Persistence of Vision Raytracer
Standard Textures Include File Documentation
Textures are the materials that shapes and objects in POV-Ray are made
out of. It is possible to define almost infinite textures in POV-Ray
ranging from red marble, to pink alabaster, to shiny gold, to rippling
water.
The files TEXTURES.INC and STONES.INC contain many pre-defined textures
created by POV-Ray users. You can easily use these high-quality textures
in your own scene files by adding the lines,
#include "colors.inc"
#include "textures.inc"
or
#include "colors.inc"
#include "stones.inc"
or
#include "colors.inc"
#include "textures.inc"
#include "stones.inc"
to the top of your scene file. Then, use the texture names described
below wherever you would normally place an entire texture definition.
For example,
sphere { <0, 0, 0>, 1 texture { Texture_Name } }
or
object {
Logo
texture { Texture_Name }
}
These pre-defined textures may be scaled, translated, and rotated
like any other texture. For example,
object {
Logo
texture {
Texture_Name
rotate -90*x
}
scale <5, 3, 2>
}
// rotate texture only
// scale shape and texture
You may also modify them by placing texture parameters after the
Texture_Name. For example,
object {
Logo
texture {
Texture_Name
pigment { agate }
finish {
phong 1
reflection .5
}
}
// Use the agate color pattern instead.
// Make the texture shiny
// and reflective.
}
You can easily create great looking scenes by invoking these pre-defined
textures with the shapes you create. Note that each texture definition
takes a bit of memory. If you are running out of memory, try copying the
individual textures out of these two files that you want to use instead
of including the entire file.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------What this document is, and what it is not:
This file is intended to be used as a quick reference to the textures
in the textures.inc file. This won't tell you all you need to know about
any of these surfaces, but it should help you in picking what you want or
to look up the correct spelling of a name. You will also find it
valuable
to browse through the textures file from time to time. There are a few
comments that aren't duplicated in this file.
This document is at times biased by my own preferences, but also by
considerable experimention and experience. Nevertheless, don't take
anything I say in this text as pure, absolute fact. Try things out
yourself and see what the result is.
After the quick reference, you'll find some handy tips on textures.
-R&D Dept:
You are strongly encouraged to develop your own custom version of these
textures, and to develop your own new surfaces. Please share the nice
ones
with the folks that are sharing this with you. Who knows... it might be
in the next release. Oh... if you share a file with someone, please make
sure that any custom textures, colors, or shapes are included. Saves
lots
of frustration on the recipient.
There are a number of textures in here that could be improved on. Please
don't take anything in the textures files for "gospel". Everything can
be improved upon. Manipulate turbulence, octaves. Try Jade using
granite
instead of marble.
-About the textures file:
These textures have generally been scaled to fit best onto a "unit"
object,
for example, on a sphere with radius of 1. Rescale accordingly.
Remember,
scaling larger puts less of the texture *features* into a given area.
Note: You MUST include colors.inc BEFORE textures.inc. Many of these
textures use declared color names and POV-Ray won't like it if they
haven't
been defined when it's parsing the textures!
- Dan Farmer
-Textures file #1, contents, with comments.
Stone Textures
-------------Jade
Red_Marble
White_Marble
Blood_Marble
anyway!
Blue_Agate
Sapphire_Agate
Brown_Agate
Pink_Granite
Pink_Alabaster
My personal opinions, for what it's worth.
-dmf
Swirled jade. Try with agate, too!
A bit overworked and unrealistic, but a classic.
Nice for an underlying texture with another marble, too.
Does this one really need a description? You'll try it,
Another classic. Kind of blue-gray or purplish.
Very nice, velvety dark blue stone.
Pretty tawny brown on white.
Black, white, and orange granite.
Soft gray/rose alabaster. Subtle and beautiful!
Sky Textures - Manipulate the scale and the turbulence for best results.
----------Blue_Sky
Your basic blue sky, with clouds.
Blue_Sky2
Variation on basic blue sky, with clouds.
Blue_Sky3
Variation on basic blue sky, with small puffy clouds.
Bright_Blue_Sky Bright blue sky with whiter-than-white clouds.
Blood_Sky
Drastic red sky with stormy yellow clouds.
Surrealistic.
Apocolypse
Black sky with red and purple clouds. Another CdW
dreamscape.
Clouds
Clouds with a clear sky. Generally has a blue sphere
behind.
Wooden Textures - Again, try manipulating scale, translation, and
turbulence.
--------------Cherry_Wood
Pine_Wood
Dark_Wood
Tan_Wood
White_Wood
Tom_Wood
A light reddish wood.
Light tan wood with greenish growth rings.
Dark wood with a greenish hue to it.
Light tan background with brown rings.
A very pale wood with tan rings -- kind of balsa-ish.
Brown wood - looks stained.
Dan Farmer woods
DMFWood1
DMFWood2
DMFWood3
DMFWood4
DMFWood5
DMFLightOak
DMFDarkOak
Cork
Kind of like cedar, maybe?
Light colored wood.
Rosewood, very pretty red/black.
Another light, piney wood.
Grayish-tan.
A very realistic looking fresh white oak surface.
Similar to DMFLightOak, but with a typical oak stain.
A very realistic looking cork texture
Doug Otwell woods
Yellow_Pine
A beautiful yellow pine.
Rosewood
Deep red/black woodgrain.
Sandalwood
Highly turbulated creamy-gray.
too!
Surface Textures
---------------Dull
specular.
Shiny
specular.
Phong_Dull
Phong_Shiny
this.
Glossy
Phong_Glossy
highlight.
Luminous
Mirror
Glass
Glass2
glass.
Glass3
Green_Glass
Metal Textures
-------------Metal
Great burled maple,
We all know somebody like this guy, don't we? Uses
Small, tight highlights.
No reflection.
Uses
Like a soft rubber ball or flat paint.
Some say that phong is less worthy than specular. I use
Shinier than shiny. Has some reflection included.
Similar to Glossy, but uses phong. Very tight
Good for sky-spheres, no shadows will be cast on it.
A perfect mirror. The raytraced sphere classic.
Clear glass. May want to add Gloss.
Probably more like acrylic plastic. Softer gloss that
An excellent grayish lead crystal. New with POV-Ray 1.0.
Glass3 with a pale green tint to it.
Add your own color before using this one.
The following textures are referred to by two names,
one (hopefully) for historic purposes only. I wanted to
use simple "Brass" and "Silver" but it interferes with
the
colors of the same names.
Chrome_Metal
Brass_Metal
Gold_Metal
Bronze_Metal
Copper_Metal
Silver_Metal
(preferred
(preferred
(preferred
(preferred
(preferred
(preferred
name)
name)
name)
name)
name)
name)
Chrome_Texture
Brass_Texture
Gold_Texture
Bronze_Texture
Copper_Texture
Silver_Texture
Polished_Chrome
A highly reflective chrome texture
(historical
(historical
(historical
(historical
(historical
(historical
name)
name)
name)
name)
name)
name)
Polished_Brass
New_Brass
Spun_Brass
Brass_Valley
Rusty_Iron
Rust
A highly reflective brass texture
Beautiful military brass texture
Spun Brass texture for cymbals & such
Hmmmm... something like "Black Hills Gold".
Just like my car.
Just like my car's finish.
Special Effect Dept
------------------Candy_Cane
Red and white barber pole.
Peel
Orange and transparent spiral stripes. Use it to emulate
the artist M.C. Escher.
X_Gradient
Here as an example more than as a useful texture
Y_Gradient
Here as an example more than as a useful texture
Z_Gradient
Here as an example more than as a useful texture
Water
Requires a sub-surface. Has transparency and ripples.
Texture from stones.inc:
This file contains #Declared texture statements defining a
variety
of Granite & Marble Textures. Most use the Granite Texture.
Turbulence has no effect on Granite, but turbulence is stated
before the Color Map for convenience of switching to Marble,
which
does need a turbulence to swirl the color. I tried to avoid
using
a random Dither, but I find it helps create a subtle grain &
can
spark lost colors in the map. On multi-layered texture, try a
float
of about 0.05 on the first texture. -- Mike Miller
INDEX:
GRNT0 - GRNT20
color maps containing no alpha values
grnt0 - Gray with Rose
grnt1 - Creamy Whites with yellow & light gray
grnt2 - Deep Cream with light rose orchid & tan
grnt3 - Warm tans olive & light rose with cream
grnt4 - Orchid sand & mauve
grnt5 - Medium Mauve Med.Rose & deep cream
grnt6 - Med. Orchid Olive & Dark Tan "mud pie"
grnt7 - Dark Orchid Olive & Dark Putty
grnt8 - Rose & Light cream Yellows
grnt9 - Light Steely Grays
grnt10 - Gray Creams & lavender tans
grnt11 - Creams & Grays
grnt12 - Tan Cream & Red Rose
grnt13 - Cream Rose orange
grnt14 - Cream Rose & light moss
grnt15 - Black with subtle chroma
grnt16 - White Cream & Peach
grnt17 - Bug Juice & Green
grnt18 - ??
grnt19 - ??
(This one does have some transparency-dmf)
grnt20 - Gray Marble with White feather Viens
GRNT0A - GRNT20A color maps containing alpha
grnt0a -grnt7a- ???
grnt8a - Aqua Tints
grnt9a - Alpha Creams With Cracks
grnt10a - Alpha Cream Rose & light yellow
grnt11a - Alpha Light Grays
grnt12a - Alpha Creams & Tans
grnt13a - Alpha Creams & Grays
grnt14a - Cream Rose & light moss
grnt15a - Alpha Sand & light Orange
grnt16a - Cream Rose & light moss (again?)
grnt17a - ???
grnt18a - ???
grnt19a - Gray Marble with White feather Viens with Alpha
grnt20a - Black/Gray Marble
CRACK1 & CRACK2
clear with an thin opaque band for cracks
crack1 - Crack & Red Overtint
crack2 - Translucent Dark Cracks
OTHERS
marb3 - Warm tans & light rose with cream (opaque)
marb9 - Light Grays (opaque)
STONE1 - STONE16
stone1 stone2 stone3 stone4 stone5 stone6 stone7 stone8 stone9 stone10stone11stone12stone13stone14stone15stone16-
complete texture statements - edit to your
scene & lighting situations.
LightCream
Cream & sand
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Cream Stone with
Light Cream
Light Cream
Light Cream
Light Cream
Light Cream
warm swirls
larger warm swirls
warm swirls
warm swirls
warm swirls
warm swirls
warm swirls
warm swirls
warm swirls
Final Note: I would not "INCLUDE" this whole data file into a
scene
file if only one or two of these textures were
being
used...There are too many declares being used.
- Mike Miller
------------------------- OTHER STUFF -----------------------------------STONE TEXTURES
I think you will find that in
lesser degree, agate, texture
results by rotating the final
less directional noise to the
most cases, to put a marble or to a
onto an x/z plane, you will get the best
texture by <0, 0, 90>. This will give a
marbling.
Don't overlook the granite texture. You can do a lot more than granite
with it by changing colors, scale, and turbulence.
The onion texture makes a superb marblized surface if you give it enough
turbulence, and it lacks the directional quality of the built-in
marble. This is essentially the same texture as the "spherical" texture
in
the Vivid raytracer and can be used in much the same ways.
The file "stones.inc" contains a number of other stone textures, these by
POV-Ray artist Mike Miller. Be sure to check these out... they'll "blow
your
socks off"!
WOODEN TEXTURES
Note: Wood is designed like a "log", with growth rings aligned along
the z axis. Generally these will look best when scaled down by about
a tenth (to a unit-sized object). You may want to try using a smaller
value for the turbulence with these textures, too (try around 0.05
for starters).
The scaling in these definitions is relative to a unit-sized object
(radius 1). Note that woods are functionally equivilent to a log lying
along the z axis. For best results, think like a woodcutter trying to
extract the nicest board out of a log. A little tilt along the x axis
will give elliptical rings of grain like you'd expect to find on most
boards.
Experiment.
SURFACE TEXTURES
Glass and mirrors are tough things to render, although at the same time,
they are the forte of raytracing. The reason I say that they are tough
is
that the effect is stronly dependant upon the environment. Look closely
at
a glass or bottle or a piece of silverware and you'll see what I mean.
The
color of the object comes primarily from the surroundings, and very
little
from the object itself.
The mirror defined in the textures file is a "perfect" mirror. You won't
even
find that in Sandia Labs laser lab. But, hey... raytracing isn't
reality, is
it? Still, if you're trying to model glass or mirror with the intent of
modelling "reality", you will probably want to add a touch of diffuse
color to the texture and manipulate some of the other values until you
get
what you're looking for. Discovery is half the fun!
Oh... sometimes a touch of "brilliance" will look good on mirror and
glass,
too.
OTHER THOUGHTS
As you use these textures, remember that you can "borrow" one of these
textures and modify it by either adding other qualities, or by changing
qualities that are declared in the definition. For example,
pigment {
Jade
onion
turbulence 0.7
}
// Use Jade coloring
// Use onion pattern instead of marble
// "Over-write" Jade's high turbulence
The best way to learn about any given texture is simply to take some time
and play with it. The first thing I would recommend is to map it onto
a unit object. Set turbulence to 0. Use default scaling.
For the following textures, I'd recommend these shapes:
wood
marble
agate
onion
leopard
granite
checker
bozo
object { Z_Disk }.
object { UnitBox }.
object { UnitBox }.
cut a sphere in half with CSG.
sphere.
just about anything.
object { UnitBox }.
just about anything.
Flat side facing camera.
You can achieve some spectacular results by layering textures, but it can
also get frustrating sometimes. The method is generally to use a color
map
on the top surfaces that has some sort of a blend between a color and
clear
white. As the color and the clear blend together, you will get varying
degrees of "semi-clear" white that will modify the underlying color in
ways
that you may not have planned on. Once again, experiment.