Assembly Raytraced Graphics Compo Review

Written by v0id

This is a review of the Raytraced Graphics compo held at Assembly '99. I have examined the top five, and this is what I think about them.

Hillevi Hiiri ja Amerikan serkku By Orbiter - 1st Place - 2059 points

The title means: "Hillevi Mouse and his cousin from America." When I saw this picture for the first time not having yet read the the results, I didn't think it would make it to the 1st place; maybe the top five but not 1st. This picture is very simple and kind of cartoon styled. It shows two mice in a room with a fireplace and a rock chair. One of the mice is not a normal mouse - it's a bat. The picture is very nice.

Dragon Run By Hoax - 2nd Place - 1666 points

Okay, as the title says the picture shows a Dragon running. Either is the dragon very huge, or the landscape is flat; I guess the dragon is huge and running over a landscape. Next to it there is a huge lake with a big stone in the middle. The lake reflects the dragon, which looks very nice. The sky is blue with lots of yellow-red clouds. I think this picture is nice but the textures on the dragon look like they are plastic.

Sodan jaloissa By Marzu - 3rd Place - 1652 points

This is a picture showing what I think is World War 2. It's winter. You see a SdKfz. 251 tank trying to escape from the bomber plane that is coming out of the clouds. On the left there is fire and smoke, probably from a burning vehicle. The atmosphere in this picture is very realistic. If I hadn't seen that Marzu had done it, I would have thought it was a screenshot from one of Westwood's trailer videos for a new game.

Kesämiehen Zydeemit by Nich - 4th Place - 1383 points

This picture shows somebody's kitchen table. On the table you can see a burning cigarette in an ashtray, a lighter, a cigarette pack and a vase with flowers. On another table there are a couple of burning candles and a liqueur bottle. This picture contains a lot of details that you can see. The window reflects the wall behind the camera; very nice.

Mir 2 By Uncle-X - 5th Place - 1342pt - Resolution: 640x480 16M

This is a space picture showing the space station Mir 2. On your left you can see the earth and if you look a little bit to the right from the earth's position you can spot our moon. On the right we have the beautiful sun. Uncle-X has really found the space feeling. And all this is made with Povray 3 (freeware), no 20,000 dollar program.

I have to say that this year's raytraced pictures were of good quality; not just the top 5 but all entries. The picture I liked most placed 12th. It is Cybercosmetics By Atom (434 points). All the raytraced entries to Assembly '99 are available at http://www.scene.org.

v0id / Alpha Millennium