Hello EveryOne,

Four Dimension Technologies has created a tutorial  / step-by-step
procedure for creating ARC ASCII DEM files from AutoCAD Map /
Land Development Desktop for use in WCS as a pre-gridded DEM.
This provides a easy and fast solution for AutoCAD users to bring
in their DEM and other data into WCS without having to use the
painfully slow gridder in WCS.

The full tutorial can be found at the following URL:

http://www.4d-technologies.com/services/autocad2wcs.htm

As part of this procedure, we have also created a freeware
AutoCAD application called WriteDEM.VLX (for the AutoCAD 2000
platform) and WriteDEM.ARX ( for the Release 14 platform - we
know a number of people who are still using R14 ) which can be
downloaded from the above page.

All comments, bug reports (if any) and feedback of any kind,
requests for new programs, tips, procedures for AutoCAD data
transfer to WCS are most welcome.

We look forward to hearing from you, WCS users, for valuable
inputs so that we can add more value to our tutorials, refine them
and provide some more useful tools and procedures that we may
have overlooked or those that we did not add simply because we
did not have a need for. You can tell us what you need and we
could add them too.

Regards
Rakesh

Four Dimension Technologies, Singapore/Bangalore
Advanced AutoCAD customization for GIS/Mapping/AEC/CAD

Web: http://www.4d-technologies.com
TechCenter : http://www.4d-technologies.com/techcenter
Work Smarter, Get GeoTools @ http://www.4d-technologies.com/geotools
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Finally going to order a new machine; I have one last
question.

I have the option of getting a Wildcat II 5110 video card,
or an Nvidia Quadro2 Pro card. The Wildcat is $1600 more. Is
it worth it, or should I get more storage or memory
(Currently 2Gb memory)?

--
Erik Schlichting

Eric,

From my experience with the Wildcat 5110, it just isn't worth the extra
bucks. You honestly won't notice enough of a difference in most projects to
warrant the extra expense.

I would go for the NVidia based card, more storage space and more memory,
and have some cash left over :)

Best regards

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From: erik schlichting [mailto:eriks@...]
> Sent: 01 October 2001 14:40
> To: World Construction Set
> Subject: [WCS] Video processor question
>
>
> Finally going to order a new machine; I have one last
> question.
>
> I have the option of getting a Wildcat II 5110 video card,
> or an Nvidia Quadro2 Pro card. The Wildcat is $1600 more. Is
> it worth it, or should I get more storage or memory
> (Currently 2Gb memory)?
>
> --
> Erik Schlichting
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
> Subscribe/UnSubscribe, Online Archives:
> http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/wcsml/
>
>
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>
>
>

pajones@... wrote:

> Adam
> Out of interest, did you/have you heard anything back regarding the
> inter cloud shading issue? Just curious.


    We're investigating it right now. More info when available.

> Phil

Chris - Xenon
--
   Chris Hanson | Xenon@... | I've got friends in low latitudes!
          New WCS 5 Demo Version!     http://www.3DNature.com/demo/
   "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to Exist." - Xen

Well, now they've made another card available.

Nvidia Quadro2 Pro, or a Fire GL2 for a more reasonable $250
more?

--
Erik Schlichting

Hi All,

I am making fractal depth maps for an animation that is 2611 frames
long.  The camera is 515 meters off the ground and the pitch is 50 so
its not looking too far ahead and only sees 3-4 DEMs at any one
time.  My problem is that when I go to make my fractal depth maps it
runs through more DEMs than I think it should.  In the status window
it says DEM 1/10 up to DEM 70/70.  This takes a very long time.  I
have done such animations many times and it usually only looks at 3-4
DEMs per fractal depth map.

Any ideas why its looking at so many and thus taking so long?

Thanks,

Chip

3D Nature is pleased to announced 3D Nature Academy 2002.

This session will cover both World Construction Set and Visual Nature
Studio.

For more information on this five day hands-on training session with WCS
and VNS visit our web site at http://www.3DNature.com/training.html

We are offering an discount for early registration (and this class fills
quickly) so act now.

I look forward to seeing you at the beautiful Peaceful Valley Ranch this
spring!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Mindy
--
Mindy K. Bieging, Sales and Marketing Manager, 3D Nature

     Mindy@...             (303) 659-4028 x 0

New! World Construction Set 5 Demo Version - www.3DNature.com

wkogelmann@... wrote:

> Hi All,
> I am making fractal depth maps for an animation that is 2611 frames
> long.  The camera is 515 meters off the ground and the pitch is 50 so
> its not looking too far ahead and only sees 3-4 DEMs at any one
> time.  My problem is that when I go to make my fractal depth maps it
> runs through more DEMs than I think it should.  In the status window
> it says DEM 1/10 up to DEM 70/70.  This takes a very long time.  I
> have done such animations many times and it usually only looks at 3-4
> DEMs per fractal depth map.
> Any ideas why its looking at so many and thus taking so long?


    It's always conservative, and can't always determine that a given DEM
doesn't need to be considered.

    That being said, make sure you don't have any enabled render jobs with
cameras that you're not using. It considers cameras in all enabled jobs
when making Fractal Depth Maps.

> Thanks,
> Chip

Chris - Xenon
--
   Chris Hanson | Xenon@... | I've got friends in low latitudes!
          New WCS 5 Demo Version!     http://www.3DNature.com/demo/
   "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to Exist." - Xen

Chip,

Do you have only one render job enabled (that being the one with your animated
camera
and the appropriate render options for your output frames)?

Remember that WCS will calculate FDMs based on all enabled render jobs, so if
you
have a planimetric camera-based render job enabled, where the planimetric camera
"sees" the entire 70 DEMs, your FDMs will cover all 70 DEMs.

Otherwise, consider that although the camera may see only 3 or 4 DEMs for a
given
frame, it could be possible that over the course of your animation it sees 70
DEMs.
If this is the case, I suggest you disable the DEMs you know the camera won't
see for
the entire animation and then generate FDMs.

Ahoy,
Zack

wkogelmann@... wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> I am making fractal depth maps for an animation that is 2611 frames
> long.  The camera is 515 meters off the ground and the pitch is 50 so
> its not looking too far ahead and only sees 3-4 DEMs at any one
> time.  My problem is that when I go to make my fractal depth maps it
> runs through more DEMs than I think it should.  In the status window
> it says DEM 1/10 up to DEM 70/70.  This takes a very long time.  I
> have done such animations many times and it usually only looks at 3-4
> DEMs per fractal depth map.
>
> Any ideas why its looking at so many and thus taking so long?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Chip
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subscribe/UnSubscribe, Online Archives: 
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>
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--
--------------------------------

James A. Zack
Xtra-Spatial Productions, LLC
1401 Walnut
Suite F
Boulder, CO 80302-5300
303-359-3799 (voice)
303-443-4856 (fax)
--------------------------------

My company is looking for freelance animators in our area* who
are experienced in using WCS, and, potentially, available to do
project work for us.

*We're are actually based in St.Helena which is in Napa Valley
some 30 miles north of San Francisco, CA, but we consider
ourselves within the entire bay Area.

Robert L. Johnston
GRP
707-968-9121

We are also looking for people experienced in Maxon Cinema
4D and / or 3D Studio Max.

The new visualization product, Visual Nature Studio is now shipping.

If you placed a preorder, you will receive it by the end of this week.
If you have not yet placed your new or upgrade order, now is the time
visit http://www.3DNature.com

VNS is not WCS 6. WCS will continue to be supported and developed, VNS
is a new product line that focuses on the GIS Professional and the
features they need to improve workflow. For a detailed list of features
visit http://www.3DNature.com/vnsinfo.html

We look forward to seeing what you create with this new product!

Mindy
--
Mindy K. Bieging, Sales and Marketing Manager, 3D Nature

     Mindy@...             (303) 659-4028 x 0

New! World Construction Set 5 Demo Version - www.3DNature.com

I have 6 - Dual 1.7 xeon machines with 1.5 gig of Ram. I have a scene
that contains about 300 Meg of textures and is taking an average of
20 min a frame to render. The animation is 1000 frames.

Here is my question, When I fire up 2 copies of WCS on each machine,
they run great for a while - both copies crankin out at 20min a
frame. About 7 hours into rendering, I noticed that the frames are
taking about 1.2 hours a piece. - I set my machines to render in 100
frame groups - so the frame that is taking 1.2 hours contains the
same data as one that just took 20 min.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Mike

Hard to say without knowing more details about your scene. In
general, rendering time will increase wherever the Camera is looking
at more terrain/3D Object polygons and decrease wherever the Camera
is looking at fewer polygons.

You can render faster by increasing the polygons/pixel setting when
generating Fractal Depth Maps, decreasing Fractal Depth, using
Distance Dissolve for Image Object foliage, making sure foliage
density is not overdone, using 2D versions of textures where
possible, choosing texture types carefully, using additional
antialiasing only where necessary, etc.

Best Regards,
  -Jamie


dbsprometheus@... wrote:
>
> I have 6 - Dual 1.7 xeon machines with 1.5 gig of Ram. I have a scene
> that contains about 300 Meg of textures and is taking an average of
> 20 min a frame to render. The animation is 1000 frames.
>
> Here is my question, When I fire up 2 copies of WCS on each machine,
> they run great for a while - both copies crankin out at 20min a
> frame. About 7 hours into rendering, I noticed that the frames are
> taking about 1.2 hours a piece. - I set my machines to render in 100
> frame groups - so the frame that is taking 1.2 hours contains the
> same data as one that just took 20 min.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Subscribe/UnSubscribe, Online Archives: 
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/wcsml/
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Mike,

Have you got screen saver's set up on the machines?

Regards

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dbsprometheus@... [mailto:dbsprometheus@...]
> Sent: 03 October 2001 17:12
> To: wcsml@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [WCS] Rendering on Dual Processors - slow down after time
>
>
> I have 6 - Dual 1.7 xeon machines with 1.5 gig of Ram. I have a scene
> that contains about 300 Meg of textures and is taking an average of
> 20 min a frame to render. The animation is 1000 frames.
>
> Here is my question, When I fire up 2 copies of WCS on each machine,
> they run great for a while - both copies crankin out at 20min a
> frame. About 7 hours into rendering, I noticed that the frames are
> taking about 1.2 hours a piece. - I set my machines to render in 100
> frame groups - so the frame that is taking 1.2 hours contains the
> same data as one that just took 20 min.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
> Subscribe/UnSubscribe, Online Archives:
> http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/wcsml/
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>

dbsprometheus@... wrote:

> I have 6 - Dual 1.7 xeon machines with 1.5 gig of Ram. I have a scene
> that contains about 300 Meg of textures and is taking an average of
> 20 min a frame to render. The animation is 1000 frames.
>
> Here is my question, When I fire up 2 copies of WCS on each machine,
> they run great for a while - both copies crankin out at 20min a
> frame. About 7 hours into rendering, I noticed that the frames are
> taking about 1.2 hours a piece. - I set my machines to render in 100
> frame groups - so the frame that is taking 1.2 hours contains the
> same data as one that just took 20 min.
> Any ideas?


    Is the machine swapping? How much memory and pagefile are the WCS
applications
consuming? (You can check with Task Manager). Are you _sure_ the frames are
identical?

> Thanks
> Mike

Chris - Xenon
--
   Chris Hanson | Xenon@... | I've got friends in low latitudes!
          New WCS 5 Demo Version!     http://www.3DNature.com/demo/
   "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to Exist." - Xen

Yes the frames are identical - I am duplicating the problem now so I
can check the memory usage

--- In wcsml@y..., "Chris 'Xenon' Hanson" <xenon@3...> wrote:
> dbsprometheus@y... wrote:
>
> > I have 6 - Dual 1.7 xeon machines with 1.5 gig of Ram. I have a
scene
> > that contains about 300 Meg of textures and is taking an average
of
> > 20 min a frame to render. The animation is 1000 frames.
> >
> > Here is my question, When I fire up 2 copies of WCS on each
machine,
> > they run great for a while - both copies crankin out at 20min a
> > frame. About 7 hours into rendering, I noticed that the frames
are
> > taking about 1.2 hours a piece. - I set my machines to render in
100
> > frame groups - so the frame that is taking 1.2 hours contains the
> > same data as one that just took 20 min.
> > Any ideas?
>
>
>    Is the machine swapping? How much memory and pagefile are the
WCS applications
> consuming? (You can check with Task Manager). Are you _sure_ the
frames are
> identical?
>
> > Thanks
> > Mike
>
> Chris - Xenon
> --
>   Chris Hanson | Xenon@3... | I've got friends in low latitudes!
>          New WCS 5 Demo Version!     http://www.3DNature.com/demo/
>   "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to
Exist." - Xen

I have no screen savers set up on the machines - I do have power save
on the monitor enabled though - and the machine goes into locked mode
after a while

--- In wcsml@y..., "Adam Hauldren" <adam@N...> wrote:
> Mike,
>
> Have you got screen saver's set up on the machines?
>
> Regards
>
> Adam
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: dbsprometheus@y... [mailto:dbsprometheus@y...]
> > Sent: 03 October 2001 17:12
> > To: wcsml@y...
> > Subject: [WCS] Rendering on Dual Processors - slow down after time
> >
> >
> > I have 6 - Dual 1.7 xeon machines with 1.5 gig of Ram. I have a
scene
> > that contains about 300 Meg of textures and is taking an average
of
> > 20 min a frame to render. The animation is 1000 frames.
> >
> > Here is my question, When I fire up 2 copies of WCS on each
machine,
> > they run great for a while - both copies crankin out at 20min a
> > frame. About 7 hours into rendering, I noticed that the frames are
> > taking about 1.2 hours a piece. - I set my machines to render in
100
> > frame groups - so the frame that is taking 1.2 hours contains the
> > same data as one that just took 20 min.
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> > Mike
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > ---------
> > Subscribe/UnSubscribe, Online Archives:
> > http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/wcsml/
> >
> >
> > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
> >
> >
> >

I have read the long feature list of VNS, but I have also recognized the
lack of more precise information on some features.
Therefore I want to know more about the feature to extrude vectors to
houses.
Is it possible to extrude a rectangle or polygonal shaped vector of a house
and add a roof with a pediment ?
Can I add textures separetly to the walls and the roof ?
Are those houses integrate smoothly with the terrain without "flying
effects" ?
Would it be possible to extrude thousands of such houses plans without
eating up too much memory ?
Can I have several types of houses spread in the landscape controlled in
groups ?
What are the new Terrafffectors and what can they do in comparison to WCS's
one ?

If you can answer these questions with "yes", I will really consider an
upgrade from my WCS V5.

Kind Reagards
Gerald Sodl

Hi all,
I might need to call this one in, but for a long time I've gotten
around this in WCS. I'm encountering a zbuffer issue in the distant
mountians of my scenes that I render. The company that I work for
uses WCS to create simulations. Usually I work from DTED data, but in
the past year I've been creating the lands from just a flat mesh in
WCS. Well, I always use a planimetric camera to render an overhead
image and then re-import it back into WCS as a Dem.  I've wondered if
this is causing the mis-calculation with the zbuffer. Its only a
slight problem. For instance, if I have a vehicle and I move it up a
mountian and over the top it floats a little bit above the ground,
but the rest of the scene is fine. I'm also having an issue with the
clouds in that they are not showing up properly along the peaks of
the mountians. I was just wondering if there should be a set way that
I should set up the clouds in order to always guarantee a proper
reading in the zbuffer information. Any help would be much
appreciated, but of course this could be issues with our inhouse
software. And I have a whole team of programmers, but they're always
too busy to help the art side of the simulations.
Peace!
Taff Stephens

taffstephens@... wrote:

> Hi all,
> I might need to call this one in, but for a long time I've gotten
> around this in WCS. I'm encountering a zbuffer issue in the distant
> mountians of my scenes that I render. The company that I work for
> uses WCS to create simulations. Usually I work from DTED data, but in
> the past year I've been creating the lands from just a flat mesh in
> WCS. Well, I always use a planimetric camera to render an overhead
> image and then re-import it back into WCS as a Dem.  I've wondered if
> this is causing the mis-calculation with the zbuffer. Its only a
> slight problem. For instance, if I have a vehicle and I move it up a
> mountian and over the top it floats a little bit above the ground,
> but the rest of the scene is fine.


    Ok, I'm not quite sure how this is a Z-buffer issue. How are you
placing the vehicle? Is it set relative to ground?

> I'm also having an issue with the
> clouds in that they are not showing up properly along the peaks of
> the mountians.


    Maybe you could give us a better idea of what 'not showing up properly'
means. Do you have a small rendered example?

> I was just wondering if there should be a set way that
> I should set up the clouds in order to always guarantee a proper
> reading in the zbuffer information.


    Clouds should appear properly in the Z-buffer no matter what you do.

    Remember, our cloud planes bend with the curvature of the earth.

> Taff Stephens

Chris - Xenon
--
   Chris Hanson | Xenon@... | I've got friends in low latitudes!
          New WCS 5 Demo Version!     http://www.3DNature.com/demo/
   "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to Exist." - Xen

Office wrote:
> I have read the long feature list of VNS, but I have also recognized the
> lack of more precise information on some features.
> Therefore I want to know more about the feature to extrude vectors to
> houses.
> Is it possible to extrude a rectangle or polygonal shaped vector of a house
> and add a roof with a pediment ?

Roofs are flat and their edges line up with the walls. This is great
for creating very fast representations of buildings. If you want
fancier buildings (especially in the foreground for realism) you can
use 3D objects.


> Can I add textures separetly to the walls and the roof ?

Yes.


> Are those houses integrate smoothly with the terrain without "flying
> effects" ?

They are anchored by the Vectors to which they are attached.


> Would it be possible to extrude thousands of such houses plans without
> eating up too much memory ?

I don't know how much memory they require. They seem very efficient.


> Can I have several types of houses spread in the landscape controlled in
> groups ?

Each Wall Component can be set up as you like and attached to
multiple Vectors. So that's one way to do it.

Another way is to import 3D Objects, which can now automatically
align to Vectors (houses with different orientations toward curved
streets are now easy).


> What are the new Terrafffectors and what can they do in comparison to WCS's
> one ?

They have the same power as in WCS, but in VNS you can see them in
realtime OpenGL Views as you work with them.


> If you can answer these questions with "yes", I will really consider an
> upgrade from my WCS V5.

I think you'll like it. Among other great new features is the
amazing ability to import and combine data in multiple projections;
support for multiple user accounts; the ability to build projects
out of templates and automatically stay in sync with the templates
as they get updated; automatic synching to GIS databases; the
ability to drive parameters from GIS databases; stereo cameras; a
new, very fast Gridder; and the new Terrain Generator which
generates new terrain using all the power of the Texture Engine.

Plus you can fly around the terrain with a joystick. :^)

Best Regards,
  -Jamie

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jamie [mailto:Meta@...]
> Sent: 03 October 2001 22:55
> To: wcsml@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [WCS] VNS Features
>
>
>
> Office wrote:
> > I have read the long feature list of VNS, but I have also recognized the
> > lack of more precise information on some features.
> > Therefore I want to know more about the feature to extrude vectors to
> > houses.
> > Is it possible to extrude a rectangle or polygonal shaped
> vector of a house
> > and add a roof with a pediment ?
>
> Roofs are flat and their edges line up with the walls. This is great
> for creating very fast representations of buildings.

In addition, if you had GIS data (from Lidar or whatever) for tower block
heights, you could link the walls to your vectors dynamically through search
queries and have them "extruded" to the correct heights automatically.

> > Are those houses integrate smoothly with the terrain without "flying
> > effects" ?
>
> They are anchored by the Vectors to which they are attached.

Or they can be placed with exact geographic coordinates.
Either way, Jamie is correct - if rendered in VNS, all 3D objects are "part"
of the scene.

> > Would it be possible to extrude thousands of such houses plans without
> > eating up too much memory ?
>
> I don't know how much memory they require. They seem very efficient.

Test scene - 2620 vectors
Walls linked to all vectors dynamically
Plain diffuse color, no texturing

Render with walls - 71.6 Mb memory used, render time 1:12 seconds
Render without walls - 38 Mb memory used, render time 1:20 seconds

Second render was slower, since walls rendered quicker than the terrain they
were obscuring :)

> > Can I have several types of houses spread in the landscape controlled in
> > groups ?
>
> Each Wall Component can be set up as you like and attached to
> multiple Vectors. So that's one way to do it.

As I said before - you can dynamically link these together with search
queries, so if you label your vectors with attributes that define the type
of building, they can be linked automatically at render time to the correct
type of wall component. This is great if your GIS data base changes due to
zoning restrictions for example because the changes are reflected at render
time.

> > What are the new Terrafffectors and what can they do in
> comparison to WCS's one ?
>
> They have the same power as in WCS, but in VNS you can see them in
> realtime OpenGL Views as you work with them.

Which is waaaaaaay cool :)

> > If you can answer these questions with "yes", I will really consider an
> > upgrade from my WCS V5.
>
> I think you'll like it. Among other great new features is the
> amazing ability to import and combine data in multiple projections;
> support for multiple user accounts; the ability to build projects
> out of templates and automatically stay in sync with the templates
> as they get updated; automatic synching to GIS databases; the
> ability to drive parameters from GIS databases; stereo cameras; a
> new, very fast Gridder; and the new Terrain Generator which
> generates new terrain using all the power of the Texture Engine.
>
> Plus you can fly around the terrain with a joystick. :^)

And bump mapping ;)

Best regards

Adam

Adam Hauldren wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jamie [mailto:Meta@...]
> > Roofs are flat and their edges line up with the walls. This is great
> > for creating very fast representations of buildings.
>
> In addition, if you had GIS data (from Lidar or whatever) for tower block
> heights, you could link the walls to your vectors dynamically through search
> queries and have them "extruded" to the correct heights automatically.

You could accomplish this sort of automatic simple building
visualization in VNS with Area Terraffectors driven by Thematic Maps
to derive elevations from your GIS database.

The Wall Component's Panel Top and Bottom Heights can be entered
manually or driven by a texture.


> > > Are those houses integrate smoothly with the terrain without "flying
> > > effects" ?
> >
> > They are anchored by the Vectors to which they are attached.
>
> Or they can be placed with exact geographic coordinates.

3D Objects can now be placed with exact coordinates instead of or in
addition to placing them with Vectors (you can, of course, also
choose to place 3D Objects with Foliage Effects or Ecotypes).

Walls are always placed and defined by Vectors.


> Either way, Jamie is correct - if rendered in VNS, all 3D objects are "part"
> of the scene.
>
> > > Would it be possible to extrude thousands of such houses plans without
> > > eating up too much memory ?
> >
> > I don't know how much memory they require. They seem very efficient.
>
> Test scene - 2620 vectors
> Walls linked to all vectors dynamically
> Plain diffuse color, no texturing
>
> Render with walls - 71.6 Mb memory used, render time 1:12 seconds
> Render without walls - 38 Mb memory used, render time 1:20 seconds
>
> Second render was slower, since walls rendered quicker than the terrain they
> were obscuring :)

Thanks for testing that, Adam!


> > > Can I have several types of houses spread in the landscape controlled in
> > > groups ?
> >
> > Each Wall Component can be set up as you like and attached to
> > multiple Vectors. So that's one way to do it.
>
> As I said before - you can dynamically link these together with search
> queries, so if you label your vectors with attributes that define the type
> of building, they can be linked automatically at render time to the correct
> type of wall component. This is great if your GIS data base changes due to
> zoning restrictions for example because the changes are reflected at render
> time.

That is correct. Dynamic Vector Linking is very powerful. It lets
you automate linkages and, in combination with the Auto-Import
Operators feature, keep them synchronized with your GIS database.

Best Regards,
  -Jamie




> > > What are the new Terrafffectors and what can they do in
> > comparison to WCS's one ?
> >
> > They have the same power as in WCS, but in VNS you can see them in
> > realtime OpenGL Views as you work with them.
>
> Which is waaaaaaay cool :)
>
> > > If you can answer these questions with "yes", I will really consider an
> > > upgrade from my WCS V5.
> >
> > I think you'll like it. Among other great new features is the
> > amazing ability to import and combine data in multiple projections;
> > support for multiple user accounts; the ability to build projects
> > out of templates and automatically stay in sync with the templates
> > as they get updated; automatic synching to GIS databases; the
> > ability to drive parameters from GIS databases; stereo cameras; a
> > new, very fast Gridder; and the new Terrain Generator which
> > generates new terrain using all the power of the Texture Engine.
> >
> > Plus you can fly around the terrain with a joystick. :^)
>
> And bump mapping ;)
>
> Best regards
>
> Adam
>
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Jamie wrote:
> Adam Hauldren wrote:
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Jamie [mailto:Meta@...]
> > > Roofs are flat and their edges line up with the walls. This is great
> > > for creating very fast representations of buildings.
> >
> > In addition, if you had GIS data (from Lidar or whatever) for tower block
> > heights, you could link the walls to your vectors dynamically through search
> > queries and have them "extruded" to the correct heights automatically.
>
> You could accomplish this sort of automatic simple building
> visualization in VNS with Area Terraffectors driven by Thematic Maps
> to derive elevations from your GIS database.
>
> The Wall Component's Panel Top and Bottom Heights can be entered
> manually or driven by a texture.

And as Gary just reminded me (and probably what Adam meant) Walls
can be set relative to a Vector height. The Vector height can come
from a Vector attribute (set manually or imported with the Vector
from a GIS database in the form of a Shape file).

You can conform the Vector to the attribute height, and then your
Wall Component buildings will inherit the height value from each
Vector's height attribute automatically.

So there's yet another "yes" answer for VNS.

Best Regards,
  -Jamie

Jamie wrote:

>>Is it possible to extrude a rectangle or polygonal shaped vector of a house
>>and add a roof with a pediment ?
> Roofs are flat and their edges line up with the walls. This is great
> for creating very fast representations of buildings. If you want
> fancier buildings (especially in the foreground for realism) you can
> use 3D objects.


    I will contradict Jamie, since Gary has revealed deep secrets of Walls
to me. Yes, you can, with a proper input dataset. It will be a six-point
rectangle, rather than a four-point, and the two points defining the peak
of the roof need to be higher, and maybe just slightly inwards of the walls.
It's not something we expected we'd be able to do, but serendipitously,
discovered could be done with the basic Walls algorithm, if controlled
properly.

    Check it out:
http://www.3dnature.com/images/VNSWallHouse.jpg
    (A VNS modified scene from my UrbanParkDemo project, off of the Content CD)

    You can see the vector controlling it all in the right hand Realtime View
and the results on the left. At the bottom are the Wall editor settings.
Roof and sides are separately textured and bump-mapped. I could add a chimney
even, with another wall effect attached to the outline of the chimney at the
proper height, with a different texture entirely. Can't think of a way to
do windows or doors, but that's sort of beyond what we're trying to accomplish
with Wall components. ;)


>>Can I add textures separetly to the walls and the roof ?
> Yes.


    See:

http://www.3dnature.com/vnsvisualization.html
http://www.3dnature.com/images/PentagonWeb.jpg

    Notice that the sides of the building use a simple grid texture to simulate
rows of windows, but the roof uses a bitmap texture. See Wall editor in NYC
screenshot below.

    Imagine how much easier THESE projects could have been with VNS:
http://www.3dnature.com/artssc.html

    If you have an air photo that you can drape, you can apply it to the
Roof material (see the Pentagon) and any details and shading in the photo
will be textured onto the roofs. This can look very convincing, even if the
roof is flat. You can even Bumpmap the roof or wall materials.  The
'courtyard' in the Pentagon rendering is just textured onto the roof.

    See also a new one:

http://www.3dnature.com/images/VNSNYC.jpg

    (Lower Manhattan, looking North along West side of island.)

    This is a demo project included with VNS, with a DEM, image and building
dataset provided by i-cubed (www.i3.com). I will discourse on it a bit.

    The DEM, image and building outlines are all in UTM NAD83 projection,
and VNS keeps them in the projection, and converts that directly into
planimetric or 3d views without needing you to reproject or regrid anything
into geographic. You can mix & match projection systems and datums as you
like.

    Notice in the left View, the Ecosystem Overlay is being used to realtime
drape the photo onto the terrain in OpenGL. You can also see Area and Linear
Terraffectors in realtime OpenGL Views, though none appear in this project.

    The building vectors (all 3330 of them) were imported from (2D flavor) Arc
Shapefiles. The shapefiles have two attributes on each polygon, one of which
is an elevation of the top of the building. Had these been 3D shapefiles,
such as those produced by 3D analyst, we could have worked with those
directly. As it is, during the import, we told VNS to grab the vertex elevs
from the ELEVATION attribute. This placed the outlines at the height of the
tops of each building. Once we have vectors outlines of the buildingtops
floating up in the sky, we attach them to a Wall component.

    We make one Wall component to rule them all, one wall component to find
them. The Wall editor is visible in the screenshot. You have the option to
connect the start and endpoints of vectors that are not closed, add Walls or
not, add Roofs or not, and have the same or different materials for the
walls and roofs. Each material is a regular texturable animatable WCS material
with all the bells & whistles. Here, I'm telling VNS to extrude the Walls from
the vector elevation down 500 meters (which is enough to make the sides of the
World Trade Center towers touch ground -- most buildings' walls slam into and
through the terrain, ensuring they appear fully 'grounded. ;) My wall and
roof materials are similar, but the roof has a partially-transparent planar
image texture on it of the airphoto to create roof details. On tall buildings
such as these, the parallax in the photo means the roof is usually not quite
over the base of the building, but it works well with shorter buildings or
images with better correction or less perspective.

    "One search query to bring them all, and in VNS, bind them."

    How easy would it be to attach 3330 vectors without any common layers to our
single Wall component? With VNS it IS easy. We use a Search Query, visible on
the lower right, called BuildingMaker. You can see it selected in the Wall
editor on the left. Search Queries are available for any components that
can be linked to vectors. What search queries do is allow you to set up
conditions (such as Attribute field ELEVATION simply exists) that allow VNS to
determine for you which DB objects it should link to your component
automatically
for you. No drag & drop or Select by Layer necessary. Queries can use all
of the criteria you see here, and can add or subtract from a selection set (add
all objects with attribute TYPE=Forest then remove all of those that are in the
OUTDATED layer, etc).

    When VNS renders, it automatically links these objects to components for you.
Don't like the result? The linkage is only in effect while you're rendering,
and as soon as it's done, it disappears. Change your Query, and next time you
render you'll see the results of the new linkage. You can test your Query
without rendering by hitting a button (not visible, on the Query's general page)
that selects all those objects in the DB Editor for you to check out. Want to
make the link permanent? Check out the "Hard Link to Query Vectors" button in
the Walls editor. It does what you think it does.

    Why is it useful to have these links be temporary? Did I mention Re-Import?
If you're working with Shapefiles, when you first import the shapefile, the
Import Wizard will give you the option of flagging the file for re-import.
With this, the vectors from the Shapefile are not stored in the VNS project
anymore, rather, each time you load the Project, it automatically reimports
the shapefile for you, using the settings you used the first time you imported
it. If you use Search Queries to link you components to the vectors, you're
instantly ready to render again, even if you totally reworked the shapefile
contents -- VNS has the up-to-date version ready to go.


>>Would it be possible to extrude thousands of such houses plans without
>>eating up too much memory ?


    I did all of Manhattan just now.

> Another way is to import 3D Objects, which can now automatically
> align to Vectors (houses with different orientations toward curved
> streets are now easy).


    This is soooooo cool. Plop a bunch of houses down along a curving street
(made with a terraffector, even). Tell the houses to face the street vector.
Bing. Instant Subdivision. Just add VNS.

www.3dnature.com/images/VNS3Dalign.jpg

    There's six 3d object components here, two for each of the three models of
simple house. Two, because one of each is set to 'Reverse Heading' on the
alignment page of the 3D object editor. This way, the same house on opposite
sides of the street has flipped alignment so it still faces the street vector,
instead of facing away. The street vector is 'NSRoad' selected for alignment
at the bottom of the Align page. You can align vertically to, to vectors or
to undulating terrain.

Imagine how much easier THIS project could have been with VNS:

http://www.3dnature.com/images/fly_1458.jpg

    You can even interactively edit the vectors that the 3D objects are planted
and aligned to and see the objects reposition and realign themselves in Realtime
OpenGL Views.

    Walls can also be used to make, uh, walls, fences, etc. With transparency
texturing you can make split-rail fences (use the same vector vertices attached
to a 3D object effect to plant the fenceposts) or even simple lines between
utility poles. (We're still trying to figure out how to make lines droop,
and they always run right to the center of the pole...)

    Did I mention everything, (Terrain, Walls, 3D Objects) can be bump-mapped?

    Did I mention that stuff like vegetation heights, densities and mixes can be
controlled directly by attributes on the polygons controlling them?

    How about templates? Build a basic project with a bunch of data and
components
in it. Instead of cloning it like you can now, create a new project that uses it
as a Template. The new project has all of the 'stuff' in it that the template
has, but it's not stored in the new project, VNS reloads it from the template
each time. If you improve the template project (add better DEM data, maybe put
in some nicer foliage into the ecosystems, or fix some errors in the original
base dataset you used) all of your projects inheriting from the Template
automatically pick up the changes next time you load them.

    Want to override something in the Template project in just one of your
projects?
Just 'Embed' it into the derived project, and you can change it locally without
affecting the template or any of the other projects.

    Anyone ever wanted to export terraffector-modified terrain to a DXF file?

    I'm going to stop before I pass out now. Basically VNS is WCS, geared towards
doing the kind of heavy-duty visualization you already do or want to do, but
doing it faster, easier, and in the face of diverse and changing input data. You
know, kind of like you already have to deal with now.

Chris - Xenon
--
   Chris Hanson | Xenon@... | I've got friends in low latitudes!
          New WCS 5 Demo Version!     http://www.3DNature.com/demo/
   "There is no Truth. There is only Perception. To Perceive is to Exist." - Xen

Chris 'Xenon' Hanson wrote:
>    I will contradict Jamie, since Gary has revealed deep secrets of Walls
> to me. Yes, you can, with a proper input dataset. It will be a six-point
> rectangle, rather than a four-point, and the two points defining the peak
> of the roof need to be higher, and maybe just slightly inwards of the walls.
> It's not something we expected we'd be able to do, but serendipitously,
> discovered could be done with the basic Walls algorithm, if controlled
> properly.
>
>    Check it out:
> http://www.3dnature.com/images/VNSWallHouse.jpg
>    (A VNS modified scene from my UrbanParkDemo project, off of the Content CD)

(more cool examples munched)

Excellent!

Best Regards,
  -Jamie

> >    Check it out:
> > http://www.3dnature.com/images/VNSWallHouse.jpg
> >    (A VNS modified scene from my UrbanParkDemo project, off of
> the Content CD)
>
> (more cool examples munched)
>
> Excellent!

Wow! what an example to wake up to ;)

Good job(s) Chris!

Regards

Adam

Wow, VNS sounds great. That Manhatten project is really cool.

Anyway, for some reason WCS isn't finding the help when I hit F1.

I can lauch help by going to the folder called "help", but then I
have to scroll the large index to find my topic.

Perhaps I messed something up when I did the last update (I'm using
WCS 5.54).

Is there something I can do to re-establish the F1 help link?

Thanks.


Chip

where do i find the control for stream width?

i have attached a vector to a linear terrafector stream-bed and a stream. i
wonder if i need to do the terrafector at all or can i just use the stream
on its own?


Michael S Mundy
Senior 3d Visualization Specialist

HNTB Technology Group
715 Kirk Drive
Kansas City Missouri 6410 5
816.472.1201 x. 2243
http://www.hntb.com
http://3d.hntb.org



This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are confidential and are intended
solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If
you are NOT the intended recipient or the person responsible for delivering the
e-mail to the intended recipient, be advised that you have received this e-mail
in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of
this e-mail is strictly prohibited.

Make sure the Interactive Reference Manual's files are in a
directory called "Help", inside the same directory as your WCS
executable. Typically this would be the WCS directory.

If you put the program file somewhere else when you upgraded, that
could be the cause of your problem.

Best Regards,
  -Jamie

PS. BTW you can use the TOC page to navigate, and you can search the
TOC or Index to find your topic (faster than scrolling manually).


wkogelmann@... wrote:
>
> Wow, VNS sounds great. That Manhatten project is really cool.
>
> Anyway, for some reason WCS isn't finding the help when I hit F1.
>
> I can lauch help by going to the folder called "help", but then I
> have to scroll the large index to find my topic.
>
> Perhaps I messed something up when I did the last update (I'm using
> WCS 5.54).
>
> Is there something I can do to re-establish the F1 help link?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Chip
>
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