Micro Exporter - More Detail or Larger Image?

[rcallicotte]

What does better as far as more realism in the Micro Exporter export - more Detail in the Render or a larger image?  Finding a useful size of an exported file is sort of hit and miss for me right now.

[Oshyan]

As far as I know the results should be similar, i.e. detail 0.5 at 1000x1000 might be about the same as detail 1 at 500x500, but I don't know the actual ratios. That's just a made-up example. Matt might have a better sense of this though.

- Oshyan

[Tangled-Universe]

Not important I think, because it doesn't matter whether you go for higher detail or higher resolution.
What counts is which polycount you're going for. Normally you don't want a too dense and very heavy mesh. It depends of course on where you're going to use it for.
Other than sculpting I can't think of a usage which would require a superdense mesh. For instance, don't try to run a fluid sim on a dense piece of TG2 geometry (at least, not with realflow).

[rcallicotte]

Thanks guys.  What I did - 1024x1024 at .5 and it came out at about 62Kb.  I would like to import into Lightwave to use for animation.  But, I'm wondering now about the wisdom in this...or maybe just my own wisdom.   

[cyphyr]

IMO I'd say that as long as your not using the exported terrain as part of an external render or for shadow catching the resolution is relatively unimportant. Go with what gives you the detail you need to make your camera moves. An exception I guess would be if you wanted to animate say a vehicle moving bumpily across a terrain. In such a case the exported terrain would have to be as detailed as the final terragen render (or pretty damn close) so the wheels stayed on the ground.
Richard

[rcallicotte]

So...Cyphyr, have you done this?     How much different does it need to be than the 1024x1024 at .5 to get the details of someone walking on the terrain?  I assuming that level is nearly not comprehensible with this sort of export method from TG2.  Is this a correct assumption?

[TheBadger]

Hey calico,

If you remember the "IvyGen info dump" thread, these questions were covered pretty well. I remember exporting huge terrains from TG as I was learning about this process. I was able to pretty easily use 1-2GB exports in IvyGen. I would guess that if ivy generator can handle that than LW should really work well. Just a guess though

I am just curious. Are you going to comp the animation of the figure walking? Because I would think that you would want an exact match (nearly) of the terrain. I mean, why not?

@T-U

For instance, don't try to run a fluid sim on a dense piece of TG2 geometry (at least, not with realflow).

Could you elaborate on this a little please? I'm just interested in why its a problem in one case and not in others.

[Tangled-Universe]

The reason is that the geometry is dynamic and that for every face/vertex the contribution to the sim needs to be calculated (force, adhesion, friction etc.)
So the more faces the more calculations per cell in the domain and per particle. I don't know how it behaves with the new FLIP fluids, but at its current state the best way is the low-poly way.

[cyphyr]

It's going to be highly scene dependant. If your character is walking on a flat plane, no bumps and no relief (where they're walking) then low poly will be fine. If however there fake stones or any relief larger than your characters foot then you run the risk of the foot intersecting with the geometry. Not a desired result. I've only used exported terrains to position objects, make them fit the terrain and set up camera animations. This last is much less used now since we have the proper animation panel.

Hmm thinking about it you "probably" could get away with 1024x1024 at .5, you'd only be exporting a VERY small piece of terrain, just enough to cover the walk cycle, 10m - 20m maybe. If you are doing a walk cycle remember that TG can import object sequences so if you can create them externally this may be worth persuing.

The reason is that the geometry is dynamic and that for every face/vertex the contribution to the sim needs to be calculated (force, adhesion, friction etc.)
So the more faces the more calculations per cell in the domain and per particle. I don't know how it behaves with the new FLIP fluids, but at its current state the best way is the low-poly way.

Absolutely.

Cheers

Richard

[rcallicotte]

Thank you for such details. I will use this to think about a better way.

I didn't realize TG can import object sequences...fascinating.

It's going to be highly scene dependant. If your character is walking on a flat plane, no bumps and no relief (where they're walking) then low poly will be fine. If however there fake stones or any relief larger than your characters foot then you run the risk of the foot intersecting with the geometry. Not a desired result. I've only used exported terrains to position objects, make them fit the terrain and set up camera animations. This last is much less used now since we have the proper animation panel.

Hmm thinking about it you "probably" could get away with 1024x1024 at .5, you'd only be exporting a VERY small piece of terrain, just enough to cover the walk cycle, 10m - 20m maybe. If you are doing a walk cycle remember that TG can import object sequences so if you can create them externally this may be worth persuing.

The reason is that the geometry is dynamic and that for every face/vertex the contribution to the sim needs to be calculated (force, adhesion, friction etc.)
So the more faces the more calculations per cell in the domain and per particle. I don't know how it behaves with the new FLIP fluids, but at its current state the best way is the low-poly way.

Absolutely.

Cheers

Richard

[rcallicotte]

I've seen that thread and used it to understand a few things before I asked.  I must have missed something there.

I was just using a figure walking as sort of an example of something more detailed.  But, that is down the road, when I know more than I do now. 

Hey calico,

If you remember the "IvyGen info dump" thread, these questions were covered pretty well. I remember exporting huge terrains from TG as I was learning about this process. I was able to pretty easily use 1-2GB exports in IvyGen. I would guess that if ivy generator can handle that than LW should really work well. Just a guess though

I am just curious. Are you going to comp the animation of the figure walking? Because I would think that you would want an exact match (nearly) of the terrain. I mean, why not?

@T-U

For instance, don't try to run a fluid sim on a dense piece of TG2 geometry (at least, not with realflow).

Could you elaborate on this a little please? I'm just interested in why its a problem in one case and not in others.

[TheBadger]

This stuff interests me too Calico. Probably a lot of people want to know how to do what your trying to figure out.

If you know your going to move ahead on this, you should start a thread and sorta document the workflow and related issues. There are certainly no tuts, so it couldn't hurt.