TITLE: Survey
NAME: Dave Merchant
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: kosh@nesys.com
WEBPAGE: www.nesys.com
TOPIC: First Encounter
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: survey.jpg
RENDERER USED: 
    povray 3.1

TOOLS USED: 
    Photoshop for JPEG conversion

RENDER TIME: 
    1 hour 25 min 02 secs on P200/64/W98

HARDWARE USED: 
    P200, 64 mb RAM, W98

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


A routine sector survey has revealed a sudden technological shift on a
planet of a type 3 star in the Epsilon Eridani region, S-8444-4501-765.
This has prompted a series of interventional monitoring expeditions.
The results of the first encounters are reported herein.

FIRST ENCOUNTER

A flying vehicle was isolated from its companions by means of an induced
atmospheric disturbance. The vehicle was detained, and occupants brought
aboard for a preliminary physical / mental survey. Transmitters were
implanted, memories erased, and the occupants were returned to the vehicle.

The subjects were found to be fairly generic hydrocarbon organisms, with
reasonably good mental capabilities, QS = 0.735, but still at a very early
stage of development. They exhibit several dangerous psychological traits,
which indicate that they may present a destabilizing influence on the
entire sector in the forseeable future.

The organisms are very heavily built to withstand the high gravitation
of this planet, 2.354 G, and frequent atmospheric instability.
This planet is deemed unsuitable for extensive colonization due to its
heavy gravitation, which requires use of de-grav fields at all times.

Due to the rapid technological development observed, it will be necessary
to monitor this planet system on a regular basis to determine the optimum
time for formal contact or elimination.

SURVEY NOTES

Several unexpected difficulties were encountered in this initial detainment.

When the vehicle was paused, it immediately began to fall toward the planet.
It was necessary to support it by force field throughout the detainment
period. It was found that these vehicles have no independent means of
gravitational support, and must move through the atmosphere to maintain
surface separation.

Additionally, on resume, the chemical combustion engines did not restart
automatically. It was necessary to put 2 crew aboard briefly to control and
monitor the restart.

The cargo of the vehicle was found to be a large number of iron cylinders
containing a solid chemical explosive, used in a primitive form of warfare.
However, further surveys have revealed the intention of using these
vehicles to deliver low-yield fission explosives.

HISTORICAL NOTE

Although many of the records have been lost, there is architectural evidence
of our previous colonial activities on this planet. As part of the current
survey, this evidence will be investigated in detail.



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


This scene wasn't originally intended to be entered to IRTC, but it seemed
like a relevant counterpart to Bogeys, so here it is.

Having the Bogeys scene fairly complete, I decided to build the B-29
exterior, and then to create the other half of the first encounter.

I built a separate UFO with a cockpit interior, using the same dark chrome
of the exterior. The high reflectivity reveals the extreme hardness of the
iridium-carbon material used. Building a full cockpit allowed internal
reflections to be visible.

As anyone who has been aboard these ships knows, there are two control
stations. The upper station is used in interstellar flight, while the
lower position is intended for atmospheric operations. Controls at these
two stations differ significantly, although minimal backup controls exist
at both stations.

The tractor beam is a semi-transparent CSG cone. The color came from the
output tubes of a vacuum tube amplifier I used to have.

The aliens are from the same blobs program as the B-29 crewmen, with different
size and color parameters applied, and one less finger on each hand.

A wide angle camera, 60 degrees, was used to get the desired composition.
This distorted the perspective of the UFO windows and disk. However,
these structures are correctly proportioned, although the reflected
individual needed to be rotated to produce the desired reflection.
In general, proper placement of reflected objects was very difficult.

The B-29 exterior is CSG, developed from published plans and photos.
Note that the black wing leading edge deicers seen in some photos were
usually removed in combat zones, since any damage to the deicers produced
a large amount of drag, but that yellow propeller tips were retained.

B-29 cockpit windows have glass in them, and the interior is included,
since it is somewhat visible through the windows.

I tried blurred propellors, which looked pretty good in a daylight scene,
but the effect was lost at night, as they looked like wide C-130 props.
Then I remembered what the aliens told me, that their very large eyes
allow them to stop motion very effectively, so that's the way I showed it.

Nahkt font is from Kyl's great site,

        http://www.flightofthedragon.com/kyl/fonts/intro.html.

This picture has a rather small amount of commonality with my Bogeys scene.
These shared components are the UFO exteriors and the window cutouts of the
B-29. Everything else is new.


