Re: a few more landscapes (Re: WorldMachine (V3.53))
Hi Boolean discussion folk, I see conditionals in VSL if expr true, then, and of course not necessarily else if expr is not met. Booleans are and, or, not and XOR ... so I suppose a conditional with a Boolean operation if the expr conditions are met, etc so: if value 0 then this AND that ... etc. But as operands they could just as easily be replaced by arithmetic operands such as: if value 0 then this multiplied by that. Not that I can see me taking advantage of this. I still havent had time to sort displacement landscapes even though it's an absolute must play with for me ... so it goes. Neil Cooke - Original Message - From: Mark Heuymans [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: user-list@light.realsoft3d.com Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2005 11:55 AM Subject: Re: a few more landscapes (Re: WorldMachine (V3.53)) At 01:20 AM 11/4/2005 -0500, you wrote: OK : Here is a typical example of how one might construct a very nice GUI user interface that did a nice job of hiding the boolean logic math that is going on behind the scenes . http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/boolean.gif Reminds me of other landscape software's materials (is this WCS?)... slope and altitude are omnipotent. Slope/altitude calculations are no problem for VSL but things in RS are much less pre-determined than in this specialist software, which has its pros and cons. Boolean Logic ? if A is less than X ... then R . if A is less than X but greater than Ythen G . if A is less than X and also less than Y, then B . if A is greater than x but less than Z ... Well , you get the idea . However , VSL does not seem to be all that Boolean- friendly , from what I can gather . You have a point: for example 'If' doesn't have an 'Else'. Of course you can perform Booleans in VSL, but complicated stuff is tricky. It does not seem to like simple algorithmic formulas , either , from what I can see although algorithmics are _somehow_ do-able . Aaa-anyway , as we can see , if VSL will allow a simple if this slope/height ...then this texture/color/density suddenly we can envision a gui interface that allows for user input regarding what color or what .png image will be used for certain trees , and exactly how certain areas will have it's bare rock displacement mapped . Like I posted to Aidan, a single GUI is difficult with multiple materials that rely on scope. I'll try to put it all into a single material and make a user-friendly GUI for it with especially slope and altitude control. But even this would depend on the mesh, the scene scale (bumpheight and displacement are in 'world units'!) and other stuff. Attack a mesh with VSL Garry Curtis I like your slogan :) -Mark H
Re: a few more landscapes (Re: WorldMachine (V3.53))
At 01:20 AM 11/4/2005 -0500, you wrote: OK : Here is a typical example of how one might construct a very nice GUI user interface that did a nice job of hiding the boolean logic math that is going on behind the scenes . http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/boolean.gif Reminds me of other landscape software's materials (is this WCS?)... slope and altitude are omnipotent. Slope/altitude calculations are no problem for VSL but things in RS are much less pre-determined than in this specialist software, which has its pros and cons. Boolean Logic ? if A is less than X ... then R . if A is less than X but greater than Ythen G . if A is less than X and also less than Y, then B . if A is greater than x but less than Z ... Well , you get the idea . However , VSL does not seem to be all that Boolean- friendly , from what I can gather . You have a point: for example 'If' doesn't have an 'Else'. Of course you can perform Booleans in VSL, but complicated stuff is tricky. It does not seem to like simple algorithmic formulas , either , from what I can see although algorithmics are _somehow_ do-able . Aaa-anyway , as we can see , if VSL will allow a simple if this slope/height ...then this texture/color/density suddenly we can envision a gui interface that allows for user input regarding what color or what .png image will be used for certain trees , and exactly how certain areas will have it's bare rock displacement mapped . Like I posted to Aidan, a single GUI is difficult with multiple materials that rely on scope. I'll try to put it all into a single material and make a user-friendly GUI for it with especially slope and altitude control. But even this would depend on the mesh, the scene scale (bumpheight and displacement are in 'world units'!) and other stuff. Attack a mesh with VSL Garry Curtis I like your slogan :) -Mark H
Re: a few more landscapes (Re: WorldMachine (V3.53))
Anyway , here's another example of RS mesh displacement , however , this is a V3.53 example (image2mesh) . http://www.studiodynamics.net/images/moonmesh_1998.jpg Hi Mark : Nice, it's still valid software, V3! Of course, it doesn't have real displacement so I'll stick to V5... OK , just in case there is a misunderstanding or some confusion , the above V 3.53 image is not bump-mapped , but is actually exactly what George did in V5 ... physically displace a mesh with an image. As George said, it's dead easy to do (and was 7 years ago as well in RS V3.53) . As you point out , it's not displacement mapping though . Nice hires NASA links; hm, I'm starting to wonder if NASA really went to Saturn ;) Or the moon ? (there's currently a cool Imax3D film about NASA's moon) I now have a workflow that suits me fine, but surely there are many options... made some more scenes utilizing WM's flowmaps as VSL input. Once the mappings are correctly aligned with the mesh, a few lines of VSL will do the rest! Thanks all, Mark H Very nice renders Mark ! These simple heightfields are more than inter- esting enough , I think . The VSL is really going to be the key , don't you think ? Hmmm ... I don't think there would be anything illegal about posting a screenshot of the World Construction Set's Rules of Nature panel , just as an example of how WCS uses many mesh variables to arrive at a certain colouring for any particular polygon (WCS does not support bump-mapping) . Thanks very much for sharing your amazing progress , Mark . Your initial renders show so much potential it's actually quite exciting , I think . Garry Curtis http://www.niagara.com/~studio
