POVRay Short Code Contest - Round 4

Other rounds: [Round 3] [Round 5]

Final Results

Maintained by Paul Bourke

Introduction

This is round four of the POVRay short code contest. For those who haven't spent hours pruning bytes before, here are the last 2004 competition results. The idea is to create an "artistic" work using a very small POVRay file, in a sense showing off the power of the scene description language, if in a rather perverse way. In the last round entrants were allowed to use 256 bytes. The same size limit will be used this time, but to raise the stakes a bit, entries will not be allowed to use any external files, this includes things such as "#include" and font ".ttf" files.

Important dates

  • Entries may be submitted up to midnight of the 30th November 2006. Status: Closed

  • Checking by entrants until the 7th December. Status: Closed

  • Voting open to the entrants until the 15th of December. Status: Closed

  • Results released "soon" afterwards. Status: Final results

Rules

  • A valid entry will consist of a single text file containing between 16 and 256 bytes. The POV file must not "bring in" any external files that are distributed with PovRay.

  • The image to be judged will be rendered using POVRay 3.6.1 running on a reasonably well endowed Linux machine. The scene must obviously generate an image.

  • Each entrant may submit at most 4 entries, each entry must be distinctly different.

Submitting an entry

An entry can include the following information, the first two are compulsory.

  • A valid email address.

  • A text file containing no more than 256 characters. It is this file that will be rendered by POVRay at 800x600 pixels to form the image to be judged.

  • A more human readable version of the above file. Optional but highly recommended.

  • A text or HTML formatted file with any other comments the entrant wishes to make. For example, a description of the image, the motivation, any tricks employed, etc.

When you've created your masterpiece and have checked it carefully, hit the button below to submit it.

Competition entries closed

Entries will appear on the voting page in the order they arrive, so get in early!

Voting

Voting is only open to entrants and they are encouraged to vote on the craft ... the image and source code will be visible. There will be three prizes awarded: gold, silver, and bronze based solely on the peer voting. Unlike the last round no adjustment will be given this round to the number of bytes used, so you might as well use all 256. The voting process will be made as transparent as possible, however the coordinator (me) reserves the right to decide upon any matter in dispute.

  • Each entrant will choose what they believe are the five best entries. These choices get 3, 2, 1, 1, 1 point respectively.

  • Voters may not choose their own image.

Notes

  • Each entry will be rendered with the default POVRay settings along with the following ".ini" file. If you have any special requirements please let me know. The image will be rendered by POVRay to a PNG file that will be used unmodified during voting.

  • It is possible (likely even) that some entries will take a long time to render. While I have extensive rendering resources available, entrants should realise it isn't infinite. I will make every attempt to render your scene no matter how excessive.

  • After the winners have been announced, the image, source code, and any additional information provided by the entrant will be included on a WWW page ... for the adoration of your peers now and in the future.

  • And finally ... some hints on how to lose those digital calories contributed by Mike Kost.