#SXP shimmering
16 messages in this thread
Hi Jonas,
We've had filtering anamolies with SXPs in 3DS where the pixels will shimmer as
you dolly the camera away from the textured surface. I was reading the recent
article "3D Comparison + Difference" by Henry Thomas (Analog and Digital Design
Graphics, issue 5, Oct 1994), where he said
"(3DStudio SXPS) seem to employ a random number system in the maths that create
the textures. This makes the materials vibrate and shimmer when animated
because the texture changes with every frame."
Is this the reason they shimmer? Is there a work-around? You can see the
pixelation effect we're having with smoke_i.sxp in DAED1.JPG in ASOFT Images.
The spaceship next to the sun has a white posterized edge to its highlight that
shimmers during animation. Could the "maths" be altered to change this? Or is
it a map-filtering issue?
Thanks.
Eric Chadwick
Mechadeus, 71052,1575
Hi Eric,
<< Is this the reason they shimmer? Is there a work-around? You can see the
pixelation effect we're having with smoke_i.sxp in DAED1.JPG in ASOFT Images.
The spaceship next to the sun has a white posterized edge to its highlight that
shimmers during animation. Could the "maths" be altered to change this? Or is
it a map-filtering issue? >>
I'm not sure. Gary?
With R3, we added additional IPAS API calls for getting the 3D textured pixel
data (in perspective), so you could do additional filtering based on distance
from the camera. Unfortunately, the only sxp that actually takes advantage of
this is stucco.sxp, and even that is only rudimentary, compared to even more
elegant filtering methods (which are possible using these API calls). Due to a
lack of resources, we've just never been able to find the time to update all
those sxp's. There IS a workaround, however. You can render the sxp on a flat
plane, and then save that plane as an animated texture map. Map THAT onto an
object, and it'll go through all the same filtering that any bitmap texture
uses.
– G
Gary,
Thanks for the info. I tend to use SMOKE a lot– the versatility of the dialog
settings keeps me coming back. Thanks. SXPs in general solve many of the map
tasks that we find impossible or improbable to do with traditional mapping
coords. Keep up the great work.
Eric
>> even that is only rudimentary, compared to even more elegant filtering
methods (which are possible using these API calls). Due to a lack of
resources, we've just never been able to find the time to update all those
sxp's. <<
I would rather have had updated SXP in R4 than the BROWSER that I already had
with TU. I realize the YOST group is busy with R5 (I hope!), so I'll go out on
the limb and suggest that AUTODESK release the current SXP's source code into
the public domain and let some ambitious users/programmers update them for the
new code. I would be willing to pay shareware fees for something like this.
Just my 2 cents. . .
David.
David,
<< so I'll go out on the limb and suggest that AUTODESK release the current
SXP's source code into the public domain and let some ambitious
users/programmers update them for the new code. >>
If we're talking about the source code for the Yost Group's SXP's, sorry, that
code is theirs. If we're talking about SXP's in general, the IPAS3 SDK has been
out for a while and soon IPAS4 will be available. This is the source code that
Adesk has already made available to programmers allowing them to write their
own SXPs.
jonas[adesk]
As Jonas said, the source code to the stock SXP's already has been released as
part of the IPAS SDK. Regarding our Disk#2 SXP's, I'd be happy to give the
source to a willing programmer who can show me that he/she can write an SXP
that does distance-based filtering.
– G
I think that there arent enough SXP's out there. Someone could make a
killing if they came out with a Texture toolkit full of usefull
procedural textures. Even simple ones like those found in impulse
imagine. (Dirt, BumpyNoise, DinoSkin) If I had the money, I would
hire someone to port all those renderman shaders to SXP's. I just got
sent a CD full of about 600 procedural textures they put out. I wish
Darrel would write some SXP's, I know he writes his own renderman
stuff. I know Steve Worely wrote a bunch of Procedurals for Imagine
and Lightwave. Does anyone know if they are available for 3ds?
Mike White (of SDP) frequents this forum, and has written quite a few
very interesting SXP's. There are some demos of them up in DL1, fyi.
Thanks Gary
Take Care,
Andrew
I've encouraged Worley to port to 3DS, but so far, I don't believe they've ever
done any work on it. If anything, I think he and Glenn Lewis are getting more
entangled in LightWave than Imagine. I'd bet a doughnut that some of Worley's
textures will be bundled with the next LightWave.
>>are getting more entangled in LightWave than Imagine.
Bummer.
John Stetzer
JWS
Thanks John, By the way, when is your stuff due out?
PMJI, but in addition to what everyone else said, procedural texture
scintilliation is not unique to 3DS. This is a very common side-effect,
unfortunately. If you can manage it (not always), Gary's suggestion is a good
workaround. The only other solution (if you want to call it that) is a
traveling matte keying a Gaussian filter or whatever in post-processing.
BILL
Bill,
>>traveling matte
Great idea. Thanks.
Eric
Sure….it's very tedious though. BTW, your images uploaded recently really
look great. Good luck with that project.
BILL