Povray

see also http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/files/pov/

see also http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/POVRay_Skyboxes

see also http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/POVRay_Explosions

skybox

• http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/files/pov/skybox1.pov
• http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/files/pov/renderskybox.php.txt (optional, execute using php to generate all six faces with one command)

(this is hereby released under public domain)

placing a camera inside an explosion and maybe cutting out the interior gives nice skyboxes for spacegames (like http://sfz.schattenkind.net), see info below on how to generate such explosions/plasma effects

i suggest rendering stars onto the skybox ingame using dots or tiny billboards, this way they will look sharp even if the skybox is not ultra-highres.

space, bright red

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(these rendered images are hereby released under public domain)

see also http://sfz.schattenkind.net/wiki/index.php/Screenshots for more screenshots of those skyboxes in action

space, dark green

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  here's how it looks in action with stars rendered onto it at runtime

(these rendered images are hereby released under public domain)

clouds

3 cloudy skyboxes

• http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/files/pov/povskyclouds.zip (.pov files and rendered images)

a few samples :

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(these rendered images and the .pov files are hereby released under public domain)

texture generation

• todo : search .pov files for this
• todo : camouflage texture...
• also interesting : kwerkzeug (google)

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explosion

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http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/files/pov/explosion01.pov

random explosion generation

i made a php script that would generated random colormaps and some random turbulence parameters and let it render all night long, producing one explosion image after another, and keeping the sources for later high-detail rendering of the good ones.

this is kind of bruteforcing artwork with enough processor power =)

also there are a few php scripts in there for comfortable viewing and marking the good ones, but you'll have to adjust them a bit.

here are a few samples :

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  macro particles

i generated a few thousand of those, you can find them and their sourcefiles (in breed) here : http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/files/pov/povray_exploder/
(these are hereby released under public domain)
(the best ones are in exploder_nice.zip, ca 20mb, sourcefiles (.pov) included)

possible uses :

• macro particles for explosions (see sample above)
• billboard-textures for energy/plasma weapon-projectiles
• basis for skyboxes for nebulae-like scenes in spacegames (see above)
• basis for explosion animations (animate __TURBSTART__, see http://www.ogre3d.org/wiki/index.php/POVRay_Explosions)
• as background billboard for halo/hilighting effects
• "shield hit" effects
• wormholes/teleporter effects
• cloud/nebulae particles (make color uniform)
• some might look rather nice when used as spheremap or something like that in reflection effects
• Rorschach test  ;)
• ...

and here's the code :

http://ghoulsblade.schattenkind.net/files/pov/exploder.zip

warning ! requires quite a bit of harddisk space if you keep it running for a long time....

i give no warranty that your computer will not explode during the process ;)

you can also create nice skyboxes from these, see above