What is povraygen

Povraygen is a hobby project that aims to randomly generate realistically looking fantastic landscapes.

Currently it works as follows:

  • Bunch of python scripts that generate povray files and then call povray raytracer.
  • Povray raytracer generates images.

Example images:

Example image.

Example image.

Example image.

Example image.

FAQ

What is povray

Povray is an open-source binary program that uses raytracing to generate very real looking images.

Images are defined using text files and then rendered.

Why use povray

It's API (i.e. plain-text files) is best and most understandable I found.

Pros:

  • Very good documentation;
  • Very good quality of produced images;
  • I could start experimenting quickly;

Cons:

  • Requires me to generate povray images programatically;

I evaluated:

  • Blender --- it has a Python API, however this python api is callable from inside blender application, and is really geared towards writing plugins, that is: you need to worry about state of the UI when managing 3d objects (for example --- you can't select an object UI needs to be in a state that allows selecting objects).

    Note

    Above opinion is based on working with blender python API for couple of so my experience is extreamly limited.

  • Panda3d --- it is a nice 3d game engine (allegedly) in Python, however:

    • Tutorial did not explain to me how to put objects and/or how to define them.
    • It is geared towards "game engine" use case --- that is: you load assets created in 3d program, and then you move and animate them. I want to dynamically generate my assets.

Will you show us the code

Once I get around to it, I'll release the code :)