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General Category => General Anim8or Forum => Topic started by: Gregory on June 23, 2008, 06:07:56 am

Title: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 23, 2008, 06:07:56 am
In my space battle animation objects very far away are clipped off:  I have set Z_Far to 100,000 and more, yet large objects at beyond 12,000 meters are invisible.  Is there a limit on the distance that can be rendered?

Just ran another test:  they are not visible when rendering with OpenGL or Scanline, but they do render in ART.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: karate5662 on June 23, 2008, 10:28:40 am
Art ignores the Z near and far values. that's why you can still see them in ART.

if you changed the X_ far under the view tab, that won't make a difference in the renders.

in scene mode go Settings > Environment. at the bottom the the screen that pops up you will see a button that says "Advanced", click on it.

now you can set the Z_near and Z_far for rendering in Scanline and OpenGL.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 23, 2008, 12:20:04 pm
Thanks.  I set the Z-Far in both the View settings and in the Environment tab.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: karate5662 on June 23, 2008, 12:51:01 pm
np problem
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 23, 2008, 01:35:34 pm
I set the Z-Far in both the View settings and in the Environment tab but still no far objects render in scanline or OpenGl.  Is there any other setting I've missed?
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: karate5662 on June 23, 2008, 03:15:45 pm
possibly fog, if you're using that. or maybe a background image.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 23, 2008, 08:27:35 pm
No fog, no background.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 24, 2008, 04:45:54 am
Does anyone have a fix for objects farther than 12,000 meters away bring invisible to the scanline and opengl renderer?
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on June 24, 2008, 07:03:43 am
I have never tried to model something so big.  Could you have found the outer limits of the Anim8or universe, perhaps?!?  I would suggest scaling everything down a bit, as painful as that may be.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: headwax on June 24, 2008, 09:42:59 pm
Leslie of terranim8or fame should know. He worked with stars etc so I'm sure he would have found the limits at one time.

Post a question on the org site in the terranim8or section perhaps?
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: hihosilver on June 25, 2008, 03:44:17 am
Perhaps just scale down everything in your scene.  I don't see a need for the scene to be so huge...
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 25, 2008, 04:40:15 am
Rescaling them is not an option.  I am previsualizing animation for a different program using the coordinates.

Does anyone know how to get far objects to render in OpenGL?
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: ENSONIQ5 on June 25, 2008, 06:31:00 am
I'm sorry, I can't help with this.  It's possible you are striking a limit within Anim8or, or at least within the renderers.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: thecolclough on June 25, 2008, 11:47:48 am
i'd guess that if there is an absolute z-far limitation, then steve would know about it and would be able to tell us - unless it varies depending on the power of your hardware, though i'm not sure how that would affect it.

Could you have found the outer limits of the Anim8or universe, perhaps?!?

this thread reminds me of that moment in The Truman Show where he crashes his boat into the horizon...
(http://sisterspowa.free.fr/the%20truman%20show%202.jpg)

- colclough
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Steve on June 26, 2008, 02:24:49 am
I think there is a z-limits bug or two in Anim8or that could be causing this.  I'm looking into a fix.  You should be able to set these values.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Tanzim on June 26, 2008, 07:25:23 am
Well, think about it, in real life could you see something 12 KM away?
Unless it was HUGE, no, but you are right to have environments that large if they are in real life (I'm assuming that your/your program's aiming for photo-realism)
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 26, 2008, 09:22:41 am
Thanks, Steve. 

I think there is a z-limits bug or two in Anim8or that could be causing this.  I'm looking into a fix.  You should be able to set these values.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on June 27, 2008, 03:29:38 am
Well, think about it, in real life could you see something 12 KM away?
Unless it was HUGE, no, but you are right to have environments that large if they are in real life (I'm assuming that your/your program's aiming for photo-realism)

Yes, you can.  Here's an example at sea, and in the mountains you can see much farther.

It's simple, really. If you want to know the distance to the horizon you simply have to know your height of eye. That is the distance that your eyes are off the surface of the water. If you're in a jon boat, that would probably be about three feet (if you are sitting like you should be in a jon boat). If you were standing at the water's edge, your height of eye is the distance from your eye to your feet.

Once you know your height of eye you simply plug that into the following formula:

1.17 times the square root of your height of eye = Distance to the horizon in nautical miles

For example, let's say you are on the water in a friend's sport fishing boat and your height of eye is 9 feet above the surface of the water. The formula to calculate distance to the horizon is:

1.17 times the square root of 9 = Distance to the horizon in nautical miles.

1.17 * 3 = 3.51 nautical miles

If you want to calculate the distance at which an object becomes visible, you must know your height of eye and the height of the object. You then do the same calculation for your distance to the horizon and the object's distance to the horizon and add the distances together. For example:

You have the same height of eye of 9 feet so your distance to the horizon is still 3.51 nautical miles. You're approaching a port that has a lighthouse that is shown on your chart to have a height of 81 feet. Using the same formula you would find that 1.17 times the square root of 81 (1.17 * 9) = 10.53 nautical miles (the light house can be seen 10.53 nautical miles over the horizon)

By adding the two together: 3.51 + 10.53 = 14.04 nautical miles, you should be able to see the lighthouse when you are 14.04 nautical miles away.

As you can see from the illustration, because of the curvature of the earth, the higher your height of eye the farther you can see, and vice versa.

http://www.boatsafe.com/kids/distance.htm



Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Tanzim on June 27, 2008, 06:24:46 am
Never mind, but I did say "HUGE"objects
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Steve on July 13, 2008, 06:04:37 pm
I've fixed several Z-Min and Z-Max problems.  See http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=881 (http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=881) for more information.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on July 14, 2008, 10:10:55 pm
Thanks, Steve.  Is this in the current .097b download or for a future release?
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Steve on July 21, 2008, 04:39:18 pm
It'll be in the next preview.
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: Gregory on July 21, 2008, 10:57:29 pm
Good news.  Thanks.  When is the next preview?
Title: Re: Objects far away are invisible
Post by: hihosilver on July 21, 2008, 11:01:41 pm
Gregory:  If he knew already, I'm sure Steve would have announced it.  He gets out previews as quickly as he can, but not without some good solid updates.  Please don't hound Steve with questions about when the next version will be out.  You can be sure he's working hard on it.