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Web Walking: Media

by Mike Kost

Introduction

Swinging through the internet jungle, from virtual vine to virtual vine, in search of tasty bits of information! Diving right in, this first article in the Web Walking series focuses on what other websites can teach about using Povray's media feature. You mean this is an overblown collection of links? You betcha. Now, on we go...

Vine 1: Povray Documentation

Yes, the tried and true Povray documentation is a great reference on media.

Vine 2: Online Tutorials

First stop is Paul Bourke's Media Tutorial. Paul walks through scattering, emitting, and absorbing media effects.
Image from Media Tutorial
Next up is Rafal Maj's "Media - quality Vs speed". Rafal produced a framework for reducing media quality to speed up rendering times.
Update: Rafal's page seems to go up and down. Your milage may vary.
Media - quality Vs speed image
Christoph Hormann demonstrates media water effects as part of his "Realistic water with POV-Ray" article.

Professor Genevieve (Jenny) Orr discusses "Media and Particle Systems". These examples were created for Povray 3.1, and do not render properly as downloaded. To get a good rendering, add 'version 3.1' to the top of the .pov source.
Media and Particle Systems image

Vine 3: Examples And Macros

Kurt Bangert and Carolina Blaesing-Bangert give examples of lightsabres, the nothern lights, water, and lighting via media on their "Media Examples" page.
Light saber image    Northern lights image
And finally, Gilles Tran creates media clouds with his MakeCloud macros.
MakeCloud image

Closing Comments

Is a great link missing that explains Povray media tips and technique? Send it in and it'll get linked up: contact@povray.tashcorp.net.

Notes and Disclaimers

All the images above were rendered from Povray source provided by the linked websites. If there's no easily usable source - no pictures!

Published: 08/05/05
Last edited: 08/15/05

Copyright (C) 2005 Mike Kost