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POVRay Short Code Contest Results In

Posted by michael on from the minimalism dept.

PateraSilk writes "The Results for the POVRay Short Code Contest are available here. This contest looks for the best images to be generated in POVRay with the smallest amount of code--in this case, under 256 bytes. Definitely 'less is more'."

8 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Correction... by andreMA · · Score: 4, Informative

    That should be 256 bytes, not K.

  2. Wow, a sphere by Cecil · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I considered "Simple" to be only mildly more interesting than the red square that came in last. How the hell did it win first (and third) place?

    Kind of disappointing, although when I read the conditions for each place, I realized that the 'real favourite' would end up being second -- and I was right. Agate Face is amazing for its size.

    --
    Random and weird software I've written.
    1. Re: Wow, a sphere by Thornae · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well, "Simple" is aesthetically pleasing and has a sense of photo-realism, using only 50 bytes more than the red square. As far as use of POV goes, I liked it better than many of the others.

      Nonetheless, I agree that "Agate Face" is the best image. So did the judges, by their comments.

      Neat contest, anyway. I'll be having fun looking through some of those code fragments for ideas...

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      |>
      Here be Dragons
    2. Re:Wow, a sphere by MindStalker · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you read the rules, the first place entry was determined by (votes total/bytes)
      while second place was (votes total)
      and third was (votes total/(bytes^2))
      screwy really.

    3. Re:Wow, a sphere by Monsieur_F · · Score: 4, Informative

      Okay, I just found that it was impossible, because of this rule:
      A valid entry will consist of a single text file containing between 16 and 256 bytes

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  3. Less vs. More by nacturation · · Score: 4, Informative

    Less can be more, but more is often so much more. The Chado Hall of Fame image is stunning. I'm still trying to convince myself that it's not a photograph.

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    1. Re:Less vs. More by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Have you ever seen a photograph this well lit? The way you can tell that it's not a photograph is that it's way too perfect. Everything is shiny. Also notice that there are no lit translucent objects -- I've heard that we don't have the math for this yet.

      Not sure about the math, but that's one of the reason that human skin looks so lifeless in CG. Skin is translucent (that's why your hand glows red when you hold a flashlight up to it). Currently CG skin is only a surface -- it doesn't show light reflecting from within the skin.

      --
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      -- Pablo Picasso
  4. Re:explain by Quill · · Score: 4, Informative

    (Take a look at the verbose version of the code for an easier read.)

    The buildings are actually just one big isosurface. This is a surface in 3D space that is described by a function, similar to describing a line on a 2D graph. For example (warning, I'm been out of school for a while!), the formula y=x would describe a straight line at a 45 deg angle, whereas y=x^2 describes a parabolic curve. You can make the formula more complex and make us of functions (like sin(), cos(), max(), etc...) to end up with some really funky lines that wobble all over.

    The authors of "City" and "The Agate Face" both use isosurfaces effectively.

    I cannot.

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