One idea: Get something close to the pictures of the great adventure games of the '90s. Two sources of inspiration: PC games of the heyday (Eternam by Infogrames, Dune by Cryo Interactive) and comics such as Le secret de l'espadon (Blake et Mortimer, by Edgar P. Jacobs). Three elements: White antennas, yellow desert and a blue sky.
Everything is handcoded. It was pov 3.1 compliant coded (I have thus not used isosurfaces, just plain heightfields). The antennas were even controlled using a first order simulated system, thus giving me the opportunity to follow any 3D object in the scene. The grass was a modified version of Gilles Trans grass generator. Back in those days, I was using a Pentium 166. As the poor machine is getting older and older, I have decided to dig for the files, and I have uploaded the old files on my brand new Pentium 3 (running at 900 Mhz, do not laugh). After a few modifications to this old code, related to the path to the heightfields, I have rendered them today (May, 04, 2008).
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It all started in the desert, nine years ago, in a hot summer day. One antenna was looking for...
PNG picture (no more ringing effect!)
As a matter of fact, there were two antennas.
Plenty of antennas! All listening to the sky. All searching for...
Well, they were searching in vain: The desert was desert.
Nevertheless, some antennas were still listening.
"I think I hear something on the right!" said the first antenna. "Can you hear it?" she asked.
"Hush!"
"Yes! There is obviously something"
"Listen! It up there!"
Every antenna was listening. You should have been there when it happened.
"My! My! My! It's moving soooo fast!"
Here they are !
Acknoledgments.
Gilles Trans for its grass generator at www.oyonale.com