TITLE: Tzolkin NAME: Marjorie Graterol COUNTRY: USA EMAIL: emediez@emediez.com WEBPAGE: www.emediez.com TOPIC: Mystery COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT. JPGFILE: mg_ahau.jpg ZIPFILE: mg_ahau.zip RENDERER USED: POV-Ray v.3.5 Windows /Win 2000 TOOLS USED: Hamapatch Paint Shop Pro v.7 Crossroads Wilbur Plant Studio CorelDraw! and PhotoPaint RENDER TIME: 32h 41m 9s HARDWARE USED: P4, 2.4G, 80G HDD 512RAM IMAGE DESCRIPTION: (Spanish after English) The time keeping system of the Mayans was a combination of several cycles that meshed together, marking the movement of the Sun, Moon and Venus. Their sacred calendar, the "Tzolkin", is based on the cycles of the Pleiades, encompassing 26,000 years. This is reflected in the "Tzolkin" by 260 days, pairing the numbers from one through thirteen with a sequence of twenty day-names. The image comprises several points regarding the Maya culture at its classic stage, and at least, two "tzolkin" .It is basically The temple of Inscriptions (Palenque, Chiapas, MX) seen from behind a classical mayan "arch", or "false arch". Mayan temples are on top of pyramids. Usually, all the stairs of the building -and every space on it- are somehow related to the Sun, Moon, or Venus. These temples have (or used to have) an "estela" on top, as the link to the heavens, the highest point to reach the stars. From this standpoint and to the right, there is one "tzolkin" - or a representation of. The first column represents day-names. Remaining columns are symbols in 13 frequencies, repeating themselves to reach 260 days. In front, the "tzolkin" represented with two wheels, one inside the other. They are not the same as aztec's calendar, which is based on mayans'. Passing the arch, there is a sphere surrounded by circles, supported by a cone, (there had to be a handy reminder of time somewhere, being so important). I guess that, in a culture capable of developing the most complex language, and the most accurate calculation system including the zero -the "discovery" of America -and the proof that the earth was rounded indeed- would have been the joke of the month, had they been around by the time of the last discovery. But they were not. Mayan vanished before conquerors arrived. Their language has been just partially decoded, enough to know that their long count ends on December 21, 2012. /*Since the beautiful part of this image was the research, a list of links and some comments -the relation with DNA and I Ching, etc; will be set at: http://www.emediez.com/tzolkin/info.html */ Finally, the name Ahau means the Sun and..."We are now in the last k_atun of the cycle, stage 13, AHAU. DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: -The image was built around the temple -modeled in HamaPatch. Then it was placed on top of a height field (a *.dem from USGS). Two more height fields were scaled and added, surrounding the pyramid. The path in the middle is another height field from an image made in PSP and exported with Wilbur, too. -The Arch, in this case some type of vault because of its depth, is CSG. The Right-Tzolkin is an image_map -and bump_map ad hoc- made from scratch and composed entirely in CorelDraw8, and then manipulated and filtered (outer bevelled in PSP). The Left-Tzolkin is composed by two height_fields from images made from the many interpretations of tzolkin on the net, in PSP. -The lizard was particularly hard to do. Not because the modeling, it was the exporting and rendering in POV. After many lizards lost or just deleted, Crossroads did the job perfectly for this one, number 6. - Vegetation come from several sources. The lonely plant hanging from the right, made and exported from PlantStudio. Those hanging from the left, come from the aquatic free models at 3dcafe-from 3dplants.com. Same goes for the foliage around the temple. They are two models -without the pots- repetead, scaled, rotated, and repeated again. Some of them are not visible, but give their shadow to the scene. -The sky_sphere is from the POV include files -skies.ins- with modified pigments. -Textures are procedural and mapped, -from images made/adapted with PSP or Corel. -There are 24 lights -spot and pointlights. -Rendering. Rendered with Antialias_Threshold=0.3, Sampling_Method=2 and Radiosity. The "Warning:Illegal grid value in dda_traversal()" appeared multiple times, along with "The height field may contain dark spots. To eliminate them moving the camera a tiny bit should help. For more information read the manual", and I did. Obviously, the left calendar (which is made out of two height_fields full of dark spots) was the problem, but I wanted it exactly in that way. I moved the camera a tiny bit, but it didn't work. I tried many changes in the radiosity settings, but the error appeared again. I decided to set radiosity to those settings that hamapatch makes by default when exporting an image with less brightness. Since I had turned off -all (including textures'- ambient values to 0 -in order to get the best result with radiosity, I tested the image -especially those two height_fields--without radiosity and AA. POV-Ray didn't complain, but the image was very dark as expected (21 pps). Since there is no more known work-arounds about this issue in the manual, I decided to go ahead and render. POV made a wonderful job. At 23 hours, the machine rebooted. I used the "Continue" from Rerun option, and it crashed at 7 minutes -alerting first!. This "continue" feature didn't make the pre-trace for radiosity though. Reboot, disk clean-up and render again. This time, I started a plain render, no AA and no radiosity at all, just to catch the window. Aborted and started an approximate area to finish the whole image. Average speed for rendering while dealing with the height f1elds was 2 pps.After that it jumped to 15 pps, and then to 30. Both parts were put togetehr in PSP. NOTE: Very few source files are included. All files zipped go from 49 to 11 Megs, still too much. /***Espa_ol***/ IMAGE DESCRIPTION: El sistema de medici_n del tiempo de los mayas, era una combinaci_n de varios ciclos que se entremezclaban, marcando los movientos del Sol, la Luna y Venus. Su calendario sagrado - el Tzolkin- est_ basado en los ciclos de las Pl_yades, abarcado 26.000 a_os. Esto se refleja en el Tzolkin con el numero de 260 d_as, pareando los numeros del uno al trece con una secuencia de veinte nombres-d_a. La imagen comprende varios puntos referentes a la cultura Maya en su periodo cl_sico y por lo menos dos "tzolkin". Es b_sicamente el Templo de las Inscripciones (Palenque, Chiapas, MX) visto desde un caracteristico arco maya, o "arco falso". Los templos mayas estaban en lo alto de las pir_mides. A menudo, todos los escalones del edificio - y cada espacio dentro de el- est_n de alguna manera relacionados con el Sol, la Luna o Venus. Estos templos tienen (o sol_an tener) una estela en la parte superior, como el nexo con los cielos, el punto m_s alto para alcanzar las estrellas. Desde este punto y hacia la derecha, se encuentra un tzolkin -o una representaci_n. La primera columna representa d_as-nombre. Las columnas restantes son s_mbolos en 13 frecuencias, repetidas hasta alcanzar los 260 dias. Al frente, el tzolkin representado con dos ruedas, una dentro de la otra. No son iguales al calendario azteca, que se basa en el de los mayas. Pasando el arco, hay un esfera rodeada de c_rculos, sostenidos por un cono (tuvo que haber habido alg_n recordatorio del tiempo en algun lugar, si era tan importante). Creo que, en una cultura capaz de desarrollar el lenguage m_s complejo y el sistema de c_lculo m_s exacto incluyendo al cero- el "descubrimiento" de Am_rica -y la prueba de que la tierra como que de verdad era redonda- hubiese sido el chiste del mes, si hubiesen estado por ah_ por los tiempos del _ltimo descubrimiento. Pero no estaban. Los Mayas se desvanecieron antes que llegaran los conquistadores. Su lenguaje ha sido decodificado s_lo parcialmente, justo para saber que su "cuenta larga" termina el 21 de Diciembre del 2012. /*Puesto que la parte m_s bonita de esta imagen ha sido la b_squeda, se publicar_ una lista de links -la relaci_n con el ADN y el I Ching, etc; y algunos comentarios acerca del tema en : http://www.emediez.com/tzolkin/info.html */ Finalmente, el nombre Ahau significa el Sol y..."Estamos ahora en el _ltimo kat_n del ciclo, estadio 13, AHAU" DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: -La imagen se compuso a partir del templo -modelado en hamapatch. Luego fue colocado encima de un HF (un archivo *.dem de USGS) . Dos height fields m_s fueron reducidos y a_adidos, alrededor de la pir_mide. El camino medio es otro height_field de una imagen hecha en PSP y exportada con Wilbur. -El arco, en este caso casi una b_veda a causa de su profundidad, es CSG. El tzolkin de la derecha es un image_map com su bump_map ad-hoc creados en Corel8, manipulados y sometidoa a filtros (outer bevel en PSP) . El tzolkin de la izquierda est_ compuesto por dos height_fields a partir de imagenes de la red, creadas en PSP. -El lagartijo fue particularmente antip_tico. No por haberlo modelado sino a la hora de exportarlo a POV. Luego de muchos lagartijos fallecidos o sencillamente borrados del mapa, Crossroads hizo por fin el trabajo perfectamente para _ste, el lagartijo n_mero 6. - La vegetaci_n proviene de varias fuentes. La solitaria matica que cuelga de la esquina derecha en el primer plano, hecha y exportada por PlantStudio. Las de la izquierda, una de las acu_ticas de los modelos de 3dcafe, que son de 3dplants. Lo mismo para el follaje de los alrededores del templo. Son s_lo dos modelos -sin las macetas- repetidos, escalados, rotados y vueltos a repetir. Algunos no son visibles, pero le brindan sombra a la escena. -El sky_sphere es de los archivos include que vienen con POVRay -skies.ins- pero modificado. -Las texturas son procedimentales algunas y a partir de im_genes las otras -hechas en PSP o COrel- -Hay un total de 24 luces -spot y pointlights. NOTA: Se incluyen muy pocos archivos. Todos ellos comprimidos van de 49 a 11 megas. -Rendering. Rendered con Antialias_Threshold=0.3, Sampling_Method=2 y Radiosity. El alerta "Warning:Illegal grid value in dda_traversal()" apareci_ muchas veces, junto con este "The height field may contain dark spots. To eliminate them moving the camera a tiny bit should help. For more information read the manual", que le_. Obviamente, el calendario de la izquierda (que consta de dos height_fields llenos de espacios obscuros) era el problema, pero yo lo quer_a exactamente de esa manera. Mov_ la camara un poco, pero no funcion_. Trat_ cambiando los settings de radiosity, pero el error apareci_ de nuevo. Decid_utilizar los settings que exporta por default hamapatch , pero con menor brillo. Puesto que todos los valores ambient -incluyendo las texturas- estaban inhabilitados,prob_ la imagen - especialmente los dos height_fields sin radiosity y con AA. POV-Ray no protest_, pero la imagen sali_ muy obscura (21 pps) Puesto que no hay m_s soluciones conocidas acerca de esto en el manual, decid_ seguir adelante con el render. POV hizo un estupendo trabajo. A las 23 horas, reboot. Us_ el "Continue" de la opci_ Rerun, y entonces se estrell_ a los 7 minutos -avisando primero. Este "continue" no hizo el pre-trace por cierto. Reboot, disk clean-up y render otra vez. Esta vez hice un render sencillo,sin AA ni radiosity s_lo para obtener la ventana del display. Abort_ el proceso y entonces determin_ una _rea aproximada que correspondiese a la parte que faltaba. La velocidad promedio con los height_fields fue de 2 pps. Despu_s de pasarlos subi_ a 15pps Luego se unieron las dos partes en PSP,y Tutto bene.