Quote from: calico on July 27, 2007, 12:02:07 PM
Volker, yes this helps.
I'm thinking about buying this book to catch up to some of the concepts here that seem to basic to grasping this program - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0240519353/ref=ord_cart_shr/103-3339306-1319019?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance
I'm ascertaining that you've come to your conclusions to make these node calculations work by your understanding of math and your understanding of the concepts behind procedural graphics. Of course, you also seem to be intelligent and seem to be a creative talent, both of which are definitely a plus. I'm almost afraid to ask what you do for a living, since it must be something amazing.
To be honest, you're best off looking at a math-specific book, especially calculus and trigonometry. The graph sections are the bit you need. You need to imagine the rendered world as a massive graph, with values in the X,Y and Z axis. Shapes in graphs can all be represented with formulae, most (if not all) of which you can represent with nodes in the node editor. Draw a line in the graph along two axis, and you get that shape extended in the third axis. e.g. If I used a formula to draw two opposite curves (which I would add together with a node) in the X and Y axis, then plugged it into a displacement function, it would cut (or mold) an infinitely long cross-section of that shape, across the world in the Z axis. This was the basis of my original canyon shader. While this book will certainly help you with the varying terminologies and the varying methods of 3d renderers, to innovate in the node editor, and be truly in control of it, you need to know your math, and this is no math book. (I am by no means insulting your skill at math, it just happens that I recently had an exam in it, so I've revised it recently and it's still fresh in my mind).
I have been tempted to write a set of simple math tutorials that hold TG2 in mind (no useless things, just the stuff relating to TG2), the problem is I wouldn't know at what difficulty level I should start, and also I'm not a perfect mathematician, not even Uni grade, although some of my friends might be able to help me there. I'd certainly need the help of a good proof-reader who was proficient enough at TG2 to not start asking stupid questions like "what's a node" and "what do you mean by 'plugging a scalar multiplier with a const of 2 into a get x as scalar?'"
By all means buy the book, since it looks like it contains some good stuff in it, but i doubt that much will pertain to the node network (except, perhaps the section on transformations or geometric primitives)
As a side-note, I'd hazzard a guess that Volker is a mafia-boss, who occasionally dips into a bit of flower-arranging for a hobby
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