EMAIL: art-ilc@jcu.edu.au
NAME: Chris Colefax
TOPIC: Science Fiction
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
RENDERER USED: PoVRay 3 (DOS)
HARDWARE USED: Cyrix 5x86-100
TOOLS USED: none

IMAGE DESCRIPTION:
A large alien space station (inspired somewhat by Deep Space Nine) hovers in
space at a safe distance from a black hole (I don't know if the black hole
is scientifically correct in appearence, but I copied it from an "artist's
impression" I found in an astronomy book, and it looks alright to me!).

DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED:
One of the things I have always liked most about PoVRay is the amazing
texturing abilities.  No matter how complex an object's shape, it won't look
any good without a decent texture, whereas even the simplest of shapes (eg. a
sphere) can look stunning with an interesting texture.  As great as PoVRay's
supplied textures are, I always enjoy creating new textures for a scene.
IMO, some of the best improvements in PoVRay 3 have been in texture
enhancements, and I think this image shows how good textures can make all the
difference to a scene. The stars and nebulae clouds are a sky-sphere with a
three-layer texture.  The black hole is a very simple union of two spheres and
two cones.  The space station itself is a rather more complex shape made up of
many torii and cylinders, with a few CSG differences used for the "wings".
The crackle normal gives it a suitably organic, alien look and feel.  Finally,
the lens flare around the black hole is actually a tiny sphere centred on the
camera location, with a two-layer transparent texture used to create the
light rays and halo. The whole scene was coded entirely by hand, with many
test renders being made before achieving the final result (thank God for
mosaic preview!).