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28 Jan 2025
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Ray tracing
Virtual reality by François de Dardel
Introduction
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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.
Gallery
Douglas DC-3
(1024 x 768, 220 kB)
Flying
Fondue
(1024 x 768, 185 kB)
Trombone
(1000 x 750, 52 kB)
Submarine
(1000 x 750, 129 kB)
Drone
(1000 x 750, 180 kB)
Flying
Roses
(750 x 750, 97 kB)
Sailboat
(1024 x 768, 204 kB)
Terrace
(1024x768, 193 kB)
Piano
(1024 x 768, 138 kB)
Marble table
(1024 x 768, 211 kB)
Village
(1024 x 768, 167 kB)
Flowers
(1024 x 768, 210 kB)
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)
Golden coin
(960x720, 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
*
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 Orient Express
This luxury train was in service between 1883 and 1973 on different routes (see below), the main one being Paris-Istanbul. It was essentially operated by the "Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens (CIWL)". The locomotive was a steam engine. In the years 1910-1960, it was mostly the legendary Pacific 231. See a recent very detailed and well illustrated
historical review in French, which I have used to design the CIWL carriages and the Pacific 231.
The train
(1600x900,180 kB)
In movement
*(1200x480,
20.1 MB !)
At a station
(1600x800, 250 kB)
Pacific 231
(1600x900, 250 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
Le château de Moulinsart (Marlinspike Hall)
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)
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 Thoronet abbey in the South of France
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)
The cloister
(1366 x 768, 251 kB)
Inside the church
(1200 x 900, 248 kB)
Dormitory
(1200 x 900, 256 kB)
The fountain
(750 x 750, 126 kB)
Situation
(585 x 780, 171 kB)
Armes de
l'ordre cistercien
The Oxford college
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)
Several coats of arms are displayed on the All Souls buildings:
The College
Oxford
Montfort
Stewart
Simon
The Italian villa
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 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).
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