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Solving loss of detail in textures when a camera comes close, techniques?
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Solving loss of detail in textures when a camera comes close, techniques? // Archive: Tech Forum
Post by om1nous // Jun 20, 2007, 3:44am
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om1nous
Total Posts: 0
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Hi all,
I'm trying to create a zoom-in effect, going from space down to earth to a part of california. I'm using TS7.51 to make an Earth and I've found the highest resolution image map of Earth I could find (here (http://arstechnica.com/reviews/4q00/macosx-pb1/images/earth-map-huge.jpg)).
Now as you all know, the closer you get to a texture, the more you risk running out of 'resolution' to keep the appearance sharp and crisp. Zooming down to Earth will take a great deal of resolution obviously to perform this task.
Right now I was planning on moving very quickly and pointing a camera down toward Earth (so I'm looking straight at it) And falling down quickly. I planned on using After Effects and as I get closer to Earth, I'd just use a series of satellite screenshots, animating the scale of them (making it larger) so it appears like they're coming at the screen. If I line up the series of screenshots it will fake the effect just fine.
Though what I wonder is, are there any texturing techniques in TS that would help me make this effect easier? I don't want to look straight down at earth to do this zoom, that's really the easy/cheesy way. I'd like to zoom down to Earth at more of an angle to make it more interesting, but faking the screenshot-zoom method this way isn't really possible. At least not without unlimited time.
Is there a way to get truespace to let me use a rediculosly huge resolution texture so I can keep getting closer to my 3d Earth while it still has extra resolution to provide detail with in the image texture?
Are there any scriptable techniques or similar that can swap out a texture for a low resolution version while I'm far away from Earth but then swap it out again as I get closer to provide extra detail?
What kind of techniques would help this effect?
Thanks for any tips! |
Post by frootee // Jun 20, 2007, 3:58am
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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Hi Om1nous.
In the artists guide, Chapter 4, page 140 - 141, there are some paragraphs about the Level Of Detail (LOD) tool. Although it was originally designed for VRML, you may be able to use it for your needs as well. For each sub-object, you can assign a different texture: use finer detailed textures for the sub-objects that are closer to the view. The LOD tool may also be described elsewhere in the manual.
HTH
Frootee |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Jun 20, 2007, 5:16am
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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Not sure if this tip could be useful but here goes...
Like everybody else you've probably used the Google map feature to zoom in and out of given locations from a few hundred feet overhead to satellite space views.
I realize that you don't want a straight vertical descent, and that's where my tip comes in.
If you used those Google map shots in sequence it is possible to take those images into some of the more advanced 2D image editing programs and using geometry function tools to then "frame" each image and adjust the angle of that frame from straight to nearly horizontal in increments.
If that technique were used in an animation along with cloud effects it could be almost seamless although it would require a lot of fine tuning time for sure.
Aside from that I think the LOD (level of detail) approach refered to above may be usable but you'll probably need to start a specificly titled new thread to find help on that issue since most people don't use it anymore with the near extinction of vrml.
HTH
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by om1nous // Jun 21, 2007, 4:38am
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om1nous
Total Posts: 0
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frootee~
Thanks for the info on the LOD. I haven't had a chance to play with TS for a day and a half but will be able to tonight. I'll investigate anything I can find on the LOD in the manual and online! I'm more than used to LOD in 3d games as it saves me a great deal of performance, although looks a little ugly as things change visually as you get closer/farther.
Hopefully it will do better than LOD in say, world of warcraft. WoW significantly reduces the polys, texture detail and what looks like quality of the UV when you get farther. The models collapse into something with less poly (possibly, not totally sure), the textures degrade and start wrapping a bit less precisely. Inversely, as you get closer the models get more physically detailed and the textures are higher quality and wrap better and as expected.
3dvisuals dude
I've used After Effects for years and I've always had to 'fake 3d' in the way you're talking about all the time. The entire reason I got trueSpace back in the workflow is to stop faking 3d using screenshots and hacky techniques haha. :D
It's very difficult to make changes to something like this. If the client decides they want more rotation on the Earth while it zooms down, it will take forEVER to retool that in after effects if you fake it. However in trueSpace it means just adjusting some keyframes and letting the render engine handle the rest.
I don't want to fake it anymore and lose the effeciency of changes down the line, as my work is highly subjective and prone to feedback that ends up making me change things. Always happens.. And the worst part is the changes are usually pointless but clients like to make changes just to feel like they're getting their moneys worth.. Nothing can be ok until they've had a chance to throw a monkey wrench in just so they can say "LOOK! It looks so much better my way!" :rolleyes:. So I need to make changes easier, and faking it isn't easy ;)
Any other ideas on LOD techniques and I'm all ears. The only other way I can think of is to swap out the sphere as I get closer to it to a 'part' of a sphere (just the part I can see) and toss higher resolution textures on them. But this also makes changes more difficult. The only easy solution to me is a continually upgrading LOD-esque texture setup which might be something TS supports, which is why I'm asking! |
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