TITLE: A Wing and a Prayer
NAME: Dave Merchant
COUNTRY: USA
EMAIL: kosh@nesys.com
WEBPAGE: www.nesys.com
TOPIC: Fortress
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: awing.jpg
ZIPFILE: awing.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    povray 3.1e Watcom

TOOLS USED: 
    Photoshop for JPEG conversion

RENDER TIME: 
    10 hour 46 min 38 secs

HARDWARE USED: 
    AMD1100, 1.1 GHz, 128 mb RAM, W-ME

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 


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Castles built on mountains or in valleys or on clouds. Fortifications
made of wood, brick, stone, Legos, macaroni, or ideas. Strongholds,
redoubts, bunkers, battleships, forts, Flying Fortress bombers,
prisons, public schools. Anything difficult to get into or out of. 
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                    A Wing and a Prayer

A newspaper reporter dubbed it the Flying Fortress, before it ever
saw action. After a look at its heavy armament, he claimed that the
B-17 could defend itself from any attackers.

It didn't work out that way, and it was found that both fighters and
ground based artillery could get at it.

But it had a secret weapon, its ruggedness.

Many Forts came home nearly cut in half, held together by the massive
overdesign of the airframe. This was a revelation in comparison to the
flimsy planes which preceded it, and the B-17 can be considered a
pivotal milestone in the development of safe, reliable modern airliners.

Nicknames for the B-17 included "The Bigass Bird", "Fort" and "The Lady",
compared to other plane designs known as "Ronsons", "Zippos",
"Widow Makers", and "Flying Coffins".

In this scene, repeated many times during WW-II, a crippled B-17-F,
with 2 engines out, brings 10 scared teenagers home safely.

Following standard procedure, crash trucks and ambulances chase it
down the runway. With a crippled aircraft, and the possibility of
tire or brake damage, it would be hazardous to get ahead of it.
Other squadron aircraft circle above, waiting for the active runway
to be cleared.

The propellers on the dead engines are feathered, with the blades angled
in line with the airstream, partly to reduce drag, but also to
prevent windmilling, which can destroy the engine or cause the propeller
to disintegrate. Note that #1 engine has lost its cowling.



DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 


I had developed a rather primitive B-17 model in 1997, and have wanted to
build a better version, so this topic was a good reason to get going
on it. Step one was to completely scrap the old model and start over.

Research on this one was easy, since the B-17 is one of the best
documented aircraft of all time. Additionally, I have spent a great
deal of time in and around various flyable B-17's.

The model is designed to convert to a B-17-G, but for this scene,
I wanted a clean early F model to show the desperate early days of the war.

I developed all objects and macros used in this scene.

The aircraft, vehicles, and buildings are all CSG.

Aircraft and vehicle tires are macros, with correct 3-D tread.

Smoke is interior/media.

The people are my articulated blobs guy macro, which includes articulated
fingers. Most of the detail is too far away to be visible here.
All are wearing the USAAF standard clothing for ground crews and mechanics,
coveralls or fatigues, and O.D. baseball caps instead of fatigue caps.

Grass is a height field, with the HF data generated via POV.

The airfield is typical of those built in England, a pair of runways
in an X-shape, with taxiways connecting the ends, and the ramp area,
base housing, and hangars lined up along the base of the X. Aircraft were
parked in a dispersal in the infield, spaced apart so only one or two
planes would be damaged in a raid.

The fortress on the hill is based on Warwick Castle. The idea for this
came from Goodwood auto race park, a road course built on on old air base,
which was itself built on the grounds of an estate (Lord March).

I worked on developing a procedural sunset sky, but didn't get it into
a decent form by the deadline, so I used a photo I had taken as an image map.
The procedural sky version is in the zip file.

I was surprised by the long rendering time. Apparently a problem with
bounding boxes, since the rendering is slow even in the top part of the
scene, where there are no objects. The other factors slowing rendering
are the blurred propellers, the large plexiglass areas,
and the multiple gradient textures on the aircraft.


MISSING PIECES

Never enough time!

Engines are missing starters and pitch controls.

The tail gunner position is not there yet, and some other guns, vents,
and antennas are missing.

Ambulances need windshields - these are the early Dodge WC-9, which had
a complex curved windshield blending into the cab roof. A nightmare to build!

I had planned to include a yellow "Follow Me" jeep, and a Cletrac tow tractor.
May still add them for the final version.

The infield grass is too uniform, want to mess it up some.

Smoke is too dense, should be long and wispy, otherwise the plane would
have burned up by now.

I think the procedural sunset will work out OK, given enough development
time, but it's surprising how hard it is to make clouds.

Nissen huts and hangars need details.

Need trees around the perimeter.

I will post an updated version on my web site.

