"Kenneth" <kdw### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>...
> [more off-topic stuff, sorry!]
> In my current real scene, I'm using the 'object pattern' to make an isosurface
> shape, necessarily using functions. Here is a somewhat simplified version of a
> problem I had:
>...
> #declare OBJ_PATTERN_FUNC = function{pigment{object{MY_OBJECT rgb 0 rgb 1}}}
> #declare PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC = function{pigment{bumps scale .2}}
> #declare MAG = 1.5; // the magnitude of the bumps distortion to be added
>
> This is how I originally wrote my main function:
>
> isosurface{function{
> 1 - (OBJ_PATTERN_FUNC(
> x + MAG*PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC (x,y,z).x - .5*MAG,
> y + MAG*PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC (x,y,z).y - .5*MAG,
> z + MAG*PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC (x,y,z).z - .5*MAG
>      ).gray)
>      } ... }
>
> This worked-- but the resulting bumps distortion had a spatial 'skew' aligned
> along <1,1,1>, which *finally* became understandable because I was using full
> (x,y,z) in all 3 inner functions. (I had to do that to solve other problems that
> I ran into, up to this point.) But substituting 0.0 for the appropriate
> 'un-needed' x,y,z arguments resulted in *very* strange isosurface effects.
>
> So I came up with this solution, which nicely fixed the skew--by subtracting the
> 'offending' arguments from 1.0. But I have NO idea why it works. I finally
> arrived at it through pure chance and desperation:
>
> isosurface{function{
> 1 - (OBJ_PATTERN_FUNC(
> x + MAG*PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC (x,1-y,1-z).x - .5*MAG,
> y + MAG*PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC (1-x,y,1-z).y - .5*MAG,
> z + MAG*PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC (1-x,1-y,z).z - .5*MAG
>      ).gray)
>      } ...}
>
> Maybe this is a special-case solution because of the object pattern scheme? I
> don't know.

I recommend that you use pattern functions here instead of pigment
functions. That is because the pigments you use here always has the
same values for the red, green and blue components (extracted with
...red .green .blue or .x .y .z) The gray component will then also
have the same value as the red, green and blue components.

You can then write your declared functions like this:

#declare OBJECT_FUNC =
    function {
        pattern {
            object { MY_OBJECT }
        }
    }
;
#declare DISTORTION_FUNC =
    function {
        pattern {
            bumps
            scale <0.2, 0.2, 0.2>
        }
    }
;

I suspect that the reason that the "skew" disappears when using your
"desperation" code is that there you are "sampling" the
PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC at different locations in 3D space for each of
the red, green and blue components (.x .y .z), This causes the 3
components to have different values. When you set some of the
arguments to the PIG_DISTORTION_FUNC function to zero, you where
either "sampling" this function in a plane, along a line or at a point.

With pattern functions you can rewrite your isosurface function like
this:

function {
    1 -
    OBJECT_FUNC(
        x + MAG*(DISTORTION_FUNC(    x, 1 - y, 1 - z) - 0.5),
        y + MAG*(DISTORTION_FUNC(1 - x,     y, 1 - z) - 0.5),
        z + MAG*(DISTORTION_FUNC(1 - x, 1 - y,     z) - 0.5)
    )
}

--
Tor Olav
http://subcube.com
https://github.com/t-o-k

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