EMAIL:          jacoons@ameritech.net
NAME:           James A. Coons
TOPIC:          The Desert
COPYRIGHT:      I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT

TITLE:          The Lonely Place (TBD)
COUNTRY:        United States
WEBPAGE:        none

FILE NAME:      CHLORIDE.POV
JPGFILE:        CHLORIDE.JPG
ZIPFILE:        CHLORIDE.ZIP

RENDERER USED:  
   PovRay 3.5 for Windows
TOOLS USED:     
   ThumbsPlus       (Cerius)   : Image processing and resizing.
   PaintBrush       (Microsoft): Image processing and adding Title. 
   QEDIT            (Semware)  : Global changes, etc.
   Visual Basic 6.0 (Microsoft): Various optional utilities (POVSTRIP, MAKETILE).
   QuickBasic       (Microsoft): Various optional utilities (SEARCH). 
HARDWARE USED:  
   Intel Pentium 600 Mhz, 65M Ram, Windows Operating System
DATE STARTED:   
   07/06/2004
DATE FINISHED:  
   PENDING
RENDER TIME:    
   21 min

Image Description:

   In the desert, only the wind breaks the silence. The
   shadows are harsh and lengthen with the approaching
   sunset. Ambient dust hangs in the dry air. All signs of
   human inhabitation have been erased by the wind and time. The
   buildings are baked and bleached by the sun. Nothing
   green lives here, only the determined Yucca and other
   desert plants that have managed to survive. Even those
   are few and far between.

   Here is the long-abandoned town saloon. If you look
   closely, you can still read the weathered sign above the
   door. But the laughter stopped long ago, when the last
   inhabitants left town more than 110 years ago. Across the
   street is "The House of Soiled Doves", the town brothel.

   A quiet stranger lives here. Perhaps you might see him
   inside the Saloon. Although nobody knows for sure, many
   people believe it is the ghost of Harry Pye, who founded
   the town more than 120 years ago. He enjoys watching the 
   sunset because it means a cool evening is near to follow.  
   If it is Harry Pye (and I'm not saying if it is or isn't), 
   he never got a chance to know the town very well. Apache 
   Indians killed him a few months after he first discovered  
   Silver in the vicinity.

   He is the sole resident of this deserted mining town -
   Chloride, Arizona.

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:

   Landscape:
      The Landscape is a hand-tuned Height_Field.

      I created several realistic textures from Internet
      images and modified them in PaintBrush for Tiling,
      Contrast, Saturation, etc.

   Sky:
      The Background Sky is a Granite Pattern with a custom
      Pigment_Map. I used an image of real clouds to create
      a realistic color_map and a more realistic result was
      obtained by using a large "squashed" sphere instead of
      a "Sky Plane" or Sphere. The Foreground Sky and Clouds
      are multi-layered, semi-transparent, textured spheres.

   Dust:
      The low-level Dust is Fog, properly tuned, to simulate
      dust in the distance and to represent an approaching
      dust storm.

   Plants
      All Plants are created using the PLANTS.TXT Include
      File. It creates a central "Plant Body" from a
      Height_Field and places a layer of "Foliage" on both
      sides. This basic shape is rotate and repeated 3 to
      form a simple plant. This method renders quickly
      because the plants are so usually so small that very
      little detail can actually be seen. The foliage is
      translucent, which creates a realistic effect when the
      sun is shining through the leaves.

         Plant 1: Simple tree with foliage
         Plant 2: Desert weed (anza agave)	
         Plant 3: Yucca Plant

   People (possibly not included in final Render)
      "The Stranger" was created using the HF_MAN.TXT
      Include File. It creates a slightly 3D image using the
      Image as the Height_Field. It then uses the same Image
      to color the person. Because the person is, in
      essence, a "Billboard", the resulting object must be
      placed so it is perpendicular to the camera.

   Buildings (Shacks, Saloon, Post Office) 
      The Buildings are Height_Fields, joined at the corners
      and formed into a cube, using image based on actual
      buildings. Internal floors and debris fields, if used,
      are also Height_Fields.

         The Saloon is based on an abandoned Canadian copper
         mine shack (included in submission). It is included
         in the SALOON.TXT Include File.
           
         The House of Soiled Doves is based on photos of the
         town brothel in Chloride, AZ. It is included in the
         BROTHEL.TXT Include File. 

   Other Objects
      Other objects are created using the FORMS.TXT Macro.
      So far, this includes only a Wagon Wheel, which is not
      included in the final render. The purpose of the Macro
      was to simplify the creation of "Extruded Height_Field 
      Objects".

Rendering This Image:

   All image files necessary to render this image are
   included in the ZIP File, although some may have been
   reduced in size or quality for IRTC space and upload
   consideration. I rendered the final image at 1024x768 to
   obtain the most details and then use ThumbsPlus to
   convert it to JPG and reduce the size, as necessary.

About This Submission:

   This is my second submission to the IRTC. My previous
   entry was "The Great Wall of China" for the "Epic
   Proportions" Contest. I hope the additional time I spent
   on this submission and effort is apparent in the final
   render. I learned quite a bit from my previous attempt,
   which helped immensely on this project.

   Extra Goodies included in ZIP File:

      Brothel*.JPG   Images of original Brothel in Chloride,
                     Arizona ("House of the Soiled Doves").

      CanaMine.JPG   Image of original Canadian Mine Shack
                     on which the Saloon is based.

      Chloride.TGA   Original uncompressed Rendered Image.

      _History.TXT   About The Town of Chloride, Arizona
                     Compiled by James Coons.

      _Develop.TXT   Additional POV-Ray development
                     techniques.

Interpreting the Topic "The Desert"

   I felt that the topic "Desert", deserved more than just
   "a desert, a sky and a gecko", although I expect we will 
   see many entries of that nature. 

   My first idea was to show a cross road in the desert with
   a General Store or gas station. I thought of various
   twists, such as it being occupied by ghosts or some such
   thing. I worked on the general desert layout first and
   then abandoned the General Store idea.

   Then, I started researching Deserts and Ghost Towns for
   inspiration. I found the "Ghost Town Web Ring", which
   lead me to the town of Chloride, Arizona. Although I
   couldn't find enough information to recreate the entire
   town (which I had thought about doing), I decided to use
   information about the town, as well as some images, to
   pay homage to this mining town. So, the town in my
   submission is named Chloride, Arizona, even if in name
   only. It is also not totally deserted today, but that is
   just for the submission.

   My initial idea was to show a single building in the
   middle of the desert, but when I saw the effect, I
   decided to create several other buildings to create a
   more complete town.

   For additional information on town, see the file
   HISTORY.TXT, included with this submission.

James Anthony Coons

