Stars of Shareware: Raytrace & Morphing/SOS-RAYTRACE.ISO/programm/3dstudio/ipas/displace.doc

Text File | 1994-05-01 | 5.6 KB | 119 lines

                  DISPLACE PXP -- DEMO VERSION
                   Copyright 1994 Rolf Berteig
                      For Yost Group, Inc.



DISPLACE is a PXP that lets you do displacement map modeling. With
it, you can displace -- or move -- the vertices in an object based on the
grayscale values of a selected bitmap image. It's similar to bump
mapping, except that you're actually altering the geometry with the
bitmap, and you can create extreme alterations.  This demo version of
DISPLACE lets you  do everything except alter the object in the 3D
Editor, or create new  altered objects.

DISPLACE uses a fast-shading viewport that requires a newer version of
the Vibrant drivers than those that shipped with the initial release of
3D  Studio.  If you're using the shipping Vibrant version 1.0.0, you'll
need to  update your VIB3DS.VLM file to 1.0.1, 1.0.2, etc.  Here's how to
tell which version of the Vibrant drivers you're using:

Run 3D Studio by typing 3DS VIBCFG.

Result:  A Vibrant copyright notice appears, along with a version number
and date.  If the version number is 1.0.0, you have the original release
that needs to be updated.  If the version number is higher, it doesn't
need to be updated.  If you need to update, log onto the ASOFT forum on
Compuserve and browse for VIB3DS.ZIP.  That file will contain a new
VIB3DS.VLM and VIBRANT.RES, which you should install over your 1.0.0
files.  If you don't do this, graphics performance in DISPLACE will
be quite slow.

Once the new Vibrant drivers are installed, and in Render ON mode, the
fast-shading viewport can push 40-50,000 Gouraud-shaded polygons per
second on a Pentium 66Mhz machine with a fast PCI-bus graphics card.


To get started with DISPLACE, do this:

*   Install D-DSPL_I.PXP in your 3ds3/process directory.

*   Load a scene containing a mesh object you want to displace.
    A good object to start with is a 2D grid object produced by grids.pxp
    (made with 0 Height values).

*   In the 3D Editor, select PXP Loader from the Program menu, and then
    select D-DSPL.

*   In the DISPLACE dialog box, click on Pick Object, and then select
    the object you want to alter. (If you have some selected faces and
    want to effect only those, turn on the Selected option.)

*   Select Pick Image, and select an image you want to use to create the
    displacement. (The image can be in any directory -- not just the map-
    path directories.)
    A good image to start with is 3d.cel in your /maps directory.

*   [ALTERNATIVE] Instead of picking an image, above, you can click to
    turn on the Fractal Image option to select a generated fractal image
    instead. Once Fractal Image is active, the Pick Image button changes
    to a Fractal Image button which you click on to return to the Fractal
    Image sub-directory. Turn off the Fractal Image option to return to
    Pick Image.

*   Adjust the Strength spinner up or down to perform the displacement.
    (You can enter values in the spinner field, or click on the arrows
    and move the mouse vertically to adjust the values.)

*   You can render the image in a shaded mode by clicking on the Render
    button. To turn on high-speed interactive shading, turn on the On
    option below the Render button. To change the shading mode (Flat,
    Gouraud, Shaded Wire), shift-click on the Render button.


OTHER OPTIONS

*   The controls in the "Object" area let you try out various levels of
    tessellation, optimization (geometry reduction), and auto-edging.
    (You can reset Optimize and Auto Edge values by clicking on the
    Preview button.)

*   The "Map" area lets you select and adjust the mapping icons. It works
    similarly to the mapping commands in the 3D Editor, except that the
    effect of the bitmap does not go beyond the icon. (Note that you can
    perform any of these adjustments while the displacement is visible to
    see their effect on the object.)

*   The viewport control icons should be fairly intuitive. When you
    select an orthographic view (such as Top) as soon as you rotate the
    view, the User button becomes active. If you click on the User
    button, the view is reset to the default User angle. The Zoom is a
    "smart zoom." That is, click and move the mouse horizontally, and the
    view zooms where you clicked.

*   The Apply button applies the current displacement (within DISPLACE),
    and then zeroes out the Strength setting so you can change the
    mapping icon or bitmap, and then apply more (or different)
    displacement. The Create button (used for generating morph targets
    from withing DISPLACE) is turned off for this demo version. Likewise,
    the OK button works the same as the Cancel button in this version.

*   Most of the "View" controls are self-explanatory. The "View Pixels"
    button applies the bitmap grayscale values to the vertices when
    shading mode is off in the viewport. The effect is more evident when
    you tessellate the object to create a lot of vertices.

*   Note that, when the "Update" option is turned off in the
    "Deformation" area, the viewport does not show the displacement
    effect until you click on Preview.

SUGGESTION: For a "magnet" effect, use a pure white bitmap image (any
size -- a tiny image will do), use the spherical mapping icon, turn up
the Strength, and move the mapping icon around to see its effect on the
object. Try it with both positive and negative Strength values.

Both the Disk#6 and Disk#7 IPAS3 collections come with 120-page heavily-
illustrated manuals, tutorials, and example files.

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