ZeoGraph requests

[Aaron]

Hi David,

As per your request, the 'Heightfield.Invert' filter is now available in the latest developmental build.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

[Aaron]

Hi David,

There is also now a 'ColourMap.ScalarProd3' filter, which works with RGB, RGBA and normal maps, and outputs a heightfield.

These changes are included in L3DT Pro 2.8 build 15.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

[David Walters]

Great, thanks! - I'll be able to do some cool stuff with this I reckon (if I ever find time )

[David Walters]

Hi, I've done some more work with ZeoGraph and come up with a few more requests. I'm also going to post a couple of my results too, because it seems fair to show what I've been doing with the new filters you've provided!

Anyway, here's a few more things I've thought of. Although, this time I'm kind of shooting myself in the foot a bit because I'm really keen to see progress on the vegetation manager you've talked about - so feel free to put most these on the todo list if you like


1. Maintain the last used directory for save/load operations.
I have a folder in My Documents called 'Terrains' and I store my graphs in there -- but the dialog always defaults to "C:\Users\David\L3DT\resources\Pro 2.8.0.16\Graphs". It would be a nice convenience if it remembered that, even if it were only during a single session.

2. Allow filter nodes to display info
By this I mean showing on the body of the node a small string related to the options of a node. The two key ones I'd like to see are:
* The 'variable' filters showing their values. This makes them much more valuable as self-documenting constants.
* 'Get project map', 'Set project map' - show the name of map - or it's codename. This is especially useful for set map if you're using a custom id. such as 'VEGMASK' or something.

3. Show all maps in Get/Set project lists
I've created a graph that uses a heightmap ("VEGMASK") created by another graph as one of its inputs. It would be great if the 'select project map' dialog showed all additional maps in the currently loaded project as selections after the current named set. (This would automatically show things like SpecLM too).

4. Height to RGB filter
I'd like to be able to visualise the maps I create in Saphirre - I think one way to do this would be the ability to overwrite the texture map with an RGB conversion of a heightfield. A simple greyscale palette from min to max altitude would be perfect - especially as this would probably be in the 0,1 range for the work I'm doing.

4a. A more elaborate request would be to allow Saphirre to choose from all available RGB maps in a project for use as terrain texture. Either for custom maps output from ZeoGraph, or to visualise things like the specular map or lightmap in isolation.


Again, thanks for the support. The stuff you've added so far has really helped.

[Telarus]

4. Height to RGB filter
I'd like to be able to visualise the maps I create in Saphirre - I think one way to do this would be the ability to overwrite the texture map with an RGB conversion of a heightfield. A simple greyscale palette from min to max altitude would be perfect - especially as this would probably be in the 0,1 range for the work I'm doing.

4a. A more elaborate request would be to allow Saphirre to choose from all available RGB maps in a project for use as terrain texture. Either for custom maps output from ZeoGraph, or to visualise things like the specular map or lightmap in isolation.


Again, thanks for the support. The stuff you've added so far has really helped.

Hi David,

I've been following your posts about the graph editor, great stuff. I managed the RGB height display hack myself (with a good tip from Aaron). In polygon render mode Sapphire uses a small .png file as a custom RGB heightscale [It's in C:\Users\_UserName\L3DT\resources\Pro 2.8.0.7\Sapphire\elev.png -- This is also where the land and water surface detail maps are.]. It's default size is 20x128px, but it can go as big as you want. This gives the Green->Tan and Blue->Black of the heightfield and seafloor.

Hope that helps.

[Aaron]

Hi David,

Thanks again for your feedback and suggestions. I'll have a bit more of a think about them, and post back soon.

4a. A more elaborate request would be to allow Saphirre to choose from all available RGB maps in a project for use as terrain texture.

In Sapphire, that option is in the menu at 'Options->Terrain->Select texture'.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[David Walters]

In Sapphire, that option is in the menu at 'Options->Terrain->Select texture'.

heh, whoops

[David Walters]

Hi David,

I've been following your posts about the graph editor, great stuff. I managed the RGB height display hack myself (with a good tip from Aaron). In polygon render mode Sapphire uses a small .png file as a custom RGB heightscale [It's in C:\Users\_UserName\L3DT\resources\Pro 2.8.0.7\Sapphire\elev.png -- This is also where the land and water surface detail maps are.]. It's default size is 20x128px, but it can go as big as you want. This gives the Green->Tan and Blue->Black of the heightfield and seafloor.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, but sorry that's not quite what I need

My post was a bit misleading though. What I meant is to generate an RGB texture from all points of a heightfield - to essentially create the same RGB image as you get when you view it in the main L3DT window.

Using the word 'heightfield' is a bit misleading here - it's really a "density field" I'm trying to look at. I wanted to see if dense bits appear where they should. Currently you can't turn a field back into an image for use in Saphirre.

It's kind of a luxury feature really -- you can use export to make this work via disk

[Aaron]

Hi David,

I've added the 'Heightfield.ConvertToRGB' filter to the next build. The other suggestions look fine too, so I'll implement them at my next convenience.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Aaron]

Hi David,

I've implemented request #1 (file path memory within session), and also added a 'Heightfield.CalcGradient' filter, for generating a gradient map of a heightfield. These changes will be included in the next build, and I'll post back here when done.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

[Aaron]

Hi David,

The changes mentioned above are now available in L3DT Pro v2.8 build 17.

Cheerio,
Aaron.

[David Walters]

Hi, I have another request for ZeoGraph. Can we have a couple more Math nodes that work on single values!

Specifically I'd like one that I can divide an 'int' by 2, so I can feed the correct value into the cone generator radius pin.

In fact, thinking about it I'd also need one for 'min' (and I guess max as well for completeness) so for non-square maps I can pick the smaller value.

Thanks in advance,
David

EDIT: Actually I've just solved this specific problem, but it'd be nice to have these anyway

[Aaron]

Hi David,

Here you are, in integer and double-precision flavours:

http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/downloads ... ilters.zip

The filters should be extracted to:

Win 7 / Vista:
C:\Uses\[username]\L3DT\resources\[version]\filters

Win XP / 2000:
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\L3DT\resources\[version]\filters

I've include these filters in the installer for the next build.

Cheers,
Aaron.

PS: The reason I hadn't previously implemented these filters was because I wanted to make a nice polymorphic version that accepted different data types and adjusted the output type accordingly. However, since I haven't done that voodoo yet, we may as well use these type-specific filters in the mean-time. FWIW, I was using an 'advanced.script' filter to do this sort of math, which, although the script is two lines, may perhaps be considered overkill.

PPS: Oops. I forgot the min and max filters. I'll have to get back to you on that, since it's now past my bedtime.

[David Walters]

Hi Aaron, thanks very much for making these filters for me, I've not tried using the script filter before and I never knew these were just text files. So having seen what you sent me I'm confident I can do a min / max version, etc. myself.

Thanks a lot,
David

ps. The adaptive type casting stuff sounds great, but I guess that's quite a tricky one.