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Subject: 
Re: Restart of LDA2001 Project (using LDraw models - L3P - POV)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.cad.ray, lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.dev
Date: 
Fri, 14 Jan 2005 17:13:32 GMT
Viewed: 
156 times
  
In lugnet.animation, Tore Eriksson wrote:
In lugnet.cad.ray, James Reynolds wrote:
What if.... what if you took the L3P output and modified THAT?.... more on this
later.

James

I've been thinking a lot about that. I think you can find a couple of threads
here if you perform a search on "post-processing" or "post-processor". But...
What if a futureversion of L3P has some new improvement and changes the syntax
of the output so that the post-processor won't spot the commands to replace or
where to insert new lines?

I guess we would have to work with Lars on that.

Because your app is in Delphi, I would be interested in the syntax you develop.
Implementing on different platforms is not as big of a deal in my opinion.

I am mostly interested in this because right now, I don't have a pov-ray gui
editor.  I have to picture everything in my mind and write it down as numbers.
This is VERY slow.  I would like to be able to place items in an editor and make
keyframes.  Because we already have LDraw editors, that seems like the natural
choice.

Anyway, whether anything happens with this or not, I am constantly looking for
ways to make POV-Ray files easier to edit, because I will admit, the animations
can get complex.  POV-Ray is a programming language itself.  So it is complex.
At the same time, I am trying to devise a syntax that makes Lego animation
easier all around.  And I believe it is possible, because as I said, it is a
programming language, and we could write, as it were, high level API's.  ;)

What I am hoping is that your tool could take advantage of such high level
API's.

To get this from L3P, it would need to recognize separate models and place each
model in a macro block instead of an object block.  So right now, l3p declares
models like this:

colors are defined

individual parts are defined

the model is defined

the model is created and placed

floor

background

camera

lights



The model is defined like this:

#declare model_name_dot_ldr = union {
   object {
      part defined above is created
  }
  ..
  ..
}

and it is created like this:

object { model_name_dot_ldr #if (version >= 3.1) material #else texture #end {
Color7 } }

To turn it into a Macro, you defined the model like this:

#macro model_name_dot_ldr ()
union {
   object {
      part defined above is created
  }
  ..
  ..
#end

and it is created like this:

object { model_name_dot_ldr() #if (version >= 3.1) material #else texture #end {
Color7 } }

In other words, change

"#declare ... = union { object {
....
} }"

to

"#macro ()
union {
}
#end"

The significant thing about that is the addition of the (), which allows you to
put your values in there.  What would be really cool is if we could declare
pivot points/rotation axis/unions in LDraw and have L3P carry them into the POV
document.

Anyway, I'm rambling.  I'm still a POV-Ray newbie, so I might have gotten
something wrong in the syntax.

But I think an LDraw animation syntax and post-processing is what I would like
to pursue, mainly so I can create scenes with LDraw and then use them as
keyframes in POV-Ray.

Now that we have an LDraw steering committee, maybe we could actually get an
standardized animation syntax....  :D

James



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Restart of LDA2001 Project (using LDraw models - L3P - POV)
 
(...) In the coming L3P each section is tagged with POV comments like //// ModelObject //// Camera //// Lights exactly to help cutting out the interested POV code. (...) I'm reluctant to adding too much complexity into L3P to suit different special (...) (20 years ago, 14-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.ray, lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.dev)
  Re: Restart of LDA Project (using LDraw models - L3P - POV)
 
(...) I already am. :) I noticed that L3P already marks the beginning of these blocks: // Camera (Latitude,Longitude,Radius = 45,45,0) and // Lights: Now, I've asked Lars to let L3P also mark the ends of these blocks. (...) No it isn't. Btw, I'm (...) (20 years ago, 14-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.ray, lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.dev)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Restart of LDA2001 Project (using LDraw models - L3P - POV)
 
(...) I've been thinking a lot about that. I think you can find a couple of threads here if you perform a search on "post-processing" or "post-processor". But... What if a futureversion of L3P has some new improvement and changes the syntax of the (...) (20 years ago, 14-Jan-05, to lugnet.cad.ray, lugnet.animation, lugnet.cad.dev)

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