1.3 Advanced Features

Section Contents

• 1.3.1 Spline Based Shapes
  • 1.3.1.1 Lathe Object
    • 1.3.1.1.1 Understanding The Concept of Splines
  • 1.3.1.2 Surface of Revolution Object
  • 1.3.1.3 Prism Object
    • 1.3.1.3.1 Teaching An Old Spline New Tricks
    • 1.3.1.3.2 Smooth Transitions
    • 1.3.1.3.3 Multiple Sub-Shapes
    • 1.3.1.3.4 Conic Sweeps And The Tapering Effect
  • 1.3.1.4 Sphere Sweep Object
  • 1.3.1.5 Bicubic Patch Object
  • 1.3.1.6 Text Object
• 1.3.2 Polygon Based Shapes
  • 1.3.2.1 Mesh Object
  • 1.3.2.2 Mesh2 Object
    • 1.3.2.2.1 Smooth triangles and mesh2
    • 1.3.2.2.2 UV mapping and mesh2
    • 1.3.2.2.3 A separate texture per triangle
  • 1.3.2.3 Polygon Object
• 1.3.3 Other Shapes
  • 1.3.3.1 Blob Object
    • 1.3.3.1.1 Component Types and Other New Features
    • 1.3.3.1.2 Complex Blob Constructs and Negative Strength
  • 1.3.3.2 Height Field Object
  • 1.3.3.3 Isosurface Object
    • 1.3.3.3.1 Simple functions
    • 1.3.3.3.2 Several surfaces
    • 1.3.3.3.3 Non-linear functions
    • 1.3.3.3.4 Specifying functions
    • 1.3.3.3.5 Internal functions
    • 1.3.3.3.6 Combining isosurface functions
    • 1.3.3.3.7 Noise and pigment functions
    • 1.3.3.3.8 Conditional directives and loops
    • 1.3.3.3.9 Transformations on functions
    • 1.3.3.3.10 Improving Isosurface Speed
  • 1.3.3.4 Poly Object
    • 1.3.3.4.1 Creating the polynomial function
    • 1.3.3.4.2 Writing the polynomial vector
  • 1.3.3.5 Superquadric Ellipsoid Object
• 1.3.4 Advanced Texture Options
  • 1.3.4.1 Pigments
    • 1.3.4.1.1 Using Color List Pigments
    • 1.3.4.1.2 Using Pigment and Patterns
    • 1.3.4.1.3 Using Pattern Modifiers
    • 1.3.4.1.4 Using Transparent Pigments and Layered Textures
    • 1.3.4.1.5 Using Pigment Maps
  • 1.3.4.2 Normals
    • 1.3.4.2.1 Using Basic Normal Modifiers
    • 1.3.4.2.2 Blending Normals
  • 1.3.4.3 Finishes
    • 1.3.4.3.1 Using Ambient
    • 1.3.4.3.2 Using Surface Highlights
    • 1.3.4.3.3 Using Reflection, Metallic and Metallic
    • 1.3.4.3.4 Using Iridescence
  • 1.3.4.4 Working With Pigment Maps
  • 1.3.4.5 Working With Normal Maps
  • 1.3.4.6 Working With Texture Maps
  • 1.3.4.7 Working With List Textures
  • 1.3.4.8 What About Tiles?
  • 1.3.4.9 Average Function
  • 1.3.4.10 Working With Layered Textures
    • 1.3.4.10.1 Declaring Layered Textures
    • 1.3.4.10.2 Another Layered Textures Example
  • 1.3.4.11 When All Else Fails: Material Maps
  • 1.3.4.12 Limitations Of Special Textures
• 1.3.5 Using Atmospheric Effects
  • 1.3.5.1 The Background
  • 1.3.5.2 The Sky Sphere
    • 1.3.5.2.1 Creating a Sky with a Color Gradient
    • 1.3.5.2.2 Adding the Sun
    • 1.3.5.2.3 Adding Some Clouds
  • 1.3.5.3 The Fog
    • 1.3.5.3.1 A Constant Fog
    • 1.3.5.3.2 Setting a Minimum Translucency
    • 1.3.5.3.3 Creating a Filtering Fog
    • 1.3.5.3.4 Adding Some Turbulence to the Fog
    • 1.3.5.3.5 Using Ground Fog
    • 1.3.5.3.6 Using Multiple Layers of Fog
    • 1.3.5.3.7 Fog and Hollow Objects
  • 1.3.5.4 The Rainbow
    • 1.3.5.4.1 Starting With a Simple Rainbow
    • 1.3.5.4.2 Increasing the Rainbow's Translucency
    • 1.3.5.4.3 Using a Rainbow Arc
• 1.3.6 Simple Media Tutorial
  • 1.3.6.1 Types of media
  • 1.3.6.2 Some media concepts
  • 1.3.6.3 Simple media examples
    • 1.3.6.3.1 Emitting media
    • 1.3.6.3.2 Absorbing media
    • 1.3.6.3.3 Scattering media
  • 1.3.6.4 Multiple medias inside the same object
  • 1.3.6.5 Media and transformations
  • 1.3.6.6 A more advanced example of scattering media
  • 1.3.6.7 Media and photons
• 1.3.7 Radiosity
  • 1.3.7.1 Introduction
  • 1.3.7.2 Radiosity with conventional lighting
  • 1.3.7.3 Radiosity without conventional lighting
  • 1.3.7.4 Normals and Radiosity
  • 1.3.7.5 Performance considerations
• 1.3.8 Making Animations
  • 1.3.8.1 The Clock Variable: Key To It All
  • 1.3.8.2 Clock Dependant Variables And Multi-Stage Animations
  • 1.3.8.3 The Phase Keyword
  • 1.3.8.4 Do Not Use Jitter Or Crand
  • 1.3.8.5 INI File Settings
• 1.3.9 While-loop tutorial
  • 1.3.9.1 What a while-loop is and what it is not
  • 1.3.9.2 How does a single while-loop work?
  • 1.3.9.3 How do I make a while-loop?
  • 1.3.9.4 What is a condition and how do I make one?
  • 1.3.9.5 What about loop types other than simple for-loops?
  • 1.3.9.6 What about nested loops?
  • 1.3.9.7 Mixed-type nested loops
  • 1.3.9.8 Other things to note
• 1.3.10 SDL tutorial: A raytracer
  • 1.3.10.1 Introduction
  • 1.3.10.2 The idea and the code
  • 1.3.10.3 Short introduction to raytracing
  • 1.3.10.4 Global settings
  • 1.3.10.5 Scene definition
  • 1.3.10.6 Initializing the raytracer
  • 1.3.10.7 Ray-sphere intersection
    • 1.3.10.7.1 Inner workings of a #macro
    • 1.3.10.7.2 The ray-sphere intersection macro
  • 1.3.10.8 The Trace macro
    • 1.3.10.8.1 Calculating the closest intersection
    • 1.3.10.8.2 If the ray doesn't hit anything
    • 1.3.10.8.3 Initializing color calculations
    • 1.3.10.8.4 Going through the light sources
    • 1.3.10.8.5 Shadow test
    • 1.3.10.8.6 Diffuse lighting
    • 1.3.10.8.7 Specular lighting
    • 1.3.10.8.8 Reflection Calculation
  • 1.3.10.9 Calculating the image
  • 1.3.10.10 Creating the colored mesh
    • 1.3.10.10.1 The structure of the mesh
    • 1.3.10.10.2 Creating the mesh
    • 1.3.10.10.3 Creating the vertex points
    • 1.3.10.10.4 Creating the textures
    • 1.3.10.10.5 Creating the triangles
  • 1.3.10.11 The Camera-setup