Barliesque, over on the Blitz website has just released some code that produces superb real time lens flares.
So if you need this sort of thing take a look here.

http://blitzbasic.com/codearcs/codearcs.php?code=1107

To give the code a test I dug out my old favorite 'Spaceship Whatever it's name'

It should work well with all types of lights, candles etc.

Bazza

Flares.jpg (54 Kb, 263 downloads)

that is very cool. Being one on a sort of a limited resource moment (I can't drop another bill on another program right now) any chance this will work like a CS plug in in 3DC? or if not, modified as such? I have about 2 generations of coding to catch up on (since... augh! Fortran 77) before I have a clue what any of that says

I doubt it. The flares are 'real time'.

In this demo the camera is attached to the ship, as the ship moves toward the planet and the camera picks up a lightsource, you get the lens flare. The more head on the camera is to the light the more intense the flare.

It's still worth downloading the demo of Blitz3D though. The save isn't disabled, only the size of the file you can write is restricted.

You could do something like this without the lens flare with the demo version.
Also, you could load your figures and scenes and do some quite long anims, no problem.

Did you read my last post on your 'Tattoo You' thread? I think I spotted your 'deliberate' mistake!!

Bazza

maybe I'll try it one of these days. I think my mind is reaching capacity for learning new programs for a bit, in addition to being a little fresh yet on 3DC Pro, I'm also learning PovRay, Tattoo, Bigzipper (my winzip beta time's uped me), terragen, uv Unwrap (demo) when I get back to it, freecad, Adaobe Audition and cakewalk.

Ok, well, maybe a little past capacity.

I'm still pouring over the Tattoo You post details, looking for some place I can claim a 'deliberate mistake'. So far, I'm still trying to guess what I must have been thinking when I did that. But in proper for(u)m, I'll address that one over there

Thats quite a list of tools you're trying to come to grips with.

Here's mine...

3DC (of course)
Paint Shop Pro
Tattoo (Figures only)
Ultimate Unwrap (complex unwraps only)
Gile[s] (instead of PovRay)
Blitz3D (Brings everything together)

If you do download Blitz3D, which I would urge you to do, I can supply some basic code to get you started.

The coding is reasonably easy to understand.
If you are familiar with IF/THEN commands you're
half way there.

Bazza