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 // rotate texture only } scale <5, 3, 2> // 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 } // Use the agate color pattern instead. finish { phong 1 // Make the texture shiny reflection .5 // 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 My personal opinions, for what it's worth. -dmf -------------- Jade Swirled jade. Try with agate, too! Red_Marble A bit overworked and unrealistic, but a classic. White_Marble Nice for an underlying texture with another marble, too. Blood_Marble Does this one really need a description? You'll try it, anyway! Blue_Agate Another classic. Kind of blue-gray or purplish. Sapphire_Agate Very nice, velvety dark blue stone. Brown_Agate Pretty tawny brown on white. Pink_Granite Black, white, and orange granite. Pink_Alabaster 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 A light reddish wood. Pine_Wood Light tan wood with greenish growth rings. Dark_Wood Dark wood with a greenish hue to it. Tan_Wood Light tan background with brown rings. White_Wood A very pale wood with tan rings -- kind of balsa-ish. Tom_Wood Brown wood - looks stained. Dan Farmer woods DMFWood1 Kind of like cedar, maybe? DMFWood2 Light colored wood. DMFWood3 Rosewood, very pretty red/black. DMFWood4 Another light, piney wood. DMFWood5 Grayish-tan. DMFLightOak A very realistic looking fresh white oak surface. DMFDarkOak Similar to DMFLightOak, but with a typical oak stain. Cork 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. Great burled maple, too! Surface Textures ---------------- Dull We all know somebody like this guy, don't we? Uses specular. Shiny Small, tight highlights. No reflection. Uses specular. Phong_Dull Like a soft rubber ball or flat paint. Phong_Shiny Some say that phong is less worthy than specular. I use this. Glossy Shinier than shiny. Has some reflection included. Phong_Glossy Similar to Glossy, but uses phong. Very tight highlight. Luminous Good for sky-spheres, no shadows will be cast on it. Mirror A perfect mirror. The raytraced sphere classic. Glass Clear glass. May want to add Gloss. Glass2 Probably more like acrylic plastic. Softer gloss that glass. Glass3 An excellent grayish lead crystal. New with POV-Ray 1.0. Green_Glass Glass3 with a pale green tint to it. Metal Textures -------------- Metal 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 (preferred name) Chrome_Texture (historical name) Brass_Metal (preferred name) Brass_Texture (historical name) Gold_Metal (preferred name) Gold_Texture (historical name) Bronze_Metal (preferred name) Bronze_Texture (historical name) Copper_Metal (preferred name) Copper_Texture (historical name) Silver_Metal (preferred name) Silver_Texture (historical name) Polished_Chrome A highly reflective chrome texture Polished_Brass A highly reflective brass texture New_Brass Beautiful military brass texture Spun_Brass Spun Brass texture for cymbals & such Brass_Valley Hmmmm... something like "Black Hills Gold". Rusty_Iron Just like my car. Rust 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 complete texture statements - edit to your scene & lighting situations. stone1 - LightCream stone2 - Cream & sand stone3 - Cream Stone with warm swirls stone4 - Cream Stone with larger warm swirls stone5 - Cream Stone with warm swirls stone6 - Cream Stone with warm swirls stone7 - Cream Stone with warm swirls stone8 - Cream Stone with warm swirls stone9 - Cream Stone with warm swirls stone10- Cream Stone with warm swirls stone11- Cream Stone with warm swirls stone12- Light Cream stone13- Light Cream stone14- Light Cream stone15- Light Cream stone16- Light Cream 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 most cases, to put a marble or to a lesser degree, agate, texture onto an x/z plane, you will get the best results by rotating the final texture by <0, 0, 90>. This will give a less directional noise to the 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 // Use Jade coloring onion // Use onion pattern instead of marble turbulence 0.7 // "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 object { Z_Disk }. marble object { UnitBox }. agate object { UnitBox }. onion cut a sphere in half with CSG. Flat side facing camera. leopard sphere. granite just about anything. checker object { UnitBox }. bozo just about anything. 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.