Subject:
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Re: L3P v1.3 for Mac OSX
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev.mac
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Date:
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Tue, 1 Jul 2003 12:54:45 GMT
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Viewed:
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1769 times
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In lugnet.cad.dev.mac, Christopher Masi wrote:
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Tom,
I have been playing a bit with L3P, but I have never used the LGEO
parts. Are they worth the extra effort? (I have no idea how to use them,
but I am sure that I can figure it out from the available info... that
is what I mean by effort.)
Also Tom, what do you render with? I have been using the Classic PPC
version (3.2 something-or-other) because I have found that it is much
faster and more reliable than the OS X 3.5 version. What are your
feelings on the matter?
Chris
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Chris,
I think the LGEO parts are worth the effort, which is now pretty minimal --
downloading the LGEO library (two files: the ‘complete’ library through update
14, and update 15, at http://www.el-lutzo.de/lego/lgeo.html), setting the
LGEODIR environment variable, and specifying the -lgeo switch on the L3P command
line. I’d have been willing to accept the need to manually edit the
L3P-generated POV code had Lars not been able to fix the bug so quickly for some
reason.
The biggest improvements from using LGEO are IMO for curved parts (cones,
cylinders, dishes) and slope bricks. In the former case, the LGEO parts look
much better in high-quality renders as they are defined with cylinder, cone, and
torus objects. In the latter case, slope bricks are defined such that a
realistic texture can be applied to the sloped face. These improvements will be
worth the price of admission for many models. There’s a comparison set of
images on Lars’ L3P page http://www.hassings.dk/l3/l3p.html that dramatize the
differences.
There is at least one part in LGEO that I don’t think necessarily improves over
the on-the-fly conversion of the Ldraw part, though (the 4x9 wing
http://guide.lugnet.com/partsref/search.cgi?q=2413, where the LGEO part
doesn’t seem to have the rounded corner on the narrow end quite right). A nice
future L3P feature would be a ‘don’t substitute part xxxx’ directive that could
be included in a comment line in the model code.
Otherwise, the main cost is an increase in render time. This can be substantial
-- an LGEO-using scene image I’m rendering right now to test the L3P update
seems to be taking about 5X longer than its non-LGEO counterpart. So, the
substitution may not make sense for a very large model (or lower-resolution
render) where the improvements won’t be as visible.
I’m rendering with 3.5, driven by two main considerations. First, I’ve been OS
X-only (no Classic installation) on my PowerBook since performing a drive
transplant a few months ago. Second, and most notably here, I’ve been using
Jeroen de Haan’s radiosity include files, which are written for 3.5. I haven’t
had any 3.5 reliability problems of note (the file/open crash is a nuisance more
than anything), and it happily renders away in the background while I do other
stuff in OS X so any speed deficit doesn’t bother me.
Regards, Tom
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: L3P v1.3 for Mac OSX
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| (...) Thanks for the update Lars. Tom, I have been playing a bit with L3P, but I have never used the LGEO parts. Are they worth the extra effort? (I have no idea how to use them, but I am sure that I can figure it out from the available info... that (...) (21 years ago, 1-Jul-03, to lugnet.cad.dev.mac)
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