Question for Matt

Started by Kevin F, February 06, 2009, 03:48:19 PM

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Kevin F

What do "visualise normal" & "visualise tex coords" do? and how are they used?

Kevin F


buzzzzz1

#2
Since nobody has answered I did a search just out of curiosity.  Matt talks about it a little in this thread. Oops!  ;D 
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1249.msg12539#msg12539 Looks interesting but I don't have time to digest it at the moment. Don't know if it will help your understanding of it any better or not but it's a start. Hope it helps?
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Kevin F

Quote from: buzzzzz1 on February 19, 2009, 03:01:48 PM
Since nobody has answered I did a search just out of curiosity.  Matt talks about it a little in this thread. Looks interesting but I don't have time to digest it at the moment. Don't know if it will help your understanding of it any better or not but it's a start. Hope it helps?

and the thread is? ;D

buzzzzz1

Quote from: Kevin F on February 19, 2009, 03:16:16 PM
Quote from: buzzzzz1 on February 19, 2009, 03:01:48 PM
Since nobody has answered I did a search just out of curiosity.  Matt talks about it a little in this thread. Looks interesting but I don't have time to digest it at the moment. Don't know if it will help your understanding of it any better or not but it's a start. Hope it helps?

and the thread is? ;D

Oops! Sorry  :D http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1249.msg12539#msg12539
XFX 750i SLI  nFORCE Mobo
Intel Core2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz Wolfdale
8 Gig Corsair DDR2 6400
Nvidia GForce 9600 GSO 768 MB
XP Pro 64 bit OS

Kevin F

thanks buzzzzz1, but I still don't understand the "visualise" part! and it's connotations.

Matt

#6
Visualise normal and visualise tex coords are shaders which give an RGB representation of the 3D vector (the surface normal or the texture coordinates). The R value of the colour is the X component, G is Y, and B is Z. Surface normal values which range from -1 to +1 are remapped into the visible range 0 to 1.

UV coordinate from imported geometry usually only occupy X and Y, therefore blue is usually 0. They usually range from 0 to 1. But if applied to terrain or other procedural object, tex coords are XYZ. There is a repeat option for the texture coordinates because they are not limited to just the 0 to 1 range on procedural objects; this option causes the values to repeat within the 0-1 range.

Matt
 
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Kevin F

Thanks Matt,
The first half I actually think I understand! Not so sure about the second half though, bit more studying to do!

Mohawk20

So if you use Visualize Normal, you can get really funky renders from extensive displacements... Sweet, have to try that!

But Matt, could you give a hint as to where the nodes should best be inserted in the network?
Howgh!

Matt

#9
Anywhere you like. They are just surface or colour shaders and can be used like any other. It depends whether/how you would find that colour information useful.

One possible use for visualise normal is to render a normal map of a terrain for export, inwhich case you'd have it as the last shader and use the luminous option and with diffuse disabled (to remove lighting).

Visualise tex coords is good for testing whether imported object UVs are correct, among other things.
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Mr_Lamppost

I have used Visualise Normal followed by Red (or Green or Blue) To Scalar to create masks for blending two materials onto an object.  Not one I have used but the technique could be used to put moss on the north side of trees in a population.
Smoke me a kipper I'll be back for breakfast.

Tangled-Universe

Quote from: Mr_Lamppost on February 25, 2009, 05:45:24 PM
I have used Visualise Normal followed by Red (or Green or Blue) To Scalar to create masks for blending two materials onto an object.  Not one I have used but the technique could be used to put moss on the north side of trees in a population.

That sounds very interesting, could you elaborate on that a bit more? How to set up a function like this?
Thanks in advance :)

Martin