I'm having big troubles with the include files for compressed meshes and
morphing.

First of all, I find it very difficult to make two meshes with the same
number of triangles. I have an sPatch model which I export to DXF and then I
use Crossroads to convert it to a POV mesh. As soon as I change anything in
the sPatch file the number of triangles in the final file changes, even when
I tried just translating the objecy a little bit in the x direction. Does
anyone know of a better way to convert sPatch models to files that can be
morphed in some way?

Then, when I try to morph the files (so far I've only managed to make the
macro accept morphing to and from the same mesh) it looks good when the
"morphing number" is 0 or 1 (i e the first and final frame of the morph).
The frames in between are more or less distorted, mostly at 0.5.

Also, POV-ray halts and says that IntWeight2 in PCMMORPH.MCR is undeclared,
so for now I replaced it with 1.

Has anyone else had problems with this? I could upload the files if it would
help.

--
Martin Magnusson
e-mail: Mar### [at] studentuuse
www-site: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9946/

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Martin Magnusson wrote:
> 
> I'm having big troubles with the include files for compressed meshes and
> morphing.
> 
> First of all, I find it very difficult to make two meshes with the same
> number of triangles. I have an sPatch model which I export to DXF and then I
> use Crossroads to convert it to a POV mesh. As soon as I change anything in
> the sPatch file the number of triangles in the final file changes, even when
> I tried just translating the objecy a little bit in the x direction. Does
> anyone know of a better way to convert sPatch models to files that can be
> morphed in some way?
> 
> Then, when I try to morph the files (so far I've only managed to make the
> macro accept morphing to and from the same mesh) it looks good when the
> "morphing number" is 0 or 1 (i e the first and final frame of the morph).
> The frames in between are more or less distorted, mostly at 0.5.
> 
> Also, POV-ray halts and says that IntWeight2 in PCMMORPH.MCR is undeclared,
> so for now I replaced it with 1.
> 
> Has anyone else had problems with this? I could upload the files if it would
> help.
> 
> --
> Martin Magnusson
> e-mail: Mar### [at] studentuuse
> www-site: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9946/

  So far I have only worked with the hair growing aspect of the compressed
mesh macro file. Since the macros are so new I really doubt you are going to
find anyone around who could consider themselves expert on the subject. I
suggest you contact Chris directly with your questions as he is the person
who could probably answer them with any real authority.

-- 
Ken Tyler

mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

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I don't have a lot of experience with this either. I know that setting up
an animation within TruSpace, exporting the keyframes as separate models,
and morphing the results works great! The results are much better then the
renderer Caligari has, anyway, and the triangle count doesn't change at all.

GrimDude
vos### [at] arkansasnet

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I'm sure Colefax will be glad to answer your questions if you drop him
an email (it seems that he seldom reads these newsgroups).
  He is the one who best knows his macros.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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On Tue, 11 May 1999 22:45:18 +0200, "Martin Magnusson"
<ama### [at] geocitiescom> wrote:

>I'm having big troubles with the include files for compressed meshes and
>morphing.
>
>First of all, I find it very difficult to make two meshes with the same
>number of triangles. I have an sPatch model which I export to DXF and then I
>use Crossroads to convert it to a POV mesh. As soon as I change anything in
>the sPatch file the number of triangles in the final file changes, even when
>I tried just translating the objecy a little bit in the x direction. Does
>anyone know of a better way to convert sPatch models to files that can be
>morphed in some way?

Well the exporting from sPatch to .DXF is almost certainly where the
problem lies. sPatch exports a POV type include file based in the
patches you physically design - but when it creates a .DXF it has to
"approximate" (so when the shape changes the number of triangles it
has to create to remain faithful to the new shape is likely to be
different - even for a fairly small change).

IIRC Chris has recently released a version of his macro which will
work with bicubic patches - get the update and export your model right
from sPatch to POV. Hopefully that'll work better :)


Cheers,

Cliff Bowman
Why not pay my 3D Dr Who site a visit at
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/7855/
PS change ".duffnet" to ".net" if replying via e-mail

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> IIRC Chris has recently released a version of his macro which will
> work with bicubic patches - get the update and export your model right
> from sPatch to POV. Hopefully that'll work better :)

It sure does! I'm happy again!
Now if only I could make blurred reflaction...

--
Martin Magnusson
e-mail: Mar### [at] studentuuse
www-site: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/9946/

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On Mon, 17 May 1999 23:05:55 +0200, "Martin Magnusson"
<ama### [at] geocitiescom> wrote:

>> IIRC Chris has recently released a version of his macro which will
>> work with bicubic patches - get the update and export your model right
>> from sPatch to POV. Hopefully that'll work better :)
>
>It sure does! I'm happy again!
>Now if only I could make blurred reflaction...
>
Errr...

Would that be reflection or refraction? Not that I can help either way
(although might a "rough" shiny surface blurr reflection somewhat?)


Cheers,

Cliff Bowman
Why not pay my 3D Dr Who site a visit at
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/7855/
PS change ".duffnet" to ".net" if replying via e-mail

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Cliff Bowman wrote in message <3741b828.171001100@news.povray.org>...
>
>Would that be reflection or refraction? Not that I can help either way
>(although might a "rough" shiny surface blurr reflection somewhat?)
>


A surface with very fine bumpyness would give burred
reflections/refractions. However, you need _very_ high sampling rates (AA)
to eliminate noise. And this can't be done locally (on the reflecting
surface), so it has to be done all over the image. BIG render times. I've
tried.
A patched version by Wyzard does blurry reflections, the patch is also
included in the Superpatch. Blurry refraction (and transparency in general)
could be implemented the same way, but hasn't been (yet).

Margus

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