Comparisons to Vue?

[PG]

I used the Vue 7 beta a few weeks ago and couldn't get a handle on it so I ditched it. I just reinstalled it today and fully understand why I uninstalled it the last time. I just tried to create an eclipse scene only to find that the planet object is fake. It's a flippin' texture.

[bertrand]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the main (actually huge) difference between Vue and TG2 is that Vue cannot do overhangs. It does not have lateral displacement, only vertical. As such, it's much closer to TG0.9 than to TG2. And don't think it just means Vue can't do grottos and stone arches, it also means near-vertical structures, such as canyon walls, cannot have any relief. The closer you get to a perfect vertical, the flatter the surface becomes.
Which is why the illusion of relief in Vue for rock faces can only be obtained by using colour textures and bump maps.

[kaisersuzuki]

This is incorrect.

[bertrand]

Care to elaborate? Show an image... whatever...

[sjefen]

I think this and this is made with Vue.

- Terje

[Zylot]

2nd image is not visible due to site restrictions... first is good, but can I assume based on the lack of scenery around it or integration into an actual environment that it ate resources like candy?

[Oshyan]

I'm not sure Vue does lateral displacement, the technique there has always been to flip heightfields on their side.

- Oshyan

[latego]

I'm not sure Vue does lateral displacement, the technique there has always been to flip heightfields on their side.

- Oshyan

I checked and I found an amusing fact: if you create a sphere and texture it with a displacement material, you get all kinds of bumps/spikes and whatever (recently on Renderosity and GeekAtPlay it was shown the use of this tecnique to convert the cartoonish rocks of Vue into photorealistic ones); but... if you apply the same material to a terrain, you get only up/down perturbations.

This should be assessed in the light of the fact that POV-Ray provides a primitive called isosurfaces which allow to create scenes like this http://www.ignorancia.org/en/index.php?page=LOTW_07_23_04. For other examples, see http://www.ignorancia.org/en/index.php?page=Project_Tierra and http://hof.povray.org/.

Not bad for a free app, released in 1991 (and based upon DKBTrace, released in 1986), don't you think so?

Bye!!!

[bertrand]

So that's what I thought from playing with the Vue6 PLE. Not sure about Vue7 tho.

[bobbystahr]

So that's what I thought from playing with the Vue6 PLE. Not sure about Vue7 tho.

Give the free Vue7 BETA  a try..apparently it's available from the vue home site...I'd be inteested to hear what you think.. ...

[moodflow]

This should be assessed in the light of the fact that POV-Ray provides a primitive called isosurfaces which allow to create scenes like this http://www.ignorancia.org/en/index.php?page=LOTW_07_23_04. For other examples, see http://www.ignorancia.org/en/index.php?page=Project_Tierra and http://hof.povray.org/.

Not bad for a free app, released in 1991 (and based upon DKBTrace, released in 1986), don't you think so?

Bye!!!

Isosurfaces - the next big ticket!  Anyone know if there are plans for isosurfaces in TG2?

[Confusoid]

The next Ice Age?   

I can't imagine how long it would take isosurfaces of all things to render with this beast. Isosurfaces are Voxels so they are solid shaded volumetric 3d data surfaces.


MojoWorld has isosurfaces as well. I think Vue's hyper textures may be considered isosurface-like but i am not sure entirely.

[latego]

They are from slow to horribly slow (in POV-Ray you have to set a parameter called max_gradient which has to be big enough to match the isosurface behaviour and the heigher it is, the slower is the render) but Terrageners should not be afraid of spending a few hours doing a render, don't they?

The plus side is that you can create all kind of structure like caves, arcs, etc.

For sure, they would be a great addition to TG in the future.

Bye!!!