[Bf-docboard] sine wave errata

[Chris Burt]

The code for the wave modifier isn't anything like what you'd expect. 
The wave modifier doesn't actually make a sinusoidal wave I don't think. 
I'm pretty sure it actually makes a moving parabola.

Regards,
--Chris

Randall Rickert wrote:
> In the user documentation on this page:
> http://download.blender.org/documentation/htmlI/ch21s03.html
> 
> It says:
> 
>> To obtain a Sinusoidal-like wave
>>
>> To obtain a nice Wave effect similar to sea waves and close to a  
>> sinusoidal wave it is necessary that the distance between following  
>> ripples and the ripple width are equal, that is the Width Num  Button 
>> value must be equal to 4 over the Narrow value.
> 
> There is a nice diagram also. Both the diagram and the text are  
> incorrect. The formula Width=4/Narrow does not create something like  a 
> sine wave. This is easy to see if you try using the values Width=4  and 
> Narrow=1. The result does not look at all like a sine wave.
> 
> As far as I can tell, the formula for a wave that looks sinusoidal  
> should be Width=Pi/(2*Narrow). Probably a better way to write it is  
> Narrow=Pi/(2*Width), because most people would probably start with a  
> wavelength in mind (the wavelength is Width*2).
> 
> It's a bad interface anyway, because making a sine wave (probably the  
> most common wave the user will want to make) shouldn't require the  user 
> to calculate Pi/(2*whatever).
> 
> -Randall
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