[Bf-committers] A contribution

[Kent Mein]

In reply to Dan Brown (dan@harthinian.com):

> The first is a simple modification that is almost completed now. The 
> ability to
> save the depth buffer. I know the Iris+ZBuf file format does this, but I 
> wanted
> it in a more direct format that can be saved directly alongside a tga or 
> jpeg. This can be either as a new file type (how I'm doing it now) to save 
> just the depth buffer or with a toggle button (like the current OSA button 
> in the F10 render panel for example) which would save the depth buffer 
> _and_ the selected image file type. It would save the file as floats scaled 
> so that 0.0 is the near clipping plane up to higher numbers at the far 
> clipping plane and would be named filename.zbuf.

I would personally do it with a known format like tga and just make
all 3 channels the z value, would make it more portable that way probably
as well.

> 
> The second is a bit more involved. It is to upgrade the Empty system to 
> allow both a few lines of meta data and a few different Empty primitives 
> (point with radius, plane, triangle, quad).
> 

What extra data do you want, and why not just use a mesh that is in the
shape you want in place of an empty?  Just make all of the shapes in
a different layer and lay them out.  Then users just goto that
layer and duplicate them and goto town.
(For the meta data you could just attach properties to that mesh no?
The only real reason to use an empty is you just want a position and nothing
else.  There is nothing that says you have to have any faces on a mesh you
have it can also just be a collection of points, and it would probably
simplify your life a bit.  ;)

Kent
-- 
mein@cs.umn.edu
http://www.cs.umn.edu/~mein