84 kB)
See the original B314

Flying around
(1024 x 576, 1.2 MB)
GIF animation *

A cargo ship
(1024 x 768, 99 kB)
Night view

Balloon
(1024 x 768, 63 kB)

Drinks
(1024 x 768, 33 kB)

Swiss honey
(1024 x 768, 78 kB)

Desk detail
(1024 x 768, 102 kB)

Apple keyboard
(1200 x 600, 65 kB)

Book & pencil
(1024 x 768, 69 kB)

An engraved dice
(800 x 600, 61 kB)

My first picture
(800 x 600, 68 kB)

[1] See a very detailed site showing the history of Titanic.

Several objects here and in my House project were adapted from files created by others. Here the corresponding acknowledgements. The splendid yellow flying boat was created by Kurt Bangert. It is a very faithful reproduction of the Boeing 314 "Yankee Clipper" operated by Pan American between 1939 and 1951. For interest, here are the specifications and a photograph of the original big plane. With POV, I made 99 different pictures of the plane flying around the island and converted it to an animated GIF *.

The Apple keyboard with its 110 keys took me five days to create...

The train
(1600x900,110 kB)

In movement *
(1200x480,20.1 MB !)

At a station
(1600x800, 250 kB)

Pacific 231
(1600x900, 250 kB)

From behind
(1280x720, 162 kB)

Side view
(1600x900, 200 kB)

Sleeping car
(1500x750, 208 kB)

Dining car
(1500x750, 208 kB)

Luggage wagon
(1500x750, 220 kB)

Sleeping compartment
(1600x900, 410 kB)

Dining car
(1600x900, 570 kB)

Pullman
(1500x750, 340 kB)

Bar
(1600x900, 360 kB)

Bar
(1600x900, 350 kB)

The menu
(1090x800, 105 kB)

Posters
by Pierre Fix-Masseau

Routes

Marlinspike Hall is a manor bought by Professor Calculus (Tournesol) on behalf of Captain Haddock in Hergé’s The Secret of the Unicorn. Hergé used the castle of Cheverny as a model, removed both big lateral parts of the castle, but kept most of the details of the center part. I reconstructed Moulinsart with POV, using Hergé's latest variations.

Moulinsart
(1024x768, 183 kB)

Front view
(1500x750, 211 kB)

Bird's view
(1500x750, 274 kB)

Side view
(1024x768, 156 kB)

The car
(1024x768, 200 kB)

Map
(1500x750, 229 kB)

Entrance gate
(1024x768, 183 kB)

Cheverny
(1100x780, 249 kB)

The original by Hergé
(1340x680, 249 kB)

Another original (see above)
(780x763, 209 kB)

See details of Moulinsart in my Tintin page.
See also Martini automobiles.

The abbey was built between 1160 and 1230, located in Provence in the Maures mountain range. It belonged to the Cistercian Order. What you see here is a simplified view: the actual abbey is partially in ruins, and there are many more trees around it.

The Abbey
(1200 x 900, 300 kB)

Bird's view
(1200 x 900, 383 kB)

Rear view
(1200 x 900, 315 kB)

Situation
(585 x 780, 171 kB)

The cloister
(1366 x 768, 251 kB)

The fountain
(750 x 750, 126 kB)

Inside the church
(1200 x 900, 248 kB)

Dormitory
(1200 x 900, 216 kB)

Panorama

Armes de
l'ordre cistercien

I started from photographs of the All Souls college found in the internet.

Oxford college
(1280x720, 226 kB)

Front view
(1280x720, 202 kB)

Reversed
(1280x720, 281 kB)

The sundial
(1024x768, 139 kB)

Bird's view
(1280x720, 281 kB)

Map of the college
(1024x768, 231 kB)

The original college
(600x750, 80 kB)

I created the Italian villa based on a painting by Francesco Granacci. See on the right my version and the original, viewed under the same angle. Unfortunately, it is impossible to describe convincingly human beings with pure geometry, and vegetation is also difficult to model, as you can see from the tree, and takes a long time to render. On the right: a wide angle view of the villa. I borrowed the statue from an unknown expert.

My version with POV ray-tracing

The original by Granacci

Wide angle POV rendering

In this other picture, 4 items are imported in form of "Image Maps": these are the Tintin picture on the wall, the photo on the desk, the apple logo on the pencil holder and the "Happy New Year" text on the desk. The other items are all constructed geometrically.

I have borrowed some of the wooden textures from Dan Farmer and Paul Novak. These are supplied together with the (free of charge) ray tracing software of POV.

I created all the other objects: the column, the table, the paperweight, the pencil holder and the picture frames, and assembled them to this picture. It took me about three days (in 1999)...

On my MacBook Pro (2018) the desk picture is rendered in 9 seconds. On the previous MacBook (2011), it took 38 s, on my Macintosh G4 with biprocessor at 1 GHz (2002), it took 3 minutes 17 seconds in a 1024 x 768 pixel size. On my Mac 8500 (1998), it took one to two hours, and on my old Mac IIci (1993), rendering the same image could take as long as a full day... The desk image is a compressed jpeg of 1024 x 768 pixels. The plant and the tree are based on a file by Jean-Laurent Pradel (1998). There are 21 parameters to play with and change the style of the tree, its leaves and its branches. You may see six examples in this page with different settings. The result looks somewhat artificial, but the image renders quite fast, because the algorithm used to create it is very compact, which does not mean it is simple.

* Note: Some of the images are animated GIFs. They have been designed to loop only a few times (typically 3 to 8 times). However, this doesn't always work, and sometimes the image loops forever. Additionnally, you may have to re-load the page.

April 2021

Other pages

	The house project 45 pictures of my house on its island, all made from the same file but with various settings (notably point of view and light type), including several 360° panoramic views.

	Chemistry Several organic molecules (glucose, aspirin, caffeine and more) and crystal structures drawn with POV are shown in a second page.

	Pictures from others I have found excellent ray-traced images made by other artists, modified several of them. You can see them in a third page.

The music, if you have clicked on the icon at the top, is the first movement of J.S. Bach's concerto BVW1065 for 4 harpsichords (see my music page).

Ray tracing

Virtual reality by François de Dardel