#Keyframer Visibility
8 messages in this thread
Now a question:
As a newcomer, forgive me the obvious, but I used the GIFDXF shareware and
created an object that, once I turned on the geometry in the 3d Editor I
could see just fine. However, try as I might, all I could see was the
"base" in the keyframer (which obviously makes flybys and other such
positioning of objects a little hit or miss!). In other words, all the
"lofting" of the faces was invisible.
Is there any way of seeing the same stuff in Keyframer as the editor, or am
I doomed to using coordinates and positioning my camera and rendering a
check frame very 10 frames or so (which seems so uncomputerlike it's back
to the dark ages)?
Sure is. Turn off Backface mode in the Display branch of the Keyframer.
The normals on the mesh must all be facing the opposite way. You're going
to want to either flip them or apply a two-sided material to the object
when rendering.
– G
Mike, excuse me for butting in, but I've used GIFDXF several times to build
terrain for 3ds and I've had the same problem. As you probably found out,
you can turn on ALL LINES in the 3d editor, and see what is going on.
Unfortunately, since the ALL LINES option doesn't seem to exist in the
keyframer, you are working in the dark, so to speak, when animating.
The problem comes from the way the author of GIFDXF wrote the program: all
lines, including diagonals, are coded as HIDDEN (negative) in the DXF file,
with the exception of the lines around the edge of the object. No matter
which way you flip the normals, unify, or mess with the backface mode, your
object will remain hidden in the keyframer.
One workaround, ugly as it is, is to create several key dummy objects and
place them at various points in your object. Use the dummys to align the
views while moving the camera, preview a lot at low resolutions, then hide
the dummy objects before rendering. I know, I don't like it either!
I may have a better solution tomorrow. I'm going to write a program which
will take the DXF file from GIFDXF and process it, unhiding ALL the lines.
It's a simple matter of finding all the negatives in the right places and
making them positive. While it will unhide the diagonals also, I don't
think it should be a problem. If you are interested, let me know, and I'll
send it to you.
JKJ
Thanks, thanks and thanks. You've at least saved what's left of my sanity
(I know, and no wisecracks). If you get your program working I'd LOVE to
try/test/help with any of it.
Hey, I'm a fairly competent C programmer (I actually make my living in
database stuff) — how difficult is SOME of this graphic manipulation. I
only ask because I'd be GLAD to provide what little help I could be to
anyone (since this seems to be where I'm going to spend my life).
Mike K.
Your welcome, and welcome, and… I wrote the program last night
before I went to bed. It takes the DXF file that GIFDXF puts out and
processes it, one line at a time, searching for the index codes that join
the vertices into faces, turning all negative indices into positive ones.
Write the line back out to another file and, ah-cha-cha, lines are visible
in the keyframer! No more wandering around blind and waiting for the
preview to see where you went. All lines, even the diagonals are now
visible, but hey, what do you expect for after midnight!
I tried out the program on several DXF files: one about 5K which I
checked manually for correctness, and one about 1.5Meg. They both loaded
fine into 3DS and gave me what I expected. I'll try to upload or mail the
EXE and the C-source tonight after church (I'm the music director at my
church in my spare time! …what spare time???). You can play with the
source (don't laugh) and jazz it up if you like.
As for the graphic programming, this Autodesk stuff is new to me.
I used to program realtime 3D wireframes (about 3 frames/sec) in assembly
language on a one-MHz 8-bit processor, dreaming about hidden lines, let
alone faces! I even built joysicks so I could fly around thru the data.
This 3DS stuff is fantastic – I can appreciate the efforts behind it. I've
done some POCO stuff (very easy, once you get a grip on AniPro), and a few
odds and ends with DXF files. Can't wait to get my greedy little hands on
the IPAS kit!
JKJ
PS. You can have ALL the database programming (gag me with a fork!) I've
been known to do a little myself when I felt a need for punishment! Thot
for the day.. Grrraphics are Grrreat!
I agree about database stuff — but it pays the bills. If I had found out
about 3d graphics before I got into serious DB programming I'd have never
looked back.
If you do get the time to upload the file, let me know and what you'd call
it and I'll be GLAD to check it out.
Mike K.
I just sent the GIFDXF line unhider program (GLUP?) to you by CIS mail
in the form of a ZIP file. I hope you get it OK since I haven't tried
mailing a binary file before. I hope it helps – let me know what you
think. I could upload it to the forum if you think others could use it.
The far better solution, however, would be to get the guy who wrote GIFDXF
to at least add an option to make the appropriate lines visible.
Read the C-source file for more information or just run the EXE with no
parameters for the usage notes.
JKJ
Thanks a thousand times, and I'll let you know if I get it (I've never
RECIEVED a file by mail before, either).