CompuServe Messages

Marc, I hope you won't mind me responding to your message to Mike in “Interace 3.2'', but I think a little clarification is in order. There are two different types of seams that occur on Altitude maps. And we're starting to get them a little confused. When wrapping any spherical or cylindrical map (whether it be color, filter, altitude, whatever…) there is a seam created where the opposite edges of the image meet when they wrap around. You can get the two borders of the image to match up properly, and eliminate this type of seam, by processing your image BEFORE you apply it to the object. The other type of seam,… the one we've been talking about, ONLY occurs with ALTITUDE maps; And causes a noticeable GREY LINE to appear where the edges of the Altitude maps meet. This apparently is part of the Altitude mapping procedure. But there is a work-around for this as well. It's a bit nasty, but perhaps it's worth reiterating here. >>To get rid of the `Altitude' seam on a flat surface with a REPEATED Altitude map, you can tile the maps together in an image processor BEFORE applying them, and not use the Repeat command at all. But this won't fix the `Altitude' seam on Cylindrical or Spherical maps. So here's a nasty work-around for that. Create a Front and Back Hemisphere for your object using Subgroups. Take the bump map into an image processor like ADPro, and ROLL the seam so its exactly in the middle of the image. Apply the original bump image to the Front Hemisphere Subgroup, apply the rolled image (with the Brush axis also rotated 180 degrees in Z) to the Back Hemisphere Subgroup. This way you hide the `Altitude' seams of both images in a part of the object where they aren't visible. Altitude maps apparently make a smooth transition across Subgroup boundaries. << Tim