Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:55 pm Post subject:
Coming very soon: 3D Preview mesh effects!
Subject description: Warning: 5mb picture included!
In order to compare my upcoming voxel to 3D conversion technique with other alternatives, I've been playing with techniques to distort meshes. I've managed to learn how to adapt few effects that we've seen in Photoshop or even on OS SHP Builder, to geometry meshes. These effects are primary available at the 3D Preview Window, in the next SVN commit. So far we have:
- Smooth (based in the Mean effect from SHP Builder).
- Heavy Smooth (It's a mean, but powered by cube instead of linear).
- Unsharp Masking (based in the unsharp masking effect from SHP Builder, it makes your object more sharp).
The picture below shows a Mammoth MKII with only one usage of Heavy Smooth effect.
I hope you enjoy it and expect an option to export these models to .3ds in the next days. QUICK_EDIT
very impressive. I like how the surface is smoothed too and how it uses the normals to create even some round looking borders.
Seems like VSE will soon have a true resize function that works with every real number. _________________ SHP Artist of Twisted Insurrection. Main Nod building SHP creator.
very impressive. I like how the surface is smoothed too and how it uses the normals to create even some round looking borders.
Seems like VSE will soon have a true resize function that works with every real number.
Actually... I do not touch the normals with this feature. It doesn't change the voxel model itself. It simply changes the geometric model that the 3D preview window renders. QUICK_EDIT
You can now try these effects on your own. Make sure you have an active installation of VXLSE III 1.38 and replace the vxlse_III.exe with THIS. If you have any doubts about how to install nightly builds of the program, please, read the the PPM FAQ.
I've also added Inflate and Deflate effects for the sake of the fun. Remember that everything is still being tested.
I have no clue on what does 0410A430 contain, but an attempt to read address 00000000 is definitely my mistake at some part of the code. What were you doing and what did you do to get this error? QUICK_EDIT
I dunno if you have all class's named Bansh, i just decompiled the exectuable and the offset is inside TFrmMain::CnvView2Paint, EAX is null, so its a null pointer more than likley. QUICK_EDIT
Considering that DEBUG_FILE is not defined, one of the parameters is null. It could be possible that ActiveSection is null or something like that... I really have to figure out what could cause it. QUICK_EDIT
procedure PaintView2(WndIndex: Integer; isMouseLeftDown : boolean; var Cnv: PPaintBox; var View: TVoxelView);
But Cnv will never be null, due to the way the program works. It never changes the value of the views to null. I think there is a possibility of ActiveSection be null before you start or open any voxel file, but I'm not sure. And this possibility also exists when you are opening or starting a different file. QUICK_EDIT
I have no clue on what does 0410A430 contain, but an attempt to read address 00000000 is definitely my mistake at some part of the code. What were you doing and what did you do to get this error?
I simply ran the new executable to receive that error.(not by clicking on a voxel) also note that the last revision worked until my nvidia card killed over.
The first error caused the other two errors. Are you running the executable inside a previous installation of VXLSE III 1.38? If you are not, please, install 1.38 and replace its executable with it. QUICK_EDIT
The only installatin of vse on my comp was 1.38 or later revisions you posted in the SVN. I backed up the exe from 1.38 and replaced it with the ones you posted in this topic. QUICK_EDIT
This specific built includes debug and maps all functions and its memory addresses. So, if an error happens, attach debugdev.txt and post the error message that I'll be able to track it in my end.
Note: this version may run slower than all SVN builds and 1.38 due to the debug system. QUICK_EDIT
Ok... This is an odd question, how do I actually activate these effects? I have the exe, have roamed through the options menu, and cannot find any sort of button or option to turn this stuff on... _________________ Yes, work on MV continues. It is not forgotten.
QUICK_EDIT
I'll code an .obj exporter and a .3ds one as well. Obj is more compatible with the kind of model that VXLSE III generates, while .3ds is interesting for future interactions with ViPr's program. QUICK_EDIT
anim8or can convert obj to .3ds and with some extra work, gmax can too. _________________
The needs of the many are outweighed by the needs of Yuri. QUICK_EDIT
I'm aware of it. But it would be better if we had a frontend to ViPr's program integrated in VXLSE III, so we could use it for features such as autonormals, resize and few others. QUICK_EDIT
Following this debugdev, it seems that you didn't had any trouble at all. Opened the program and closed after some time. You didn't try to open any voxel or do anything significant at all. So, it's hard for me to figure out what's going on. QUICK_EDIT
Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Location: somewhere south of the north pole
Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:36 pm Post subject:
Banshee wrote:
I'm aware of it. But it would be better if we had a frontend to ViPr's program integrated in VXLSE III, so we could use it for features such as autonormals, resize and few others.
Like:
Voxel -> 3D -> ViPr's 3ds2vxl -> voxel with AWESOME and CORRECT normals? If so, you are awsome! (as usual;)) _________________ QUICK_EDIT
Following this debugdev, it seems that you didn't had any trouble at all. Opened the program and closed after some time. You didn't try to open any voxel or do anything significant at all. So, it's hard for me to figure out what's going on.
Wrong, I did try to open a voxel, and the error I mentioned earlier prevented that! at this point I had to terminate vse in task manager.
EDIT:I just ran vse by opening a voxel instead, this gave a much different result.
however errors kept popping up, I could not go to edit normals mode, could not move through the voxel with the sliders, and could not view anything in the 3d view.
below is the resulting debugdev.txt (3+ mb unzipped)
Like:
Voxel -> 3D -> ViPr's 3ds2vxl -> voxel with AWESOME and CORRECT normals?
Exactly.
And Damned Machine, I'll take a look at the new debugdev.txt. Also, you should post the error message with the address information like you did in the first posts (i.e.: "access violation at address 0410A430 read of address 00000000"), because I have all these addresses mapped in the build that I've asked you to download. I don't have them mapped for the versions in the SVN and 1.38 and I won't do it, because it does slow down the program. QUICK_EDIT
I've been researching both .obj and .3ds file formats and I'll really do .obj first. The .3ds format has a terrible limitation of one texture coordinates per vertex, which makes texture mapping a very hard thing. To make things worse, every 3ds viewer that I've seen does not show the texture saved into the .3ds file at all, and that includes ViPr's tool, Blender, GMAX and a shitload of free 3ds viewer that I've downloaded. I've tested them with models uploaded in our 3D Models section and models from a couple of other sites as well.
Right now I'm researching how I'll unwrap uv automatically. That's a quite tough mission. I originally thought about making each colour as a square and point the vertexes to these squares, but it would simply be uneditable at all, making it fairly useless. Now I'm thinking about rendering each face into bitmaps (according to the 'strongest' directions of the normals) and then, placing these bitmaps side by side, but I'm still afraid of the possibility of the texture of several faces overlap other faces... As I said to SaneDisruption on MSN a while ago, this mission is my nightmare. QUICK_EDIT
hmmm. When using anim8or, and I export a model as .3ds, any 'materials' aka the solid colors on the model I had applied stay on the model. Perhaps instead of trying to be texture orientated you should try using materials instead? _________________
The needs of the many are outweighed by the needs of Yuri. QUICK_EDIT
You can make materials be intact by increasing the amount of vertexes. So, it makes several vertexes with the same coordinates, each belonging to a different triangle. QUICK_EDIT
I think you guys might be a bit disappointed with me, but I've decided to postpone the .obj or .3ds exporter feature for a while. Today I had the opportunity to meet the teacher who will mentor me in my graduation final project and I guess I have err... higher priorities than exporting these objects.
Anyway, he enjoyed the results of the Heavy Smooth technique and it already does a great job on getting good looking 3D models. But honestly, I was not satisfied.
So, I've decided to implement the Lanczos resampling for an appropriate smooth technique. And I still wanna try my own technique as well.
Lanczos results were impressive, as you can check in the pictures below. But it must only be applied once. Otherwise the model gets messed up.
(Note: since the title of the topic already warned for huge image load, I guess you won't be pissed off with additional 11mb )
I don't know if this is better than Heavy Smooth. I think that Heavy Smooth is a bit more smooth, however, Lanczos is more consistent to the model itself, which is why it looks better.
What do you guys think?
Oh, and I've also added another feature at the Model Effects called ReNormalize Mesh. It does not affect your voxel model at all. It only affects the mesh at the 3D preview window (and the effect disappears with the change of remappable colour or by editing the voxel). QUICK_EDIT
I'm aware of it. But it would be better if we had a frontend to ViPr's program integrated in VXLSE III, so we could use it for features such as autonormals, resize and few others.
Like:
Voxel -> 3D -> ViPr's 3ds2vxl -> voxel with AWESOME and CORRECT normals? If so, you are awsome! (as usual;))
Or,we could be smarter and do...
Quote:
Voxel -> 3D -> Render in Max with trees,details and other shiz -> awesome cameo
EDIT:Tried it,for me it gives a "out of memory" error.I think its because my laptop has just 1GB of RAM.
Ok, right now I'm writing an OBJ exporter, but it won't export with colors yet because I have no clue about how to generate uv maps from random colored faces. QUICK_EDIT
Hm,well,if you export the model as a obj. file,can't it also export the normal textures,then apply them as if the obj. file would be a box?
Maybe its just too...unprofessional to say it from a random guy who's excited about this,yet doesn't have the slightest idea of C++,Java or any kind of advanced coding languages. QUICK_EDIT
Don't know really,but at least,the feature of just exporting them would really be nice,even if untextured(I could do all the necessary shiz on my own ) QUICK_EDIT
This revision has a new option at the 3d Preview window called 'Save Model As'. Surprisingly, this is the option to export the model as obj. Unfortunately, this is really very early efforts. As far as I could test on most obj viewers, they all failed to load these models, except for one, which messed up a couple of vertexes. In short, for the final user, this option is still useless.
The models generated by this feature will be huge in terms of file size. And I really mean it. At the moment, the generated model receives no optimization whatsoever. It generated a bunch of useless vertexes and normals that could be removed by simply detecting that their normal would be (0,0,0). The polygons with messed up normals usually have normals like composed with 0, 1 and -1 (even after you use ReNormalize Model feature.
Also, it doesn't save materials, nor try to use inexistent ones, so I believe that it also helps to screw up a couple of obj viewers. Another limitation is that it exports quads instead of triangles, which also screws up a couple of external programs.
In short, don't use it yet, but expect it to become useful in the next revisions.
In a short note: The model I've tested was the hmec.vxl (Mammoth Mark II), which has about 16 sections. The obj file size was 1.63mb, which is really a lot for an obj file. I've tested with Blender, Brownz 3D and Obj Viewer from http://www.aweapp.com/obj_viewer which was the only application that opened the .obj file (with messed up vertexes and faces).
I'm very (positively) surprised with the results on GMAX. But of course, I'm working to improve it.
[Edit]: I've noticed some very stupid errors at the function that write OBJ faces and I've fixed that in my end. According to a quick test done with Obj Viewer and an exported orca, the mesh is no longer messed up and it didn't crashed the program. So, next revision should work much better, although it will still take a couple of hours, since I need to finish fixing all bugs with the new 3D Modelizer feature (I'm splitting the 3D Preview window). QUICK_EDIT
Yea, the errors that I meant in the Edit of the last post messed up the 2nd, 3rd and 4th vertexes of a face... and it wrote one additional non existing face. The first due to stupid distraction with a parenthesis and the second was a distraction about the amount of faces in the vector. I haven't committed the fixed version because of a problem with multiple renderers that I'm still trying to fix.
The fixed version looked correctly in the Obj Viewer, except for the colors that were not exported, as I expected (exporting colors was not coded yet). QUICK_EDIT
I've committed the revision with a 'fixed' OBJ exporter.
Note however, that I've splited the 3D Preview window in two. The 3D Preview Window's sole purpose is to preview what you are creating.
The second part of this split is the new 3D Modelizer, inside Tools. Its purpose is to prepare and exporter the finished volumetric voxel as 3D model. Note that once you open the 3D Modelizer, any changes made in the original voxel will be ignored by the modelizer.
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Coming very soon: 3D Preview mesh effects!
