[Software] LDD2PovRay

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BTW: can POV-Ray simulate something like "box environment"? I mean as if the model was placed inside a "box" next to the walls, maybe to the corner...?

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Today I noticed some strange artifacts when rendering in "FAST" Radiosity preset: some bricks are like "glued together", and there is sometimes noise in bottom reflections, see picture below

[legolijntje]

Well, I don't think it are 'strange' artifacts, I think it's just becuase you use the fast radiosity method, which is less detailed and more used for testing a render before using radiosity FINAL.

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Well, I don't think it are 'strange' artifacts, I think it's just becuase you use the fast radiosity method, which is less detailed and more used for testing a render before using radiosity FINAL.

Ok, aha, so if I use FINAL preset it will dissappear, right? But it will be like 2 days of nonstop rendering

[legolijntje]

Ok, aha, so if I use FINAL preset it will dissappear, right? But it will be like 2 days of nonstop rendering

Well, the FINAL preset can take up to 2 days, but it also depends on the other settings, configuration and of course your PC specs. A radiosity_final render can also take just 1/2 hours

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Well, the FINAL preset can take up to 2 days, but it also depends on the other settings, configuration and of course your PC specs. A radiosity_final render can also take just 1/2 hours

Well, in my case as Radiosity_FAST took me to render from 2 to 4.5 hours I think no, it cannot...at least not here definitely BTW: I wonder in what case with what PC configuration it could take 1/2 hour with complex models like mine, really? My config is quite good when it comes to what counts in rendering (6-Core 3.4 GHz CPU AMD)

Edited June 9, 2013 by bublible

[legolijntje]

Well, it probably mostly depends on the other settings. A sidenote; I render LDraw models and you render (I presume) LDD models. So you use LDDtoPOVray and I don't.. In my experience, LDDtoPOVray render times can be waaaay longer than if I render a LDraw model. That's probably because all the settings that LDD2P has to offer can make the quality higher than if I add some lines of code myself in the pov-ray file (the exported LDraw file), but also make the rendering rime higher.

Of course I can add all the lines of code to the LDraw file that LDD2P adds to the lxf file, but I don't want and don't need them.

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Well, it probably mostly depends on the other settings. A sidenote; I render LDraw models and you render (I presume) LDD models. So you use LDDtoPOVray and I don't.. In my experience, LDDtoPOVray render times can be waaaay longer than if I render a LDraw model. That's probably because all the settings that LDD2P has to offer can make the quality higher than if I add some lines of code myself in the pov-ray file (the exported LDraw file), but also make the rendering rime higher.

Of course I can add all the lines of code to the LDraw file that LDD2P adds to the lxf file, but I don't want and don't need them.

...anyway, changing the Raidosity preset should help, that is what I needed to know

[hrontos]

Please, anyone know how to "make base plane gradient filled" in POV-Ray? Something like this old Space Classic set (#6971) from mid 80's here:

´

To add that gradient you may use following code:

plane { y, min_extent(ldd_model).y
     texture {
               pigment {
                         gradient x       // x represents direction of gradient - along X axis - use any vector
                         color_map {      // map 0 on x axis to white, 1 on x axis to blue
                                     [0 rgb 1]             
                                     [1 rgb <0,0,1>]
                                     } 
                         scale 30*x   // make gradient stripes larger so that each stripe is 30 units wide                                                                // so 0 maps to white 30 maps to blue
                                  // adjust as necessary, so that you will get one large stripe
                         translate -10*x  // shift whole gradient stripes by 10
                                  // so that -10 on x is white, 20 is blue
                                  // adjust as necessary, so that you will get one large stripe
               }
       }
}

Well, it probably mostly depends on the other settings. A sidenote; I render LDraw models and you render (I presume) LDD models. So you use LDDtoPOVray and I don't.. In my experience, LDDtoPOVray render times can be waaaay longer than if I render a LDraw model. That's probably because all the settings that LDD2P has to offer can make the quality higher than if I add some lines of code myself in the pov-ray file (the exported LDraw file), but also make the rendering rime higher.

Of course I can add all the lines of code to the LDraw file that LDD2P adds to the lxf file, but I don't want and don't need them.

LDRAW rendering is much faster mainly thanks to LGEO library parts. They offer good geometry and level of details well prepared manually. LDD2POVRay tries to improve geometry automatically for any part, but the price is the rendering speed (CSG difference renders slowly in POV-Ray). Custom parts could help also with rendering times. Or better algorithm for geometry improvements.

I keep getting this error when I try to render a LDD file:

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Parser Options

Input file: C:\Users\Benjamin\Desktop\Lego Stuff\Models\40049MiniSopwith.pov

Remove bounds........On

Split unions.........Off

Library paths:

\\.\LDDIncludes

C:\Users\Benjamin\Documents\POV-Ray\v3.7\include

C:\Windows\Fonts

Clock value: 0.000 (Animation off)

Image Output Options

Image resolution.....1920 by 1080 (rows 1 to 1080, columns 1 to 1920).

Output file..........C:\Users\Benjamin\Desktop\Lego Stuff\Models\40049MiniSopwith.png, 32 bpp with

alpha PNG

Dithering............Off

Graphic display......On (gamma: sRGB)

Mosaic preview.......Off

Continued trace......Off

Information Output Options

All Streams to console..........On

Debug Stream to console.........On

Fatal Stream to console.........On

Render Stream to console........On

Statistics Stream to console....On

Warning Stream to console.......On

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"ldd_default_colors.inc" line 20: Parse Error: Illegal character in input file, value is ffffff80.

Render failed

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CPU time used: kernel 0.11 seconds, user 0.09 seconds, total 0.20 seconds.

Elapsed time 0.45 seconds.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It looks like POV-Ray tries to access include files directly and not through virtual file system.

Is it possible that you store your include files in the same folder as your model? The folder for includes should be different and should not be in the POV-Ray's include path.

Edited June 10, 2013 by hrontos

[Phoxtane]

That sounds about right. I keep the .ini and .pov files in the same folder as the .lxf files, though it didn't give me any problems the previous times I used your converter.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Phoxtane

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It looks like POV-Ray tries to access include files directly and not through virtual file system.

Is it possible that you store your include files in the same folder as your model? The folder for includes should be different and should not be in the POV-Ray's include path.

No - I do not have them in the same folder, there need to be some other problem, anyway when I close both programs and then start them again everything is OK until next change - then it needs to be restarted again and after that everything is OK once more (simply: every change needs to be followed by restart of both SW or it will giving those errors and crashes), strange but this is how it is and how it works, probably normal - who knows?

EDIT: sorry - first I thought it is reaction to my post, now I see you're reacting on someone ese

´

To add that gradient you may use following code:

plane { y, min_extent(ldd_model).y
texture {
pigment {
gradient x // x represents direction of gradient - along X axis - use any vector
color_map { // map 0 on x axis to white, 1 on x axis to blue
[0 rgb 1]
[1 rgb <0,0,1>]
}
scale 30*x // make gradient stripes larger so that each stripe is 30 units wide // so 0 maps to white 30 maps to blue
// adjust as necessary, so that you will get one large stripe
translate -10*x // shift whole gradient stripes by 10
// so that -10 on x is white, 20 is blue
// adjust as necessary, so that you will get one large stripe
}
}
}

Thanx a lot - will try that, definitely

BTW: where exactly to add that code - to which file? Should I add it somewhere to *.pov file, or should I create some *.inc file and then include it somehow, or...?

EDIT: oh, I am really horrible - again, I just realize I managed it myself tommorow (being programmer I did somehow ) - anyway thanx a lot for helping me But what I found is that even I was able to do it (gradient baseplane) it depends on camera if it'll be visible or not and that is what I need to solve now...maybe your solution (scale and translate params) will do exactly what I need, as I said before will try your solution now ...

P.S>: well, now I think that what I need is more like "BACKGROUND TRANSIENT" (instead of the one color that is selectable in LDD2POV-Ray GUI), not "base plane gradient", because base plane is basicly "bottom", not background, so it really depends on how I have my camera used and I quite offen using my cammer in "extreme positions", you know - is there an option to set BACKGROUND gradient instead of one color (I noticed that in .pov file there is this code about background:

background { color rgbft <5/255, 10/255, 15/255, 0, 0> }

...but when I try to edit it the way I supposed it could work it doesn't - any solution for this (if any at all is possible)?

Edited June 11, 2013 by bublible

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And as for the "background gradient", I edited *.pov file like this

background {
texture {
 pigment {
	 gradient y
	 color_map {
		 [0 rgb 1]
		 [1 rgb <0,0,1>]
	 }
 }
}
}

...but no success ending up in error

I even try to exclude parents "texture {}", and also "pigment{}" (later), leaving just gradient and color_map but also no success

Edited June 11, 2013 by bublible

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well, actualy, not quite the right colors etc. BUT I guess I made it (+ as a bonus I added pseudo-milky way in yellow ), see example pic below

What I used was this customized code (I customized it from POV-Ray website example about "sky_sphere"):

sky_sphere {
pigment {
 bozo
 turbulence 0.65
 octaves 6
 omega 0.7
 lambda 2
 color_map {
	 [0.0 0.4 color rgbt <255/255, 255/255, 0/255, 0.5>
			 color rgbt <1/255, 10/255, 1/255, 1>]
 }
 scale 0.05
}
pigment {
 gradient y
 color_map {
	 [0.2 color rgbt <255/255, 255/255, 255/255, 0>]
	 [0.45 color rgbt <0, 0, 1, 0>]
	 [0.55 color rgbt <5/255, 10/255, 15/255, 1>]
 }
 scale .65
 translate -1
}
}		
background { color rgbt <5/255, 10/255, 15/255, 0>}

I added this into *.pov file after "camera{}" part, and...voila - here we go!

P.S.: simply, in LDD2POV-Ray do not include "background", nor "Base plane", and later add to generated *.pov file the code I posted above, and that's it...now the next move is to implement that reflection part from hrontos' code example - basicly what I want is just the reflection without any base plane (will try use "rgbt" instead of "rgb" using full transparency (just a guess, do not know if it'll do what I want it to)

Edited June 11, 2013 by bublible

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OK, got it! Thanx to all for help...this is what I wanted (90% - some adjustment needs to be done but else it's as it should be now)

[Classicsmiley]

Is there a way to control what part of a model is in focus if I use focal blur?

[hrontos]

Is there a way to control what part of a model is in focus if I use focal blur?

Focused part is the part you select in LDD as the camera reference part (by right clicking). In the LDD, camera "looks" at that part and in POV-Ray that part will be focused.

[Classicsmiley]

Ok, thanks. I was doing some experiments last night where I'd used the numpad 5 key to center the model in the frame, and was getting both foreground and background blurring, so I'll give this a shot.

[Bob De Quatre]

It's my first post here, so if I should have posted elsewhere let me know and I apologize.

So I've done a render of an LDD file using LDD2PovRay, and the edges of some bricks are all messed up. Is there a way to avoid this?

I used the default parameters of LDD2PovRay.

Untitled11-scrap par BobDeQuatre, sur Flickr

[Dadda-the-hutt]

its sometimes caused by the anti-aliasing. most people recomend rendering at twice the resolution you need with AA off, then using graphics software to shrink the image size down using bicubic sampling.

[Bob De Quatre]

Thanks, I'll run some tests to see if I can get rid of those.

[hrontos]

It's my first post here, so if I should have posted elsewhere let me know and I apologize.

So I've done a render of an LDD file using LDD2PovRay, and the edges of some bricks are all messed up. Is there a way to avoid this?

I used the default parameters of LDD2PovRay.

Untitled11-scrap par BobDeQuatre, sur Flickr

These artifacts may be caused also by LDD2POVray. LDD2POVray uses LDD connectivity data for stud replacements. When there is a slight offset between stud position in geometry data and connectivity data, stud is not properly replaced.

Edited July 16, 2013 by hrontos

[lego2lego]

These artifacts may be caused also by LDD2POVray. LDD2POVray uses LDD connectivity data for stud replacements. When there is a slight offset between stud position in geometry data and connectivity data, stud is not properly replaced.

Probably not, but I could be wrong, I'm rendering LDraw models and this also happens with my images. But as stated before, I render at a larger resolution than needed and resize. This takes care of the problem in most instances.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

I wandered through this forum but couldn't find a thing:

I am looking for pictures of minifig faces and torsos that are not present in LDD to put them in the renders I get with ldd2povray.

Has anyone a list of pictures?

[Aanchir]

I wandered through this forum but couldn't find a thing:

I am looking for pictures of minifig faces and torsos that are not present in LDD to put them in the renders I get with ldd2povray.

Has anyone a list of pictures?

The Minifig Customization Indexes include many official decorations in addition to custom-designed decorations. They may not all be accurate since they are fan-made, but you can probably decide for yourself if the ones you need are available in acceptable quality.

I also think that LDraw comes preloaded with many decorations, particularly classic ones. I'm not sure where in the program these are saved or in what format, but they may be compatible with LDD2PovRay.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

The Minifig Customization Indexes include many official decorations in addition to custom-designed decorations. They may not all be accurate since they are fan-made, but you can probably decide for yourself if the ones you need are available in acceptable quality.

I also think that LDraw comes preloaded with many decorations, particularly classic ones. I'm not sure where in the program these are saved or in what format, but they may be compatible with LDD2PovRay.

Thank you very very much!