The basic support for parametric object description comes from
the standard POV-Ray's scene description language. The workflow
of POV-Ray image creation is: create the scene source file
(a text file), run the parser (that creates internal rendering
structures - the scene), start the rendering engine. This allows
the straightforward design of parametric objects using macros. A
macro represents the objects to be generated many times in the
scene. To let them all have different color, the only task is
to add the color choice to the macro. The object's macro is
parsed several times and each time a different color is chosen.
3.1 Random function
The production of large amounts of different objects cannot be
done without a good random function. In POV-Ray there is a random
function that generates a random number in the range between zero
and one with constant density function; that means each number has
the same probability to be chosen. In the real life no measurable
parameter of almost any object has such distribution [5]. The basic
distribution is the so-called normal distribution, where the density
function is the gaussian curve. If the parametric definition of a 3D
character requires to generate a number representing the figure
height, it is much better to use a random number generated with
the normal distribution instead of the standard random function.
Maybe there is no reason to do such (a bit more complicated)
calculation during the generation of only one instance of the
object, but it is a real requirement for mass scenes.
What if the scene author wants to have a few small persons and
a lot of tall ones? The normal distribution cannot be used. Still
there is no reason why the author should not enter the density
function that satisfies his intention. That is exactly the first
extension of the POV-Ray scene description language - a function
that generates a random value according to a given density function
and its placement (the centre and the dispersion).
To enter the data describing the density function into the POV-Ray
scene description language, an array comes to good use. The values
in the array represent the density function ordinates, the abscises
are equidistant. Two examples are given - a constant density function,
and a gaussian-like density function:
The code requesting a random value having the gaussian density
function (according to the above example) applied to the height
of a human - centred to 170 centimetres and with the dispersion
of 30 cm will look similar to this one:
Where could the generated numbers be used? Anywhere - for sizes of
the objects, for color values, for position coordinates, for pattern
modifications, anywhere where a random value is useful.
3.2 Alternative
The second randomization of the macro representing the parametric
object comes from the need to make decisions. Suppose, (for instance)
that it is needed to decide whether a person will wear short or long
trousers. Perhaps it is possible to describe the trousers length by
the makevalue function with proper settings, but if there is the need
to make totally different objects for the trousers, it has to be
determined which type of the trousers to use. An alternative directive
is the second contribution to the POV-Ray scene description language.
Usually the scene designer has the feeling of the percentage - the
partial amounts of how many of the generated objects should comply
a given condition. In the above example it could be stated that
(for example) sixty percent of the people would have long trousers,
and forty percent the short ones. An alternative directive added
into the macro could express it in this way:
The alternative could be used wherever a decision has to be
applied - for color selection, for the choice of object type,
to choose any optional orientation. It is advantageous to use
the alternative in the macro of the generated object to determine
which object should be actually generated. A typical example occurs
while modelling a common food - a letter soup, where the soup
contains different soup elements:
