Mesh creator in volume mode example?

SteveElbows's picture

Can anybody help me to understand what is possible when using the mesh creator patch in SL set to Volume mode? There is a Volume input but I dont think Ive seen any examples of what sort of data this takes or what results can be achieved?

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

Well firstly , don't switch inputs whilst live rendering - ever •~

Secondly - IMETD - don't feed the Volume input Normals, but you can feed it Colours :-)

See attached example - produces output [but produces none if only volume is connected], but I'm still looking to create a specific Volume structure creating routine.

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meshbyvolume.qtz86.57 KB

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

I wonder if this link I've just stumbled upon might hold some useful clues along the volume rendering route http://www-irma.u-strasbg.fr/~helluy/OPENCL/opencl.pdf

SteveElbows's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

Cheers, though Im afraid I didnt find this too useful as it seems to behave the same if I disconnect the volume input.

dust's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

apples opencl dev examples for qc have a volume render set up or at least an option to select it in the wind tunnel example, as per seeing any volumetric fluid sims when i select i don't see anything.

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

Quote:

it seems to behave the same if I disconnect the volume input

Exactly my point - though not too well made.

The Volume setting on the Mesh Creator has some functionality, but I have as yet to create a specific OpenCL structure that runs into that port, despite having achieved success programming the OpenCL patch in QC.

I can achieve volume rendering at the command line [CUDA].

I am not even at all sure if the inputVolume structure input port on the Mesh Creator patch can be operational. I have a feeling that it is a bit of a dead end.

BTW, those links to the tl_ examples in OpenCL are fantastic.

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

The Wind Tunnel example employs a transformed static .dae as a mesh used to visualize the volume calculated by transforming the static. dae, but it does not provide the kind of input, I believe, that will work in the Volume input port upon a Mesh Creator / Volume patch.

It is a rebuilt , restructured mesh.

The Trackball has an unpublished input for Volume Mesh which doesn't go down to a Mesh Creator patch, but to a Mesh Renderer.

If only we had a Set Mesh Component with a Volume setting we might be easily in business with Volume [inputVolume] structures.

Have you managed to make a structure that makes all the difference to the inputVolume input port and the mesh resulting?

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

Here's an example of some odd behaviour when seeking to switch between mesh rendering modes on the Mesh Creator patch within Mouse Ribbon.

The Mesh Creator patch shall eat itself :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2ESZPpX8_8

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

Just been doing a refresh on OpenCL background reading and some of that within the OpenCL patch itself, wherein I did find

3D Image   : not supported
  • do you think that might be in part related to the non - functionality with OpenCL providing a way of creating a structure acceptable to the Volume input upon the Mesh Creator patch within QC4 ?

It will allow a 3D image input, but won't render a 3D output whilst line, triangle and point are AOK output wise.

fsk's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

i think this was asked on the QC mailing list and the developers said something like: "the port is there but it doesnt work yet". i might have mixed something up but if i didnt, you are still better of asking about it there.

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

Yeah, I think you're right , though I wasn't able to find the relevant post when searching the archive @qcdev

toneburst's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

That sounds right. QC can't currently deal with 3D (volumetric) textures, but the OpenCL Kernel patch has a sampler3D input. It just can't be used yet...

a|x

toneburst's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

cybero wrote:
Just been doing a refresh on OpenCL background reading and some of that within the OpenCL patch itself, wherein I did find

3D Image   : not supported

This might have changed in the latest version of QC/MacOS (still on 10.6.1 here), but it used to say in the comment at the top of the code in an OpenCL patch that 3D images were supported as an INPUT type, though not as an output type. Of course, QC doesn't support 3D images/textures, so there's no way you can use the 3D image input in an OpenCL patch in QC.

a|x

cybero's picture
Re: Mesh creator in volume mode example?

Is QC current incapacity with 3D volumetrics resolvable by creating a custom patch? Come to think of it , that still would leave begging the requirement for that Mesh patch to deal with the volume structure. Basically a frameworks issue then ?