TITLE: Skyhook on Mars
NAME: James H. Mills
COUNTRY: U.S.A.
EMAIL: jmills@stic.net
WEBPAGE: none
JPGFILE: skyhook.jpg
ZIPFILE: none

TOPIC: Glass
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: skyhook.jpg
RENDERER USED: Ray Dream Designer 4.0 
TOOLS USED: none
RENDER TIME: 2 hours 31 mintes
HARDWARE USED: Pentium 100 with 32Mb of ram. Windows 95 os.
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


        The year is 2050. Nanotechnology has allowed humanity to travel to the
stars,repair the earths environment,and most importantly...to begin
terraforming Mars. The population on earth now requires this. While the 
terraforming process is going on, massive domed citys are built to house
the new human inhabitants. These cities contain huge towering 
skyscrapers a mile and a half wide at the base and house a quarter of a
million people. The most important aspect of these cities are the skyhooks
which are giant elevators made from diamond (now easy to make thanks to
nanotechnology) that literally span from the ground out into space! These
are used for transporting people and supplies to and from space (rockets
just use too must energy).
        You wake up in your appartment eager to start your weekend.You make
your way down to the park (your favorite place on mars so far) just in time
for sun up. It's going to be a beautiful day in the dome, you think. The
brisk air washes across your face as you hear the distant rumble of the 
skyhook building power generators wind up. You look up just in time to see
the transport vehicle shoot up the skyhook headed for space!
 



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


This image was created using Ray Dreams Designer 4.0 alone. I bought it
because I needed a modeller similar in feel to Imagine (I used to use the 
Amiga version) But I am now realising that I am not too happy with the finished
product...oh well.
        
        The Ray Dreams modeller has a great texture interface which allowed
me to make cleaver building designs (something I really love!). This scene
is actually very simple compared to a lot of other peoples designs. There
are no fancy effects or lighting techniques. Just the buildings which I
made from simple geometry and one sun as a light source. 

        The dome and the skyhook are both "glass like" diamondiod texture
hence the subject matter.

        Rock on!
        Jim Mills