demo_povray
Export POVray animations (demo_POST_povray.cpp)
Tutorial that teaches how to use the POSTPROCESS module to create animations with POVray.
When the simulation is run, a set of .pov and .ini files are saved on disk, so that one can use POVray later to do high-quality rendering of simulations.
Learn how to attach @ref chrono::ChVisualShape to rigid bodies.
Learn how to output data for POVray.
Note: the same assets can be used to render animations in real-time in the interactive 3D view of Irrlicht, as explained in demo_IRR_assets.cpp
Example 1
Create a @ref chrono::ChBody, and attach some 'assets' that define 3D shapes. These shapes can be shown by VSG, Irrlicht, or POV postprocessing. Note: these assets are independent from collision shapes.
\snippet demo_POST_povray1.cpp Example 1
Example 2
Textures, colors, asset levels with transformations. This section shows how to add more advanced types of assets.
\snippet demo_POST_povray1.cpp Example 2
Example 3
Create a @ref chrono::ChParticleCloud cluster, and attach 'assets' that define a single "sample" 3D shape. This will be shown N times in POV or Irrlicht.
\snippet demo_POST_povray1.cpp Example 3
The POV exporter
The following part is very important because this is what makes this demo different from the demo_IRR_assets, that used Irrlicht. We need to create a postprocessor of type @ref chrono::postprocess::ChPovRay and tell him that we are going to export our visualization assets:
\snippet demo_POST_povray1.cpp POV exporter
The simulation loop
Now you have to write the usual while() loop to perform the simulation. Note that before running the loop you need to use pov_exporter.ExportScript(); , and for each timestep you must use pov_exporter.ExportData(); actually this is the instruction that creates the many .dat and .pov files in the output directory.
\snippet demo_POST_povray1.cpp POV simulation
Executing and rendering with POVray
Once you created your program, compile it, then:
execute the
demo_POST_povray1.exeon the console you will see a time counter showing that the system is load and it is being simulated
when the program ends, you must open POVray and open the
rendering_frames.pov.inifile, using the Open menu or button, or drag&drop (you can find this .ini file and other POVray as they are saved in the same directory of the executable)
press the Run button in POVray to execute the .ini file , and you should see that POVray generates lot of frames, being saved in the directory
anim.
Optional encoding into an AVI or MPEG animation
If you want to generate a .mpeg or .avi animation from the rendered .bmp images, we suggest to use the VirtualDub tool:
drag&drop the first .jpg frame in its interface; it will automatically load all other frames in the timeline
use menu Video/Compression... to setup the proper video codec (suggested: Xvid, DivX, mpeg4, etc.)
use menu File/Save As Avi... to encode and save the animation on disk.
Listing
In the following we report the entire source code for reference.
\include demo_POST_povray1.cpp
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