Bernard,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bernard.Dupuis
> Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 12:12 AM
>
> I have split the data into three layers:one for flat roof,
> one for hip roof, one for gable roof.
> For each layer I change the Defaultstructures.vtst (each time
> with only one roof type) , restarting vtbuilder every time :

Interesting approach!  I had not considered it could be used that way, and
in fact it is not quite designed that way (yet)

> it works for the flat roofs
> for the hip roof, it's ok in vtbuilder but in Enviro, the
> footprints with only four vertex are flat (it only works for
> footprints with more than 4 vertex)

The data is the same internally in VTBuilder and Enviro, so the Building
Dialog should show the same thing in both programs.  However, the issue with
4 vertex footprints is unexpected.  If you could send me some test data
directly, i would be happy to look into it.

> for the gable roof,
> vtbuilder cannot see the gable roof type specified in the
> defaultstructures (in buildings properties), so all the
> footprints are flat

The code in VTBuilder simply copies the angles from the default building
roof's first angle.  So, this will work for flat (all 0 degrees) and hip
(all N degrees).  Gable is more complex; it would require some intelligent
algorithm to guess which sides have angle 90 degrees, and which are sloped.

-Ben

Hmmm,

>
> > it works for the flat roofs
> > for the hip roof, it's ok in vtbuilder but in Enviro, the
> > footprints with only four vertex are flat (it only works for
> > footprints with more than 4 vertex)
>

Roofs with 4 or less vertices are built using the original algorithm, ones
with 5 or more are built with Felkel. Could be something in that area Ben,

Roger

Hi all!

Some time ago I posted this thread:

----------------
Has anyone implemented a routine to load Utilities (Transmission
Lines)? I tried to import a point shapefile to the Utilities section
but VTBuilder just shows an 'Untitled.utl0 layer', later I read in the
VTP website that it is functionality to be implemented in the future.
So, if someone has achieved this or knows another software with this
feature please tell me!
----------------

I didn't receive an answer, but now in the VTP Development Log in the
most recent update I read that vtTerrain allows to set plants,
structures and abstract layers directly from memory instead of loading
from disk, what does this mean?

Thanks!

Cutberto

Hi all!

I'm trying to add some electrical transmission towers in enviro. save
their location in a vsts file using "Save Built Structures As" (an
error occurs here and Enviro crashes), then I set the file as a
structure file, but when I open the terrain in Enviro, it doesn´t
render the transmission lines.

Does anyone knows how to save the transmission lines added manually to Enviro?

Thanks!

Cutberto

-----------------------------------

Here is a modified file I'm working with:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<StructureCollection xmlns="http://www.openplans.net"
					  xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml"
					  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
					  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openplans.net/buildings.xsd">

	 <gml:boundedBy>
		 <gml:Box>
			 <gml:coordinates>1000000000.000000000,1000000000.000000000
-1000000000.000000000,-1000000000.000000000</gml:coordinates>
		 </gml:Box>
	 </gml:boundedBy>

	 <SRS>PROJCS["UTM Zone 14, Northern
Hemisphere",GEOGCS["WGS_1984",DATUM["WGS_1984",SPHEROID["WGS
84",6378137,298.2572235630016],TOWGS84[0,0,0,0,0,0,0]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],UNI\
T["degree",0.0174532925199433]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["lat\
itude_of_origin",0],PARAMETER["central_meridian",-99],PARAMETER["scale_factor",0\
.9996],PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],UNIT["met\
ers",1]]</SRS>

	 <Linear>
		 <Path>
			 <gml:coordinates>655669.2117492268466.35334
655743.9821252268281.67276 655837.4451842268072.09145
656459.2524212267051.17627 657771.1602222264099.55766
658305.4199742262926.78053 659456.3512452260369.41913
659810.0087332259591.60309 660029.5163952258940.09245
660341.8886122258339.44796 660488.0680042258069.27539
661141.9076922256571.37081 662736.7971632252990.84956
664727.5761312248530.12421 667593.5505682242093.93715
656459.2524212267051.17627</gml:coordinates>
		 </Path>
		 <Posts Type="wood" Spacing="2.50" Height="10.20" Size="0.13,0.13" />
		 <Connect Type="wire" Top="11.10" Bottom="9.50" />
	 </Linear>
</StructureCollection>


This is the output of Enviro when I try to save the transmission lines:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<StructureCollection xmlns="http://www.openplans.net"
					  xmlns:gml="http://www.opengis.net/gml"
					  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
					  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
					  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openplans.net/buildings.xsd">

	 <gml:boundedBy>
		 <gml:Box>
			 <gml:coordinates>1000000000.000000000,1000000000.000000000
-1000000000.000000000,-1000000000.000000000</gml:coordinates>
		 </gml:Box>
	 </gml:boundedBy>

	 <SRS>PROJCS["UTM Zone 14, Northern
Hemisphere",GEOGCS["WGS_1984",DATUM["WGS_1984",SPHEROID["WGS
84",6378137,298.2572235630016],TOWGS84[0,0,0,0,0,0,0]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0],UNI\
T["degree",0.0174532925199433]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["lat\
itude_of_origin",0],PARAMETER["central_meridian",-99],PARAMETER["scale_factor",0\
.9996],PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],UNIT["met\
ers",1]]</SRS>

	 <Linear>
		 <Path>
			 <gml:coordinates></gml:coordinates>
		 </Path>
		 <Posts Type="wood" Spacing="2.50" Height="1.20" Size="0.13,0.13" />
		 <Connect Type="wire" Top="1.10" Bottom="0.50" />
	 </Linear>
	 <Linear>
		 <Path>
			 <gml:coordinates></gml:coordinates>
		 </Path>
		 <Posts Type="wood" Spacing="2.50" Height="1.20" Size="0.13,0.13" />
		 <Connect Type="wire" Top="1.10" Bottom="0.50" />
	 </Linear>
	 <Linear>
		 <Path>
			 <gml:coordinates></gml:coordinates>
		 </Path>
		 <Posts Type="wood" Spacing="2.50" Height="1.20" Size="0.13,0.13" />
		 <Connect Type="wire" Top="1.10" Bottom="0.50" />
	 </Linear>
	 <Linear>
		 <Path>
			 <gml:coordinates></gml:coordinates>
		 </Path>
		 <Posts Type="wood" Spacing="2.50" Height="1.20" Size="0.13,0.13" />
		 <Connect Type="wire" Top="1.10" Bottom="0.50" />
	 </Linear>
</StructureCollection>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cutberto Uriel Paredes Hernandez
> Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 5:42 AM
>
> Some time ago I posted this thread:
> ----------------
> Has anyone implemented a routine to load Utilities
> (Transmission Lines)? [..]
> I didn't receive an answer

It seems that there is no file format to represent a utility network, and
nobody is yet working on it.

As i've mentioned, from what i can tell, the giant utility companies
worldwide have traditional CAD/GIS-based encodings, e.g. elaborate,
proprietary schemas implemented in e.g. ESRI geodatabases.  There does not
appear to be any representation which is Open or scales down to simpler
cases.

> but now in the VTP Development
> Log in the most recent update I read that vtTerrain allows to
> set plants, structures and abstract layers directly from
> memory instead of loading from disk, what does this mean?

This means that if a vtlib-based program has data for these layers, it can
create them as components of a vtTerrain, without having to write to disk
(VF/VTST/SHP etc.)

This already applies to transmission lines.  Any application written with
vtlib can create utility structures (as Enviro does.)  There is no file
format to save them to.

-Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cutberto Uriel Paredes Hernández
> Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 9:36 AM
>
> I'm trying to add some electrical transmission towers in
> enviro. save their location in a vsts file using "Save Built
> Structures As"

This should work, but it is definitely isn't ideal.  Things such as catenary
placement will be missing.

> (an error occurs here and Enviro crashes),

There should not be any crash.  If you could send me the debug.txt that
results after the crash, i should be able to help troubleshoot the problem.

> Does anyone knows how to save the transmission lines added
> manually to Enviro?

There is not yet a file format for transmission lines.

-Ben

Hi Ben!

Where can I find and extrar the towers and poles used in Enviro? I
would like to use them in a third party application.

Thanks

Cutberto

> Where can I find and extrar the towers and poles used in
> Enviro? I would like to use them in a third party application.

They are in Culture/UtilityStructures on your Data path.
The structures are described in the content file (common_content.vtco on
your Data path) with their names, type, scale and wire information.

-Ben

Thank you Ben! Is there a way to extract them as 3d files? 3ds, png,
dfx or any other format.

Thanks again

On 4/7/06, Ben Discoe <ben@...> wrote:
> > Where can I find and extrar the towers and poles used in
> > Enviro? I would like to use them in a third party application.
>
> They are in Culture/UtilityStructures on your Data path.
> The structures are described in the content file (common_content.vtco on
> your Data path) with their names, type, scale and wire information.
>
> -Ben
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Cutberto,

Both 3DS and OBJ are very old formats - they have been around for almost 20
years.  There are many conversion programs out there to convert between OBJ,
3DS, DXF etc.

-Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cutberto Uriel Paredes Hernández
> Sent: Friday, April 07, 2006 1:18 PM
> To: vtp@yahoogroups.com
>
> Thank you Ben! Is there a way to extract them as 3d files?
> 3ds, png, dfx or any other format.
>
> On 4/7/06, Ben Discoe <ben@...> wrote:
> > They are in Culture/UtilityStructures on your Data path.
> > The structures are described in the content file
> (common_content.vtco
> > on your Data path) with their names, type, scale and wire
> information.

Hi Folks,

I have the following problem to solve.

I want to load some real world terrain data, its UTM and currently is
a bunch of points with height data attached. using arcGIS i can export
it in a number of formats like GeoTIFF.

I want to write a vc++ program which will load the data and compute
the intersection of a ray ant the terrain.

Cheers

-Al
NZ

Al,

There is a method in the VTP software to do what you describe
(vtHeightFieldGrid3d::CastRayToSurface), although it is perhaps 0.001% of
what the whole VTP software does. :)

-Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: agra1_nz
> Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2006 10:04 PM
> To: vtp@yahoogroups.com
>
> I want to load some real world terrain data, its UTM and
> currently is a bunch of points with height data attached.
> using arcGIS i can export it in a number of formats like GeoTIFF.
>
> I want to write a vc++ program which will load the data and
> compute the intersection of a ray ant the terrain.

Yes, but unfortunately I have not found any other c++ libraries that do
this, so your software maybe just what I want!!!

Do you have msn?

Cheers

-Al


-----Original Message-----
From: vtp@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vtp@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ben
Discoe
Sent: Monday, 10 April 2006 8:09 a.m.
To: vtp@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [vtp] Is this what VTP does?

Al,

There is a method in the VTP software to do what you describe
(vtHeightFieldGrid3d::CastRayToSurface), although it is perhaps 0.001% of
what the whole VTP software does. :)

-Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: agra1_nz
> Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2006 10:04 PM
> To: vtp@yahoogroups.com
>
> I want to load some real world terrain data, its UTM and
> currently is a bunch of points with height data attached.
> using arcGIS i can export it in a number of formats like GeoTIFF.
>
> I want to write a vc++ program which will load the data and
> compute the intersection of a ray ant the terrain.




Yahoo! Groups Links

Bernard,

I have addressed the roof issue in a number of ways.

1. The problem you were seeing with some hip roofs not appearing was due to
the roof height being 0, due to only copying angles from the default
structure.  I have fixed this case.

2. I've extended the Structure Import dialog so that you can specific a roof
type for the all the buildings directly (flat, shed, gable, hip).

3. Also extended that dialog to allow mapping a SHP attribute to roof type.
A text field can contain "flat", "shed", "gable", or "hip".

It can also contain "plat", "hangar", "pignon", or "arete". :)
I noticed you were using 'arete', although various online references seem to
translate "hip roof" as "toit en croupe" or "toit à quatre pentes".

These changes will be in the next release.

-Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bernard.Dupuis [mailto:Bernard.Dupuis@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 10:05 PM
> Subject: Re: [vtp] buildings roofs
>
> Ben
>
> Many thanks for the answer, and the dynamism of the list!
> attached are test data for the hip roofs ( those which are
> appearing correctly in VTbuilder, but flat in Enviro when
> there are only four vertex. (with defaultstructures.vtst
> used, dem and shape file for the structures)
> can there be a solution in the next version ??
> thanks
> Bernard
> --
> Bernard DUPUIS
> CRENAM UMR 5600 CNRS
> 6 Rue Basse des Rives
> 42023 Saint-Etienne cedex

many thanks

Bernard

Ben Discoe a écrit :

>Bernard,
>
>I have addressed the roof issue in a number of ways.
>
>1. The problem you were seeing with some hip roofs not appearing was due to
>the roof height being 0, due to only copying angles from the default
>structure.  I have fixed this case.
>
>2. I've extended the Structure Import dialog so that you can specific a roof
>type for the all the buildings directly (flat, shed, gable, hip).
>
>3. Also extended that dialog to allow mapping a SHP attribute to roof type.
>A text field can contain "flat", "shed", "gable", or "hip".
>
>It can also contain "plat", "hangar", "pignon", or "arete". :)
>I noticed you were using 'arete', although various online references seem to
>translate "hip roof" as "toit en croupe" or "toit à quatre pentes".
>
>These changes will be in the next release.
>
>-Ben
>
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Bernard.Dupuis [mailto:Bernard.Dupuis@...]
>>Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 10:05 PM
>>Subject: Re: [vtp] buildings roofs
>>
>>Ben
>>
>>Many thanks for the answer, and the dynamism of the list!
>>attached are test data for the hip roofs ( those which are
>>appearing correctly in VTbuilder, but flat in Enviro when
>>there are only four vertex. (with defaultstructures.vtst
>>used, dem and shape file for the structures)
>>can there be a solution in the next version ??
>>thanks
>>Bernard
>>--
>>Bernard DUPUIS
>>CRENAM UMR 5600 CNRS
>>6 Rue Basse des Rives
>>42023 Saint-Etienne cedex
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

--
Bernard DUPUIS
CRENAM UMR 5600 CNRS
6 Rue Basse des Rives
42023 Saint-Etienne cedex
Tel: 04 77 42 19 20
dupuis@...

Hello,

I am wondering how I can use vtp in my existing application. I am
using Ogre 3D engine (http://www.ogre3d.org/). I think that I can use
vtdata and replace functionality of vtlib. But maybe it is possible to
build my modifications on top of vtlib instead of not using vtlib at all.

The way I see it is that vtp loads all the data and generates meshes
and CLOD. I take mesh information and convert it into Ogre format for
rendering. This way I would only need to rewrite rendering portions.

Another way would be to create an vtp application which saves loaded
data into format that Ogre can read. After that I would only need to
create Dynamic Terrain module for Ogre.

Yet another option would be to change my application to OSG.

Any ideas or comments? Did anyone try to use vtp with other 3D
engines, like Irrlicht (irrlicht.sf.net)?

Thanks.

Hi,

i think you can use both ogre3d and vtlib in the same application.

i ve also used in my app vtlib and my own 3d engine.

I ve used vtlib to render terrain and added stuff from my own
using custom classes derived from vtDynGeom

You can also replace some portion of the existing vtlib but what
is exactly your goal ?

Nico


======= le 12/04/2006, 00:30:53 vous écriviez: =======

>Hello,
>
>I am wondering how I can use vtp in my existing application. I am
>using Ogre 3D engine (http://www.ogre3d.org/). I think that I can use
>vtdata and replace functionality of vtlib. But maybe it is possible to
>build my modifications on top of vtlib instead of not using vtlib at all.
>
>The way I see it is that vtp loads all the data and generates meshes
>and CLOD. I take mesh information and convert it into Ogre format for
>rendering. This way I would only need to rewrite rendering portions.
>
>Another way would be to create an vtp application which saves loaded
>data into format that Ogre can read. After that I would only need to
>create Dynamic Terrain module for Ogre.
>
>Yet another option would be to change my application to OSG.
>
>Any ideas or comments? Did anyone try to use vtp with other 3D
>engines, like Irrlicht (irrlicht.sf.net)?
>
>Thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

= = = = = = = = = ========= = = = = = = = = = =

vm.games
contact@...
12/04/2006

Hi,

i currently downloading from the internet some pictures (webcams) and displays
them into my application.

as image i graabed from the net are not pow of 2 sized, i scale it with an
external program before sending them to the GPU (texture)

i was wondering if i could use a part of the vtlib rather than my external exe
to :

read a jpg file
scale it to a pow of 2 size
write it to another jpg file (i have to keep it on the disk)

I ve looked at  vtDIB and vtImage source but cant find how to

read/write/scale at the same time

(it seems that vtDIB can read/write but not scale and   vtImage but read/scale
but not write.. )

Nico

salut,

i am currently porting vtlib to using OpenSG. There is a member inside
osg::Image to scale images to an arbitrary size, there's even a dedicated
member for scaling both dims to ^2. i am not this familiar with
openscenegraph, but maybe there's something similar. it would be a good
idea to provide members for this inside vtImage, ie. to extend vtImage. I
will need to have this functionality as well in the future without going
through vtDIB.. as for the opensg part, i could take care of that - it is
only a few lines of code.

- Martin

Am 12.04.2006, 13:07 Uhr, schrieb vm.games <contact@...>:

> Hi,
>
> i currently downloading from the internet some pictures (webcams) and
> displays them into my application.
>
> as image i graabed from the net are not pow of 2 sized, i scale it with
> an external program before sending them to the GPU (texture)
>
> i was wondering if i could use a part of the vtlib rather than my
> external exe to :
>
> read a jpg file
> scale it to a pow of 2 size
> write it to another jpg file (i have to keep it on the disk)
>
> I ve looked at  vtDIB and vtImage source but cant find how to
>
> read/write/scale at the same time
>
> (it seems that vtDIB can read/write but not scale and   vtImage but
> read/scale but not write.. )
>
> Nico
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Nico and Martin,

Indeed, scaling isn't the trouble.  Because vtImage is subclassed from
osg::Image, Nico can simply do this to scale:
	 image->scaleImage(X, Y..)

However, as he points out, vtImage doesn't expose 'write' methods, so he
would have to use the (complicated) OSG functions for writing the Image to
disk.

That should be doable, but in the future i'll look at exposing 'write'
methods in vtImage so this SG-specific code can be avoided.

Also, i am curious why it has to be kept on the disk?  If the purpose is to
put these images into the 3D scene, all that is needed is the vtImage.

-Ben

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Martin Witzel
>
> There is a
> member inside osg::Image to scale images to an arbitrary
> size. i am not this familiar with openscenegraph, but maybe
> there's something similar.
>
> Am 12.04.2006, 13:07 Uhr, schrieb vm.games <contact@...>:
>
> > as image i graabed from the net are not pow of 2 sized, i scale it
> > with an external program before sending them to the GPU (texture)
> >
> > i was wondering if i could use a part of the vtlib rather than my
> > external exe to :
> >
> > read a jpg file
> > scale it to a pow of 2 size
> > write it to another jpg file (i have to keep it on the disk)

Ben,


>Also, i am curious why it has to be kept on the disk?  If the purpose is to
>put these images into the 3D scene, all that is needed is the vtImage.
>

dealing with webcams is diffuclt, because url of images may change and sometimes
for
various reasons the download fails (or  take a long time ) so i prefer keep
images on the disk so when the user restart the app he s got the old image ,
it is still better that a blank space or a loading message ..

Nico


======= le 12/04/2006, 14:10:31 vous écriviez: =======

>Nico and Martin,
>
>Indeed, scaling isn't the trouble.  Because vtImage is subclassed from
>osg::Image, Nico can simply do this to scale:
> image->scaleImage(X, Y..)
>
>However, as he points out, vtImage doesn't expose 'write' methods, so he
>would have to use the (complicated) OSG functions for writing the Image to
>disk.
>
>That should be doable, but in the future i'll look at exposing 'write'
>methods in vtImage so this SG-specific code can be avoided.
>
>Also, i am curious why it has to be kept on the disk?  If the purpose is to
>put these images into the 3D scene, all that is needed is the vtImage.
>
>-Ben
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Martin Witzel
>>
>> There is a
>> member inside osg::Image to scale images to an arbitrary
>> size. i am not this familiar with openscenegraph, but maybe
>> there's something similar.
>>
>> Am 12.04.2006, 13:07 Uhr, schrieb vm.games <contact@...>:
>>
>> > as image i graabed from the net are not pow of 2 sized, i scale it
>> > with an external program before sending them to the GPU (texture)
>> >
>> > i was wondering if i could use a part of the vtlib rather than my
>> > external exe to :
>> >
>> > read a jpg file
>> > scale it to a pow of 2 size
>> > write it to another jpg file (i have to keep it on the disk)
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

= = = = = = = = = ========= = = = = = = = = = =

vm.games
contact@...
12/04/2006

Thanks, Nico!

I would like to have terrain with roads and buildings. I also would
like to use real world data for terrain and roads. vtlib already does
just that. I already display terrain using Ogre. But vtlib is using
OSG. I do not want to reinvent the wheel and now I am trying to find
out what is the easiest solution for me. The first solution is to use
vtdata which does not depend on OSG (if I understand correctly), but
then I would have to redo some vtlib functionality. The second
solution would be to redo my application to use OSG (redo what I have
already done). The third solution would be to understand how vtlib
depends on OSG and connect it to my application. The third solution
requires more planning but less "redoing". That is why I am asking
questions :).

It looks like you were using vtlib as the platform and than added your
stuff on top of it. I would like to do the opposite. Use my stuff as
the base and use parts of vtlib.

The way I see it (or want to see it) is that I find a class that have
all the geomtery (maybe it is vtMesh or vtGeom) and extract the
information from it. In order to do that I would need to see how vtlib
depends on OSG. Inheritance diagram in the documentation does not show
anything related to OSG, which makes me think that it is very well
encapsulated. But I am not familiar with OSG so it is hard for me to
see how OSG is used.

Thanks.

--- In vtp@yahoogroups.com, "vm.games" <contact@...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> i think you can use both ogre3d and vtlib in the same application.
>
> i ve also used in my app vtlib and my own 3d engine.
>
> I ve used vtlib to render terrain and added stuff from my own
> using custom classes derived from vtDynGeom
>
> You can also replace some portion of the existing vtlib but what
> is exactly your goal ?
>
> Nico

Hi Ben and VTP Users

I have update latest CVS and there is a mismatch with minilib 6.83a. I have
downloaded mini 6.9 but not compile at all. Which is the correct version?

Thanks

Carlo


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Carlo,

> I have update latest CVS and there is a mismatch with minilib
> 6.83a. I have downloaded mini 6.9 but not compile at all.
> Which is the correct version?

In CVS, we moved up to mini 7.x (as noted in VTP changelog).  In fact,
Stefan just released 7.1, which i see isn't uploaded to stereofx.org yet (it
still has 7.0).  You can grab it from here
(http://vterrain.org/dist/MINI-7.1.zip), it is so new that even i haven't
tried it :)

-Ben

Thank you very much


2006/4/13, Ben Discoe <ben@...>:
>
> Carlo,
>
> > I have update latest CVS and there is a mismatch with minilib
> > 6.83a. I have downloaded mini 6.9 but not compile at all.
> > Which is the correct version?
>
> In CVS, we moved up to mini 7.x (as noted in VTP changelog).  In fact,
> Stefan just released 7.1, which i see isn't uploaded to stereofx.org yet
> (it
> still has 7.0).  You can grab it from here
> (http://vterrain.org/dist/MINI-7.1.zip), it is so new that even i haven't
> tried it :)
>
> -Ben
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

> -----
> From: olexander_shyrokov
> Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 6:02 PM
> To: vtp@yahoogroups.com
>
> Ogre. But vtlib is using OSG. [..]
> The first solution is to use vtdata which
> does not depend on OSG (if I understand correctly), but then
> I would have to redo some vtlib functionality. The second
> solution would be to redo my application to use OSG (redo
> what I have already done). The third solution would be to
> understand how vtlib depends on OSG and connect it to my
> application.

That sounds correct - those are pretty much the options.  Another option is
to port vtlib to Ogre, which is probably not the simple solution you are
looking for :)  On the other other hand, it may not be too difficult either.

> The way I see it (or want to see it) is that I find a class
> that have all the geometry (maybe it is vtMesh or vtGeom) and
> extract the information from it. In order to do that I would
> need to see how vtlib depends on OSG.

Perhaps not - the OSG-specific implementation code won't tell you much
unless you are already a very experienced OSG developer.  The vtlib
documentation deliberately does not describe the SG-specific aspects,
because the purpose of vtlib is to abstract away from the need to learn any
SG library.

You can extract the information from e.g. vtMesh, vtGeom using their regular
methods, without needing to know OSG.  But, with that approach, OSG is still
present (underneath), so this is not a clean way.

> which makes me think that it is very well encapsulated.

Exactly, encapsulation is a design goal, thank you :)

-Ben

Hi,

I draw some elements on my terrain with blending and alpha channel   ,
including the terrain itself, because i would like the terrain to fade with my
background at the boundaries(to avoid the 'square' looking of the terrain ),

i ve modified the nc nally terrain source (SMTerrain.h/cpp) file to and an alpha
channel


unsigned char *m_pAlpha1;

#define send_vertex(index) glColor4ub(255,255,255,m_pAlpha1[index]);\
		 glVertex3f((float)(index%m_iDim), m_pData[index], (float)(index / m_iDim))


but i need to draw some stuff before the terrain , so i want to know if i can
control the order things are
drawn in the scene ?

i need to do this :

draw my own sky/background elements
draw the terrain with alpha
draw some elements (<-- I also need to control rendering order here because some
elements are drawn with alpha/blending)


I havent been  so deeper into the vtlib / osg to understand how i can do this so
any help would be appreciated :)


Nico

>
> but i need to draw some stuff before the terrain , so i want to know if i
> can control the order things are
> drawn in the scene ?
>

Rendering order in vtp is controlled by the scene graph. If you are using
OSG as the scene graph, then this is governed by the render bin into which
each drawable is put during the cull pass. In normal use vtp will only use
two render bins, an opaque bin and a transparent bin. These are set up such
that contents of the transparent bin are drawn after the contents of the
opaque bin. Within a bin the order of rendering is controlled by the bins
sort order, the opaque bin is sorted to optimise state changes, the
transparent bin is sorted according to depth.

Which bin is used is controlled by the rendering hint element of the
stateset of a node in the graph. The only time vtp uses this is in
vtMaterial::SetTransparent where the transparent bin is selected for nodes
with transparent materials.

Roger

I have uploaded a new VTP release.

For people who installed from the Windows installers, you can un-
install and re-install from the download folder.

For people who installed from the zip files, you can simply grab
executables from:
    http://vterrain.org/dist/vtp-apps-bin-060415.zip

The major news is that paging tilesets are greatly improved.  Image
tilesets are written as compressed textures, which page faster at
runtime for a much smoother experience.  In testing, they have loaded
around 5x faster.  With this progress, tilesets have moved from alpha
to beta quality.

Enviro:
   Layer dialog: exposed abstract layers and vegetation, added icons to
layers.

VTBuilder:
   Expanded structure import dialog to support roof types.
   Saving of elevation tilesets to .db.
   Saving of image tilesets to .db as compressed textures.
   Enabled cancel during generation of image tilesets.
   Visual feedback snapshots of tiles being compressed.
   Import of 16-bit TIFs as Elevation layers, other bit depths as Image
layers.

CManager:
   Rotate Model command, to help with Z-up vs. Y-up coordinate issues.
   Explicit export of models to .osg/.ive.
   Fixed rotation of models saved to .osg/.ive.
   Wireframe toggle.

For developers, the news is that we've moved up to libMini 7.1.  Also,
vtTerrain now allows you to set plants, structures and abstract layers
directly from memory instead of loading from disk.

For a complete list of what's changed at the code level, please see
the ChangeLog (http://vterrain.org/Implementation/ChangeLog/)

-Ben

Nico,

Everything that Roger said about OSG and RenderBins is good to know, and
it's worth learning about that if you will be doing very complex multi-pass
rendering.

However, perhaps i can help you through it without having to get too deep
into OSG.

> i need to do this :
>
> draw my own sky/background elements
> draw the terrain with alpha
> draw some elements (<-- I also need to control rendering
> order here because some elements are drawn with alpha/blending)

Re: sky/background, do you have some improvements to share?  I am curious
because the VTP sky model is reasonably complex - we do textured sky, time
of day colors, sun, moon, stars, sunsets, etc.  Does your sky/background
have some features you need which the VTP doesn't yet have?

Re: controlling the rendering order of elements.  As Roger said, if you use
any transparent vtMaterial on your elements, then they will automatically be
drawn as a separate pass.  This is the simplest way to handle it.

-Ben