Since the deep shadow buffer summer of code project is not actively under
development anymore, I decided to build my own DSM implementation from
scratch, based on reusing as much existing shadow buffer code as possible.
It's not very advanced, but implements the basic algorithm. Just enough so
we can do shading tests with it, optimizations and other improvements can
be done later.
Supported:
* Classical shadow buffer options: filter, soft, bias, ..
* Multiple sample buffers, merged into one.
* Halfway trick to support lower bias.
* Compression with user defined threshold.
* Non-textured alpha transparency, using Casting Alpha value.
* Strand render.
Not Supported:
* Tiling disk cache, so can use a lot of memory.
* Per part rendering for lower memory usage during creation.
* Colored shadow.
* Textured color/alpha shadow.
* Mipmaps for faster filtering.
* Volume shadows.
Usage Hints:
* Use sample buffers + smaller size rather than large size.
* For example 512 size x 9 sample buffers instead of 2048 x 1.
* Compression threshold 0.05 works, but is on the conservative side.
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_torus_add(major_radius=1, minor_radius=0.25, major_segments=48, minor_segments=16)
- experemental dynamic menus, used for INFO_MT_file, INFO_MT_file_import, INFO_MT_file_export and INFO_MT_mesh_add. these can have items added from python.
eg.
- removed OBJECT_OT_mesh_add, use the python add menu instead.
- made mesh primitive ops - MESH_OT_primitive_plane_add, ...cube_add, etc. work in object mode.
- RNA scene.active_object wrapped
- bugfix [#19466] 2.5: Tweak menu only available for mesh objects added within Edit Mode
ED_object_exit_editmode was always doing an undo push, made this optional using the existing flag - EM_DO_UNDO, called everywhere except when adding primitives.
* Fix AAO showing Distance property even though it is not supported.
* Fix texture buttons not displaying texture stack from the node material.
* Small visual tweak to particle mode options.
Keymaps are now saveable and configurable from the user preferences, note
that editing one item in a keymap means the whole keymap is now defined by
the user and will not be updated by Blender, an option for syncing might be
added later. The outliner interface is still there, but I will probably
remove it.
There's actually 3 levels now:
* Default builtin key configuration.
* Key configuration loaded from .py file, for configs like Blender 2.4x
or other 3D applications.
* Keymaps edited by the user and saved in .B.blend. These can be saved
to .py files as well to make creating distributable configurations
easier.
Also, user preferences sections were reorganized a bit, now there is:
Interface, Editing, Input, Files and System.
Implementation notes:
* wmKeyConfig was added which represents a key configuration containing
keymaps.
* wmKeymapItem was renamed to wmKeyMapItem for consistency with wmKeyMap.
* Modal maps are not wrapped yet.
* User preferences DNA file reading did not support newdataadr() yet,
added this now for reading keymaps.
* Key configuration related settings are now RNA wrapped.
* is_property_set and is_property_hidden python methods were added.
* Loading old files didn't initialise the new rotation variables properly
* Fixed some errors with the newly added operator for copying RNA-paths for properties
* Auto-keyframing now correctly refreshes animation editors after adding keyframes. Made the keyingsets code send notifiers again, but now using the newly added WM_main_event_add() (thanks Brecht)
* A few UI tweaks again for animation stuff (timeline, keyingsets UI)
Pattern Select operator, access from the object select menu
Glob strings like "Lear*.brown" and "Tree.0?", option for case sensitive and extend the existing selection.
currently the default string is "*" which needs to be edited in the redo-panel in the toolbox since there is no way to get a text input for python.
This replaces 2.4x's data browser Shift+F4, pattern select.
- editing properties from python wasnt running their update function.
- missing commas made dir(context) give joined strings.
- added __undo__ as an operator class attribute so python ops can be set as undoable. (like existing __register__)
* Added a new option for Auto-Keyframing which makes it only insert keyframes for the items included in the active Keying Set.
This only works for Transform Auto-Keyframing so far (other tools will get it added later). The option is disabled by default.
* Fixed bug where adding an 'entire' array to some KeyingSet would only start from the index of the button that the mouse was over at the time
* Made some UI tweaks for Keying Sets buttons (still heaps of missing options there).
- added TexMesh access ([#19505] Missing option : TexMesh)
- Ctrl+Tab works again, not-so-nice workaround, disallow switching to paint modes from editmode, but would be nicer to manage this with keymaps.
- Useful for dragging buttons to the far right when theyd otherwise hit the screen edge.
- Useful for transform though probably NOT what you want when using the transform manipulator (should make an option).
- When enabled, number buttons use this as well as a different conversion of mouse movement
float numbuts: mouse 1px == 1-clickstep
int numbuts: 2px == 1 (tried 1:1 but its too jitter prone)
details...
- access as an option to GHOST_SetCursorGrab(grab, warp)
- Currently all operators that grab use this, could be made an operator flag
- only Ghost/X11 supported currently
Selecting a material in the node tree sets this as the active material and the buttons view redraws.
Added rna prop material.active_node_material
Currently its not clear what settings are used by the node material and the base material (needs some tedious research) so I made most panels use the node material with the exceptions of volumetrics, physics and halo settings.
We'll probably need to split the panels up to do this properly.
* Code for generating 'Object' summary of Keyframes for DopeSheet (which is also used by the TimeLine for getting keyframes to draw) now considers materials, object data, and particles too.
* Rearranged the way that keyframing-related settings were presented in the User Preferences. The way the settings were grouped was plain confusing, and based on biased views from the old system. For the record, 'needed'+'visual' are always considered when inserting keyframes, 'always' is for autokeyframing, and default interpolation is only used for newly created F-Curves.
* Fixed bug #19472 - Scroll wheel scrolls in the wrong direction for enum-menus that were flipped (i.e. window type menu and 3d-view mode selector).
The goodies:
* Curves can be used as normal dynamic effectors too with
the new "curve" field shape.
* Group visualization has optional duplication counts for
each object in the specified group.
* Object & group visualizations, which are done without
taking the dupliobject's global position into account
(unless the whole group is used). This is much nicer than
the previous behavior, but I added a "Use Global Location"
option for those who want to use it the old way.
* The active particle system's particles are now drawn a
with theme coloured outline instead of pure white.
* Added object aligned velocity factors (buttons categorized
and re-organized too).
Bug fixes:
* Absorption didn't work as the ui toggle button was forgotten.
* Some other force field ui tweaks.
* Crash after adding children and changing trails count.
* Display types "cross" and "axis" crashed.
* Particles weren't drawn with correct coloring.
* Billboards didn't update properly in viewport to camera
location changes.
* Particle rotation wasn't recreated correctly from point cache.
* Changing particles amount crashed sometimes.
* Some files with child hair crashed on loading.
* Compiler warning fixes.
* Adding boids crashed on frame 1;
Volumes can now receive shadows from external objects, either raytraced shadows or shadow maps.
To use external shadows, enable 'external shadows' in volume material 'lighting' panel. This an extra toggle since it causes a performance hit, but this can probably be revisited/optimised when the new raytrace accelerator is integrated. For shadow maps at least, it's still very quick.
Renamed 'scattering mode' to 'lighting mode' (a bit simpler to understand), and the options inside. Now there's:
- Shadeless
takes light contribution, but without shadowing or self-shading (fast)
good for fog-like volumes, such as mist, or underwater effects
- Shadowed (new)
takes light contribution with shadows, but no self-shading. (medium)
good for mist etc. with directional light sources
eg. http://vimeo.com/6901636
- Shaded
takes light contribution with internal/external shadows, and self shading (slower)
good for thicker/textured volumes like smoke
- Multiple scattering etc (still doesn't work properly, on the todo).
*Fixed some spacing issues in 3D View and Outliner headers
*Made the Bone properties layout consistent with Object properties
*Put Rotation Mode menus below transformation channels, being less important.
*Tiny layout tweak for area lamps
Added a way to view and edit Keying Sets via the Scene Buttons. These are still some tweaks needed to make this really workable, but should still work well enough for simply viewing and tweaking existing Keying Sets created using other means.
Additional bugfixes:
* Adjusted the size of labels on properties that had a 'label' for their name. Now it uses 1/3 of the total width instead, which looks much better for most cases.
* Added missing entries for adding Force Fields from the Info-header 'Add' menu. At some point we should unify this menu with the popup operator's one, since this is exactly the kind of situation we had hoped in avoid with new UI architectures.
* Moved all the operator defines for keyframing stuff to the 'intern' anim header instead
* Unified scene wide gravity (currently in scene buttons)
instead of each simulation having it's own gravity.
* Weight parameters for all effectors and an effector group
setting.
* Every effector can use noise.
* Most effectors have "shapes" point, plane, surface, every point.
- "Point" is most like the old effectors and uses the
effector location as the effector point.
- "Plane" uses the closest point on effectors local xy-plane
as the effector point.
- "Surface" uses the closest point on an effector object's
surface as the effector point.
- "Every Point" uses every point in a mesh effector object
as an effector point.
- The falloff is calculated from this point, so for example
with "surface" shape and "use only negative z axis" it's
possible to apply force only "inside" the effector object.
* Spherical effector is now renamed as "force" as it's no longer
just spherical.
* New effector parameter "flow", which makes the effector act as
surrounding air velocity, so the resulting force is
proportional to the velocity difference of the point and "air
velocity". For example a wind field with flow=1.0 results in
proper non-accelerating wind.
* New effector fields "turbulence", which creates nice random
flow paths, and "drag", which slows the points down.
* Much improved vortex field.
* Effectors can now effect particle rotation as well as location.
* Use full, or only positive/negative z-axis to apply force
(note. the z-axis is the surface normal in the case of
effector shape "surface")
* New "force field" submenu in add menu, which adds an empty
with the chosen effector (curve object for corve guides).
* Other dynamics should be quite easy to add to the effector
system too if wanted.
* "Unified" doesn't mean that force fields give the exact same results for
particles, softbody & cloth, since their final effect depends on many external
factors, like for example the surface area of the effected faces.
Code changes
* Subversion bump for correct handling of global gravity.
* Separate ui py file for common dynamics stuff.
* Particle settings updating is flushed with it's id through
DAG_id_flush_update(..).
Known issues
* Curve guides don't yet have all ui buttons in place, but they
should work none the less.
* Hair dynamics don't yet respect force fields.
Other changes
* Particle emission defaults now to frames 1-200 with life of 50
frames to fill the whole default timeline.
* Many particles drawing related crashes fixed.
* Sometimes particles didn't update on first frame properly.
* Hair with object/group visualization didn't work properly.
* Memory leaks with PointCacheID lists (Genscher, remember to
free pidlists after use :).
After code review and experimentation, this commit makes some changes to the way that volumes are shaded. Previously, there were problems with the 'scattering' component, in that it wasn't physically correct - it didn't conserve energy and was just acting as a brightness multiplier. This has been changed to be more correct, so that as the light is scattered out of the volume, there is less remaining to penetrate through.
Since this behaviour is very similar to absorption but more useful, absorption has been removed and has been replaced by a 'transmission colour' - controlling the colour of light penetrating through the volume after it has been scattered/absorbed. As well as this, there's now 'reflection', a non-physically correct RGB multiplier for out-scattered light. This is handy for tweaking the overall colour of the volume, without having to worry about wavelength dependent absorption, and its effects on transmitted light. Now at least, even though there is the ability to tweak things non-physically, volume shading is physically based by default, and has a better combination of correctness and ease of use.
There's more detailed information and example images here:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Broken/VolumeRendering
Also did some tweaks/optimisation:
* Removed shading step size (was a bit annoying, if it comes back, it will be in a different form)
* Removed phase function options, now just one asymmetry slider controls the range between back-scattering, isotropic scattering, and forward scattering. (note, more extreme values gives artifacts with light cache, will fix...)
* Disabled the extra 'bounce lights' from the preview render for volumes, speeds updates significantly
* Enabled voxeldata texture in preview render
* Fixed volume shadows (they were too dark, fixed by avoiding using the shadfac/AddAlphaLight stuff)
More revisions to come later...
Editors Modules
* render/ module added in editors, moved the preview render code there and
also shading related operators.
* physics/ module made more consistent with other modules. renaming files,
making a single physics_ops.c for operators and keymaps. Also move all
particle related operators here now.
* space_buttons/ now should have only operators relevant to the buttons
specificially.
Updates & Notifiers
* Material/Texture/World/Lamp can now be passed to DAG_id_flush_update,
which will go back to a callback in editors. Eventually these should
be in the depsgraph itself, but for now this gives a unified call for
doing updates.
* GLSL materials are now refreshed on changes. There's still various
cases missing,
* Preview icons now hook into this system, solving various update cases
that were missed before.
* Also fixes issue in my last commit, where some preview would not render,
problem is avoided in the new system.
Icon Rendering
* On systems with support for non-power of two textures, an OpenGL texture
is now used instead of glDrawPixels. This avoids problems with icons get
clipped on region borders. On my Linux desktop, this gives an 1.1x speedup,
and on my Mac laptop a 2.3x speedup overall in redrawing the full window,
with the default setup. The glDrawPixels implementation on Mac seems to
have a lot of overhread.
* Preview icons are now drawn using proper premul alpha, and never faded so
you can see them clearly.
* Also tried to fix issue with texture node preview rendering, globals can't
be used with threads reliably.
Create new orientation is now Ctrl-Alt-Space (Alt-Space is select orientation and the old ctrl-shift-c is taken by add constraints).
New orientation panel in 3d view sidebar (nkey) has operator buttons for select, create and delete. Eventually, this should become a list.
Note that orientation operators are missing notifiers to properly redraw the 3d view and its header properly.
