The Primstar GUI: Add Mesh (Blender 2.49)

Primstar-1 Reference Add Mesh

preliminary note: The following documentation is a short reference to primstar 0.9.21 This reference has not been created on behalf of Domino designs. Any erroneous description is entirely due to my lack of understanding. All screenshots have been made with blender 2.49a and primstar 0.9.21 on Windows XP.

The GUI elements

The following GUI pops up when you add -> mesh -> Sculp mesh :

The GUI elements have the following meaning:

Shape

here you can select from a set of basic sculpt types (just click somewhere into the text field). After you clicked on the text field a selection menu pops up. Here you find the set of basic Sculptie types:

At the right hand of the Shape field you find a “File-upload” symbol. If you click on this symbol a file browser pops up. You can upload any sculptmap available on your file system.

Notes:

• The Torus X and Torus Z are 2 flavours of Torus with different UV-mapping:

1. Torus-X: The marked seam on the image (the short seam) corresponds to the upper edge of the UV-map. When you cut along that seam you get the topology of a simple bended cylinder. For example you will use that torus flavor to create a collar.
   
2. Torus-Z: Now the marked seam on the image (the long seam) corresponds to the upper edge of the UV-map. When you cut along that seam you get the shape of a car tyre:
    

   If you just need a torus, you can use either of them.

Geometry

1. X Faces: The number of faces in the U plane
2. Y Faces: The number of faces in the V plane
3. Radius: only for Torus sculpties. Tells the radius of the inner hole. value range: [0.05 – 0.5]m default value: 0.25
4. Clean LODs (only for non power of 2 Geometries)

Notes:

1. Remember that a sculpty always is born out of a simple plane. The numbers above give the numbers of faces in that plane.
2. The subdivision and the geometry determine the actual number of faces in the sculpty!
3. “Power of 2” facecounts always have Clean LOD. Therefore the Clean LOD checkmark is disabled for “power of 2” sculpties.
4. If “non power of 2” facecounts are used, the LOD does no longer make use of “each secnd face” but some times odd LOD-jumps are introduced. If you want to keep hand on how your sculpty behaves with LOD, then you should check “Clean LOD”. If you prefer to keep an equal devided UV-map, uncheck “Clean LOD”.

Citation (Domino Marama):There are some sizes such as the 64 x 128 maps where having Clean LODs enabled is the wrong choice if you want the modelling mesh to match the final sculpt mesh. The “Clean LODs” option will turn black in the GUI if enabled in those cases. It’s also possible to select face counts where neither enabled or disabled will give a match between the modelling mesh and the sculptie. The “Clean LODs” option stays black for both then. You need to adjust face counts for correct adjustment.

Subdivision

• Subdivision controls the number of sub hierarchies of nodes in your sculptie. It is directly coupled with the subdivision type
• Subdivision type (Subsurf vs. Multires):
  1. Subsurf uses a low poly cage (control points) around your sculptie while the Subdivision count determines how many vertices are manipulated with the control points of the cage.
  2. Multires gives you the option to directly manipulate the mesh according to the first 3 LOD-levels of the Sculptie.
• Subdivision type (Catmull vs. Simple):
  1. With Simple the subdivision is calculated linearly. Hence straight edges remain straight but get subdivided into “sub edges”.
  2. With Catmull each level of Subdivision adds more smoothness to the Object.

Notes:

• You will use Catmull for smooth rounded shapes. Simple will be most usefull for sharp edged sculpties like cubes..
• If you set Levels to “0” then the number of faces is only determined by the Geometry (see above). In that case neither Multires nor Subsurf will be used for your sculptie.

Mesh type

• Quads : all faces are Quads (rectangles)
• Triangles: all faces are triangles (not yet implemented)

Note:

• Domino stated that the development of triangles can be quickened up if you send him some donations.

Map Size

The map size is a read only GUI element. It shows you the number of pixels in x and in y! Below the top row you also find a table of LOD values. This table tells you how many faces you will have in each LOD level.

Note:

• Geometry and Subdivision both influence the face count and the image size!

GUI default settings

The GUI comes with reasonable default settings. In order to support as many use cases as possible, the GUI allows to change the defaults. Below the “Build” button you find 2 checkmarks:

• Save : if this option is checked, all current settings will be reused when you recall the GUI the next time within the SAME blender session. If the option is NOT checked, the GUI will always popup with the default settings regardless of what you have used during the previous call of the GUI. With other words: if checked, the GUI remembers what you wanted the last time.
• Defaults : if this option is checked, the current settings will be used as default settings. The default settings are preserved over blender sessions.

General notes

The following notes may help you to understand some of the quirks of the GUI:

• Sometimes GUI elements turn black. This is generally meant as warning. You need to review the settings and be sure that what you set is what you mean. One typical scenario is when you have selected non power of 2 face counts. In that case the “Clean LODs” checkmark turns black. That means: “Take care here! You may need to choose if you want Clean LOD’s or not…”
• The Clean LODs Checkmark is only relevant when you use non power of 2 maps.
• Independently of the used facecount, any generated sculptmap will always have power of two dimensions. The dimensions used will always be shown in the Map Size field.

If in doubt, please attach your question(s) to this Post or tell me about any missleading parts and or any necessary corrections. I will update this reference as needed.

Have fun,

Gaia