PW2 panorama images..

Very good images for environment (sphere) scenes...

http://www.geocities.com/DerSchoeneBahnhof/Panorama_Corner.html

(by Christian Gavin)

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Wow! I've been looking for some of those.

Coolness, can't wait to try them out.

Mike Wilson

 

Do one, Do one!

I am jealous now. Let me see!

 

Paul, thanks for pointing us to this, these are wonderful, and many of
them right in my own backyard.

Now, I can't wait still PW get HDRI....

 

Thanks Paul - I was getting tired of making my own, and they were nowhere
near this good.

However (isn't there always a however?)...
Here's what happened after I split the image into an upper hemisphere
picture and a lower hemisphere picture and tried to use them on a spherical
environment in SP2.1. I hope things have been fixed in sp3 (I can't use it
because of current jobs). I reported this stuff so verylongago...

Tip1- get your scene alignment first in another part/asm, then save it
before bringing into the model you want to finally render. Make the top and
bottom visible so you can see the alignment, because the images are tough to
align

Bug1: You cannot use immediate rendering in the preview window to align the
top material to the bottom material. It is still, after almost two years,
rotated 90deg, but now it rotates the POLE 90deg! instead of just the
rotating the image incorrectly around the equator. You can use the render
button in the preview window to get a decent preview, but it is just a best
practice to render to the screen because it takes about as long and that way
you will be absolutely sure.
CORRECTION - I just tried it while in the scene dialog and, though it has
worked well up to this point, now the environment preview on the screen
turned into my default material! The preview window was still OK. When I
closed out of the scene dialog, though, the screen rendering worked OK
again. So much for best practices

Bug2: About 50% of the time, when applying or tweaking a material to the
bottom, the bottom turns irrevocably black. This also happens when opening
a saved scene after doing a couple of test renders/environment checks. I
can't pin down the sequence, so this one is not likely to get fixed anytime
soon. Just delete the scene, close out of the SWx session, reopen the file,
and replace the scene, and you will get the bottom image back.

I give my environments a length and width of 200 to get past the
scratchy-indirect-illumination shadow bug. Note: The height and floor
offset, though active, do not (seem to) do anything with a spherical
environment.

Bug3: The mapping of the top and bottom images are all f***ed up - I at
least can't find the pattern. Here are the numbers I had to use, but I
started with an existing spherical environment I made last year. When I
start with one of the stock spherical scenes, I had to use 1meter as the Map
height and I ran into the "bottom-going-black-bug".

Top image (all dims in inches):
Offset - latitude 0, longitude 1. BTW - the latitude and longitude are the
exact opposite of what they are on the earth. In PWx scenes, Longitude
moves the image up towards the pole, latitude rotates around the equator!
Mapping to a spherical nmodel uses earth-type latitude and longitude
Map width-173.228, no mirror
Map height-87.5, no mirror. Note - this seems to be independent of the room
length/width
Axis direction1-180°
Axis direction2-0 °

Bottom image
Offset - latitude 86.6, longitude 0.
Map width-173.228, click Mirror
Map height-87.5, click Mirror. Note - this seems to be independent of the
room length/width
Axis direction1-180°
Axis direction2-0 °

Anyone else care to share their numbers? I am hoping we can find a pattern
that we can document

 

FYI- We tried to render the scene in SP3. Disaster.
The bottom material is automatically lost and renders black (instead of only
50% of the time), and we can't get the upper material to map correctly (the
North pole is always at the equator no matter what we do)
Interesting change in behavior in the preview window - it works more
consistently (the automatic preview matches the manual render preview in
that window) but neither preview matches the rendering to screen at all.
The preview still has that 90° rotation of the scene's pole relative to the
screen rendering.
Also, we can't seem to 'defer' rendering in the preview box in SP3 any more.

So, I will be very curious to see if anyone can get any consistent success
at all with using these on a spherical environment. Maybe by pooling our
results we can figure out a consistent way to navigate through this.
Otherwise, I will have to go back to my old PWx technique of mapping a decal
to a sphere and using the show/hide trick to create spherical environments.

 

if pw2 gets hdri it will be dammned to a life of never finishing a render

 

You nailed it!! Thanks!!

It's been a major fubar using PW2 and I honestly do not know the
pattern... sometimes I think I know it and then all consistency bets are
off. But I agree, it is independent of the scene or room or objects
used.
And, I do not understand the logic with most of the PW2 gui layout,
which I think should be totally redone because, imho, it has always been
a fubar.

The other day, on a part which was chrome, I keep getting a black
reflection (it always rendered fine) with a smidgen of the
sphere/scene... somehow, my image on the sphere got all scrambled??
I've seen this happen before but like the past, there was no rule for
how/why/where/...
No matter what I did, I could not unscramble it... so, I removed the
scene and the p2m and reapplied a new scene and p2m and it seems to be
ok now?

Currently, I've been having so many problems and crashes with SW2004 sp3
that, I'm hoping, if I uninstall and reinstall, most of them will go
away?

..

 

Mark,

Yeah, many are right down the street from you. He also did some of the
eastern sierra.

I've also downloaded and tried some HDR images..
http://www.debevec.org/Probes/
http://www.debevec.org/Research/HDR/
http://www.3ddart.org/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=37

So, yeah, when/if HDRI becomes available they should be pretty fun!?

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You can't make me do it, I won't, I'll resist!? ;^)

I thought you had SW2003 and PW2,.. you should be able in add the images
or map the 6 sided HDR images to a room and get the same/similar
results? Nothing really changed in SW2004.

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Ed and Paul,
Here are my notes for getting it to work the first time on
my system. Let me know if this works for everyone else or
if what I am seeing is incorrect (it looks good to me, but
I'm not an expert on Earth geography, I just know I don't
want to experience any "Pole Shifts" doh!).

*) Using SW2004 SP3.

*) Start a new part.

*) Make sure "Preview Window" is enabled.

*) If the Preview Window render option is set to "OpenGL"
the preview is totally messed up. Major bug.

*) You MUST use "Ray Trace" Rendering period.
NOTE: If you zoom or rotate in the Preview Window, it
temporarily switches to "OpenGL" mode and you see an
incorrect image until you are done rotating or zooming.

*) The environment bitmap image I'm using has a width ratio
that is exactly double the height. In this case it is
1280 pixels wide by 640 pixels high.

*) I create a material using this image.

*) I start off using "Sphere Sky Environment". I tried
"Checker" and "Neon" but had HUGE problems. Maybe
it's different for other users?

*) Hit the "Room" tab

*) I disable "Resize Automatically"

*) I change "Length" and "Width" to say "500" for now.

*) "Height" and "Floor" is set to "0" (no reason, just anal).

*) I HAVE TO switch the "Align With" option to "Model X-Y
Plane". Any other setting is screwed up!

*) Make sure "Link all Walls" is disabled.

*) Enable the "Visible" settings for "Top" and "Bottom" walls
so you can see it in the Preview Window.

*) I apply my bitmap to my room Top wall and Bottom wall.
Note: I don't even mess with the Texture settings! And I
especially don't mess with Texas ;^)

*) You are DONE! The preview look great at this time.

Some other notes:

When you actually look at "Map Width" in the Texture area,
it's always set 1/2 your room size.

BUT!!

If you change your room size, the Map Width doesn't update
until you select another "Align with" option (e.g. "Model
X-Z Plane") then switch it back to "Model X-Y Plane" again.
You DON'T have to hit "Apply" top see changes.

It will automatically adjust the Map Width for you.

What do y'all think?

Mike Wilson

 

BTW, here is a half-fast environment test with the reflections
exaggerated using one of the maps in Paul's link...
http://www.mikejwilson.com/misc/truck_reflections.jpg

Mike Wilson

 

I think PhotoWorks has a seriously crippled user interface! What you, Paul,
Ed, and others are willing to put up with to get your beautiful pictures is
unbelievable to me.


Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Any chance that you would share your SP and the mapping numbers?

 

I'm not sure I understand. Did my instructions not show up
on your server? That happens sometimes with my NG provider.
The first note shows my SP.

I didn't input any mapping numbers. The rendering I posted
was made almost entirely from my post. The only thing I
left out was where to download the model and what settings
I used for lighting.

If you mean Offset Latitude/Longitude and Axis Direction1
and 2, they are all set to "0" (the defaults). I'm sure if
I try to adjust them I will run into yet more bugs.

Mike Wilson

 

Nope, I am way behind. I have 99, 2000, 2001, and 2002. That's all folks.!
Damn it!

 

BTW Paul, I'm going to be up in Yosemite again in a couple weeks. Do you
think they will open up the Tioga Pass soon?

 

So... did my post help anyone?

Don't make me have to post more conspiracy theories!..

http://www.cyberspaceorbit.com

http://membres.lycos.fr/applemacintosh/pentagon.htm

http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip/marsfos8.htm

http://makeashorterlink.com/?W61621118

 

Hey Mike,

Yeah, I tried it on a few parts and it works, thanks!
but... as you have seen it's very temperamental and preview is not much
help in most cases as is the interactive render mode, they give false
feedback. but.. your example seems to work in the preview, and yeah,
when you rotate in the preview, that's were it goes wacko.

Anyhow, thanks!

SW Corp has to overhaul this, it's ridiculous!!

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Kewl. and, nice model!

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