Raytraced Castle

I was impressed with the other raytraced images I've seen on the net, especially Paul Gyugyi's, so I decided to try some myself. I've been working on a huge castle in my living room, made almost entirely from basic bricks, so I decided to work on it.

The tools that I used are:

Netshade, the enhanced version of Rayshade
L3G0lib (named that for trademark reasons)
clickcom (distributed with an early [and possibly future] version of L3G0lib)

It took a lot of time to place each brick for clickcom, but I made a good effort. Here's what I came up with:

Well, that took way too much effort, so I decided to automate the process, writing a program that would convert a text file into input for clickcom, allowing me to "draw" a layout basic bricks with a text editor, using one file for each level of bricks. This worked wonders in my productivity.

Now with that many bricks, it takes forever to generate an image, so at first I generated "preview" quality images where the number of rays traced is reduced, and shadows are missing. I don't like how dark the shadows are, so I'll probably play around with the lighting eventually. In the case of "the completed tower" view, I actually prefer the preview image!

Image Preview Final

Under construction: Just the first level 22K gif

The completed tower 37K gif 24K gif

The view from inside the walls 24K gif 19K gif

Looking down from above 45K gif 54K gif

The view from outside 26K gif 22K gif

Another view from outside 19K gif 15K gif

Image	Preview	Final
Under construction: Just the first level		22K gif
The completed tower	37K gif	24K gif
The view from inside the walls	24K gif	19K gif
Looking down from above	45K gif	54K gif
The view from outside	26K gif	22K gif
Another view from outside	19K gif	15K gif

I decided to play around with different colors. Here's one of the above images, this time with three different color schemes. When Using grey, I randomly threw in some dark grey, black, and white bricks to give it some texture.

Color scheme Preview Final

yellow 26K gif 22K gif

grey 24K gif 24K gif

random 42K gif 43K gif

Color scheme	Preview	Final
yellow	26K gif	22K gif
grey	24K gif	24K gif
random	42K gif	43K gif

If you're curious, there are 5584 bricks in the final product, which includes the walls and four towers (each a rotated clone of the original). Most notably, there are 2380 1x4 bricks and 2148 2x4 bricks.

Future plans

Obviously, I'm going to do something to improve the lighting. I'm thinking of making torches (like they use in the sets) and defining them as light sources. I'll probably place them along the lower walkways and the stairs.

Besides adding the main gate, I would like to make a movie by generating numerous frames, each with a slightly different view, simulating a minifig's journey through the castle.

I would also like to add a number of defending knights, commoners, horses, and scenery. Unfortunately, L3G0lib doesn't currently include any knight pieces, and Ben and Jer aren't releasing their models.

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