Trying to figure out Environment Mapping & Reflective surface textures

[atom-x]

Hi all,

First posting here, thanks for the great resource and the fantastic
tools.

I'm very familiar with PV3D syntax, but have recently been
experimenting with porting and expanding on some of the work I have
done to the Away3D engine. Specifically, I am wanting to take
advantage of the shading and env mapping / reflection mapping features
I am seeing in the latest demos.

Would someone mind (Fabrice?) posting the source, or example source)
that shows how to create and render primitives with these features? I
would love to see the source for the newest example on the Away3D page
("Away3D Directional smooth shading & environement reflections")
showing the reflective, color-lit masks, if that would be at all
possible.

I am currently doing my experimentation using 2 of the code branches
in the svn repos... the materials-dev branch and the fabrice branch.
I've looked everywhere for some examples of this in the tech demo
source and in the tutorials, but haven't found anything yet.

Thanks a million for any and all help, in advance.

Adam

[atom-x]

Ok, I'm figuring out the syntax now... think I understand how this is
done, now.

Any tips still appreciated, though.

A

[Fabrice Closier]

The enviro code has been updated again this evening and will be again updated/changed/improved in coming days. When it will be stabile and tested i'll post some tech demos/tutorials.

Please send us your demos!

Fabrice

[Rob Bateman]

Hey Adam

At present the dev branches are just that - development. As such the code contained within is still in a state of flux, and requires quite a bit of refining before being merged with the trunk as a new release. It's great that you are intrigued enough to have a poke around, but i'm afraid no demo source of new features will be released until the improvements have been thoroughly developed, refined, optimised, etc, during which many aspects of the structure will be modified.

Obviously you are welcome to keep watching the branches and see what you can make of the developments as they occur. And of course, we welcome any suggestions you may have for additions of your own, should you have any ideas...


atb


Rob

On 10/13/07, atom-x <ad...@atombang.com> wrote:

--
Rob Bateman
Flash Development & Consultancy

Work: 0207 4823328
Mobile: 07714 329 073

rob.b...@gmail.com

[atom-x]

Hi Fabrice,

On Oct 13, 6:18 pm, "Fabrice Closier" <fabric...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The enviro code has been updated again this evening and will be again ...

Very cool. Thanks so much for all of your work on this... incredible
stuff going on here....

> Please send us your demos!

OK, I have a couple of them based on what I'm currently working on.
Nothing mind-shattering, but it'll give you an idea of what I'm doing.

I don't want these blog entries open to the general public just yet,
so they are password protected. Use this password: away123D

Atom UI Experiment (this was done in PV3D)
http://www.atombang.com/blog/?p=10

Away3D Environment Map Experiment (this is where I was, as of my last
post here)
http://www.atombang.com/blog/?p=12

Once the website goes live, I'll remove teh password from these
entries.

Cheers,
A

[atom-x]

On Oct 13, 6:46 pm, "Rob Bateman" <rob.bate...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey Adam
>
> At present the dev branches are just that - development.

Gotcha. Totally understood. Was just kind of looking for a "kick in
the right direction" earlier when I was stumped. Sometimes just a
line or two of code can help me figure out what I'm missing.

By the way, just want to say "Thank you" - this framework is awesome;
you guys are doing a great job here...

I took a break, came back, and then figured out what I was missing
with EnviroMap...

> still in a state of flux, and requires quite a bit of ... but i'm afraid no demo...

Again, completely understood. In fact, don't let me distract you from
the real work!!

> we welcome any suggestions you may have for additions of your own, should you have any ideas...

I need to get a bit more comfortable with the way things are done in
Away3D first... but I'll be sure to speak up if I do. Maybe I could
help with supplying example source / examples once it comes to that
point. I'd be very happy to give back what I can...

Thanks,
A

[Peter Kapelyan]

Hi Adam,

 

I like your demo you seem to have figured out alot! However, the code you talk about is not meant for any reason to be shown or shared with others unless it has been improved upon for final release (you are smart to see this).

 

I do not suggest you even THINK about using it in other way.

 

Demos are nice - but we are advancing the code beyond what you have seen so far, and need much more than "demos" to advance it, at this point.

 

What you are using is already obsolete and will not be used in further releases.

If you happen to have any other insight it will be interesting.

 

The code you have tried will not work the way you expect in final release because it is currently in a state of flux, and is also open to any suggestions anyone has to it.

 

Please suggest any ideas you have, it would be interesting to hear anything that could mean any progression.
 

On 10/13/07, atom-x <ad...@atombang.com> wrote:

--
___________________

Actionscript 3.0 Flash 3D Graphics Engine

HTTP://AWAY3D.COM

[Adam Watson]

> Hi Adam,
>
> I like your demo you seem to have figured out alot!

Thanks, I've quite a bit of AS coding experience. This example is not
current. Its based on a previous version of the PV3D Phunky branch. I just
posted it to show examples of what I'd already done in the general area...

> However, the code you
> talk about is not meant for any reason to be shown or shared with
> others unless it has been improved upon for final release (you are smart
> to see this).

Forgive me if I'm being dense here... but I'm not quite sure what your
intent is, here. Do you mean that I should not be exporting the current
CVS revs for some reason? I'm not planning on re-releasing engine code or
starting my own derivative engine. I'm just doing some research and
experimentation on ideas I have for an interface, and posted some of my
recent examples when asked to do so.

> I do not suggest you even THINK about using it in other way.

I'm kind of not understanding your tone here. I fully understand that this
code is in flux right now... I'm just doing research here, based on what
seemed to be the latest rev with material-related code of personal
interest in SVN repository.

But, based your post, now I'm getting the feeling I've done something
wrong by downloading this code. I'm not intending on sharing or
re-releasing anything here. I just want to learn how this stuff is being
done.

> Demos are nice - but we are advancing the code beyond what you have seen
> so far, and need much more than "demos" to advance it, at this point.

I will certainly do my best to try and help out... just need to finish
wrapping my head around the specifics of Away3D, first. I do have pretty
extensive AS3 knowledge, so as I said above, it's easy for me to pick up
on new concepts in the code pretty quickly between each rev

So... just to clear up any possible miscommunication here, please let me
know if I should not have this code, or if your intent was just a general
warning about the code's non-readiness for production sites.

Thanks,
A

[stephen white]

On 14/10/2007, at 3:20 PM, Adam Watson wrote:
> general warning about the code's non-readiness for production sites.

Of course you can download code that is available for download... it
was just a general warning about how extremely unsuitable it is for
production use.

If you look at your Environment Mapping test, you'll see it's got a
nasty update problem on the right hand side. That's been cleaned up
in pre-SVN code, but the APIs are changing so much between revisions
that any code that you write at the moment would not only be broken,
but need complete rewriting.

Eg, one revision has Materials as a class of its own, the next had
Materials as part of the triangle rendering, then it's being stuffed
into the culling pipeline, etc.

Right now (and I'm having trouble keeping up), it appears to be
multiple light sources with soft shadowing with phong and bump-
mapping. But to see that in SVN and think that it will become a
feature is not a good idea, since the final release will only have
the experiments that actually worked. Eg, if everything together is
5fps, it's just too slow.

So don't plan any work based on a feature that you see being worked
on, as it may disappear in the next round! The best guess is to know
that those features remain of interest and will probably make it back
in as Flash becomes better - eg, Hydra in Flash 10.

I know I really really badly need perspective distortion for
everything I'm doing, but PreciseBitmapTexture bogs down to a crawl
at sharp angles for now.

Steve.

--
st...@adam.com.au

[Peter Kapelyan]

Hi Adam,

 

Sorry about any miscommunication.

That code has crashed my machine quite a bit I am deathly scared of using it!

I have seen alot of bugs with at least one of the new players - and I have mentioned this to Fabrice, because I have alot of problems with it.

 

I guess I should have just said that, sorry!

 

It sure looks nice and fun to play with I'm waiting for them to finish and make it stable...so in the meantime I have tried to help make the code better with some ideas, because it does look cool.

 

Also I would love to know why the new player doesn't like some code...

Best Regards
-Pete

[Peter Kapelyan]

To just explain a bit more, this is my understanding but it seems the plan has changed alot so far too, so I don't know how temporary all this is. As of even a few days ago Rob has basically redone fabrices old code, and i think now fabrice is trying to redo what Rob did - so it's quite confusing to me too - they have been pulling together many ideas! So here is the idea:

 

The material list looks like it could grow huge and Rob and Fabrice are trying to make them work all together somehow - where they can, and it makes sense FPS wise or production wise.

The general idea is you can have multiple effects on one object such as phong, bump mapping, and even that cool shiny stuff. Now finally this huge mash-up has to be tested in many situations because we are in fact coming up with many new situations too, by doing that (like animated textures or animated lighting).

 

There are in fact a lot of things that would be great for production use, and a global lighting and material would indeed be impressive and I am looking forward to it.

 

I really like your demos they are very interesting!

I encourage you to mess around if you have any questions, the cod ein the main trunk seems to be super stable and we are trying to polish that one off for some type of release with full documentations and examples.

 

However on the material end, when Rob and Fabrice finish their mad scientist plans, we are all going to be be drooling like it's our birthday :)

Best
-Pete

[Rob Bateman]

yes, i think pete got the gist of it right there

while we're on the subject of free access, i can't seem to open the demo link you sent for the pv3d example. The post is accessible, but another username and password is required for viewing the flash movie.

Just a suggestion, but maybe it would be better to let these out in the open? I find a 'live and let live' (or code and let code) attitude to be infinitely more productive than a paranoid 'lock the doors, seal the windows' type approach. ;)


atb


Rob

[Adam Watson]

Hi Pete,

> Sorry about any miscommunication.

Not a problem! Email can have this way of clouding intent across
languages, sometimes...

> That code has crashed my machine

Gotcha... it all makes sense now. Thanks for the heads-up.

> Also I would love to know why the new player doesn't like some code...

Me too. I haven't had any major crashes yet, but I have heard one other
report of a crash with my demo.

Cheers,
A