TITLE: Mystery
NAME: Richard Webster
COUNTRY: England
EMAIL: irtc_mail@yahoo.co.uk
WEBPAGE: None
TOPIC: Mystery
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: myst.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray 3.5

TOOLS USED: 
    PaintShop Pro for jpeg conversion

RENDER TIME: 
    18 hours

HARDWARE USED: 
    AMD Duron 1.1GHz 1GB


IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


  A new development in the mystery of crop circles.



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


 Short Version:

  The image was rendered at 1024x768 with anti-aliasing. The beam
  and green glow are done with media.

  The runners are randomly placed but with checks to avoid
  intersections with the trees and other runners. Their direction
  is chosen to give each one a clear path. Each pose is randomly
  selected from a run cycle which itself has random variations.

  The people in the circle are laid out with simple geometry, with
  a random offset. The trees, standing stones and ground are
  isosurfaces.

 Long Version:
 
  The position of each tree and the position and direction of each
  runner is determined by a program (written in C for speed) which
  writes the povray include file containing the runners and the
  trees. First the trees are placed randomly, but with a bias to
  create a pattern of clear areas and dense areas. Intersections are
  avoided by a brute-force method of repeatedly picking a new random
  point until a position which does not intersect any existing point
  is found.

  Once the trees are planted, the runners are placed randomly using
  the same brute-force method to avoid intersecting the trees and
  each other, with a bias to increase the numbers near the centre.

  The direction of each runner is determined by a search algorithm
  which starts with an initial direction away from the centre of the
  circle. If that path is blocked then paths to either side are
  checked until a clear path is found.

  Each pose is generated by a run cycle macro which takes a time
  argument and generates a set of joint angles, with some random
  variation, for that time in the run cycle. The figure model is made
  by another macro which takes the set of joint angles and material
  definitions and builds the figure.

  For the torch holders, torch-holding run cycle is used to keep the
  torches pointing at the ground. Torches are given to runners in a
  way that creates an even spread of torches even though the density
  of people increases near the centre. The torches are laid out and
  the person nearest to a torch picks it up. This is to prevent the
  white-out that happens near the centre if a fixed percentage of
  runners have torches.

  The circle figures are created with a different pose (a splat
  cycle?) with random variations.


