No Studs Here! (In Search Of Studless Models - Part 5)

Personally, I think the appeal of studless models is that, generally, they just look nicer, and more "polished", so they appear as if they have been finished with a "human touch".  Hence giving a computer the ability to create studless models might begin to blur the boundaries between computer generated models and human created models. 

As the brick matrix was now being randomly created (as opposed to selecting an LDraw part and calculating the brick matrix) it was now much easier to swap out bricks for similar bricks - so swapping a 1x1 standard brick for a 1x1 cylinder brick or  a 1x2 standard brick for a 1x2 grill brick or 1x2 with embossed bricks became much simpler.  Sloping roof tiles were set to only be added at the top of the models (because of the issues with the height of sloping roof tiles noted previously) 

Having managed to track (most of) the available studs in a build I could begin to apply colours to the model to make it more visually pleasing.  I also wanted to include some transparency as that can make the renders look more interesting, especially with the photoreal renderers that are becoming increasingly available.  Distributing the colours over the height of the the design meant adjusting for the max height of the model.  For shorter models (under 5 units high) I coded to add more blue, which helps to break up the green floor of the other models