Quote from: littlecannon on February 03, 2007, 09:54:23 AM
Quote from: old_blaggard on February 02, 2007, 07:48:42 PM
Look at the parentheses: he says he used a sinus, aka a sine curve. I don't have TG2 open right now, but I'm guessing that's what he meant.
Yeah, I know what a sine curve is, that's not what I asked. I want to know what an exponential function with a rotating exponent means in plain English not math jargon, and what relates to it it in TG2, i.e. what am I looking for... Functions, a displacement, a type of shader....
Hi Simon,
by rotating exponent, I mean a range of values for the exponent that repeat over and over again. See, when you use an exponent function, e.g. exp(y), it will quite rapidly grow into enormeously high values. So instead of exp(y), I am using exp(sin(y)), which only returns values between 0.36 and 2.7 (the exp function then provides a particular shape for the curve)
Now why am I using this function anyway? The idea started with wanting to create terraces and overhangs based on the altitude of e.g. a canyon wall. So for example, every 10 meters, I want the steep wall to become an overhanging terrace.
If you would like to see how exp(sin(x)) looks like you may want to use this function plotter:
http://www.univie.ac.at/future.media/moe/fplotter/fplotter.htmlQuoteSorry for sounding ignorant, but i don't need to know math algorithms as my work involves design and artworking, not rocket science, so most of my math left me when I left school many years ago. So if anyone can spare the time to explain what this all means, then I'd love to know. A screen shot of what this is, would have cleared this up at the start and maybe hidden the fact that my math isn't that hot. 
Regards, Simon.
It's true, you shouldn't be required to be a math head to work with TG2. But just because functions are available, it doesn't mean they are there for you in particular. I think functions are aimed at individuals which are skilled enough to understand the internals of a renderer, so that they can create new functionality. I myself don't count me in that group, although I understand a wee bit of the math required. But what I do know is that those cool effect created with functions will become easy to use presets in TG2 at a later stage. I think many "regular" shaders available today have been built using functions. To us, those "regular" shaders become easy to work with, but we don't comprehend HOW they actually work internally. So no need to feel bad about that.
Anyway, I don't want to give away the complete setup of this scene so soon. I have committed to providing the scene to Planetside for them to consider a preset based on that, but that's all about what I'm prepared to give for now. Anyway, once it has become a preset, you don't need to worry about the internal functions anymore
Cheers,
Frank
