Landscapes & Heightfields

[Leon Pennington]

On Thursday 07 August 2003 8:06 pm, CARVALHO Luis Passos wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Leon Pennington [mailto:leon at leonscape.co.uk]
> > Sent: quinta-feira, 7 de Agosto de 2003 3:53
> > To: kpovmodeler-devel at mail.kde.org
> > Subject: Landscapes & Heightfields
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I've been reading the Mailing list then sent off a e-mail to
> > Andreas before I
> > got to the bit about his holiday, but anyway...
>
> First of all, welcome.
>
> > I've been writing landscape generating code for a while, and
> > was wondering if
> > any of my stuff would be useful for the Modeller.
>
> As a plugin for landscape generation of course it is.
>
> > I use the ROAM algorithm to reduce the drawing needed by my
> > programs and
> > though this would be perfect for Heightfield display in
> > KPovModeler. I've
> > been messing with my code and worked out different ways of
> > doing things to
> > fit with the points and lines of the Modeller as well as the
> > specific needs
> > of the ROAM algorithm. It can adjust the amount of lines
> > displayed while
> > trying to preserve as much info as possible, its pretty quick
> > and its memory
> > usage can be kept to a minimum. I've knocked up a quick and
> > nasty example.
>
> This would be Andreas' call. However, just a few points to keep in mind. We
> try to keep ur wireframe rendering as close to what povray shows as
> possible. If your code shows something too diferent, we won't be able to
> use it for now, at least for the preview of the heightfield object.
>

Its true its an approximation of what povray would show at low detail levels, 
which I think of as necessary when you dealing with large heightfields or 
slow machines, A fully detailed 128x128 Heightfield would require 16384 
points and 48641 lines.

But the detail level can be increased to show all available information on the 
heightfield while reducing unnecessary points and lines. where the landscape 
is flat (or sloped evenly) the algorithm does not draw the lines.

I've also set it up to show everything if required, but this does lead to 
massive slowdown and generally a mess of lines you cant make head nor tail of
to much stuff in such a small space.


> > Also looking through the talks about Plug-ins the Landscape
> > generation I've
> > been working on could be put to use there. I've been using
> > everything from
> > Plasma too Perlin noise.
> >
> > What do you think?
>
> I think national anthems should be happier. Also, I like french fries. :)
>
> Now, seriously, a landscape plugin is a must have for any plugin-able
> modeler.
> Unfortunately, Andreas is still working on the plugin manager. Here and
> there in the list archives you can find some references to the needs of the
> plugin handling. However, no documentation exists yet for how to develop
> plugins or how it connects to the rest of kpovmodeler.
>
> Until Andreas finishes his work not much can be done.
>

Agreed, once the plug-in stuffs done I'll look at that, I was merely think of 
the fact that the Heightfields and Landscapes are very closely related and 
having in mind the Plug-in while working on the Heightfields is beneficial.

> However, if you want to help, we are always looking for developers to
> develop the objects that have yet to be implemented. Namely, the new povray
> 3.5 objects. Those won't need to be plugins and will help you familiarize
> yourself with what the plugin will have to do, later on.
>

I look into that, Its always useful to fully grasp whats going on. :)

> Regards,
> Luis
>
> PS: This just in! I'm just 8 work-hours away from my holidays. Yes!

Happy Holiday!

Leon

>
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