[Bf-committers] Volumetrics Update and Question

[echelon at infomail.upr.edu.cu]

Hello !

   First of all, congratullations to all the dev team for the upcoming
release , all of you are very busy now and deserve a little vacation
after that, so forgive me if I keep poping you with my stuffs but my
vacations are still far away.

  next weeks I'll be a little busy because begins the exam period but I'll
try to maintain my rate of coding as long as posible.

  Last nigth I completed the code for texture controled (stack and SHD
tree) 3D object fallofs and took some time to add multipoint texture
controled 3D object fallofs that will be usefull for
particle/datesets/simulations.
Next week when i get conected I'll upload related test content.

 Now the volumetrics with that option enabled will look without abrupt
adges at their boundaries and the user could specify the radius and the
offset radius for varing the edges.

About particle volumetrics I have some questions:
I could plug the volumetric core to anything that the raytracer handle or
ray based, but particles seems that are nor raytraced at all (am I wrong?)
and allthoug I have maked some test with halos and the new soft settigs
and they could render a limited version of volumetrics with no world
shadows at all (particles dont cast shadows on geometries) I am not
satisfied with it, I could develop it as an option but the limited nature
of halos does not make them a good candidate for particle volumetrics.

Solutions? Suggestions?

I have thinking on make spheres/boxes at render time for every particle
since they are properly raytraced ,and also have develop the multipoint
falloffs, that, as an option to, could be used for the "window effect"
(using raytraced surfaces to reveal the volumetric world behind like a
window in a room)

 I really need to know sugestions because it keeps me from moving foward
to particle volumetrics.For plug the core I will only need an entry
point,direction and a ShadeInput structure or al least a material asigned
one and properly shadow detected for the current render.

  I could not avoid to start thinking on my next moves while I still coding
pending features, but It have save me time before. Now I'm concern because
its near the day when I will jump to volumetric particles and havent find
a correct solution yet.

Also I need to know how to access to the particle position and data for a
given time (where in the code are that?)

The interior media volumetric are prety mature rigth now, still are many
small things (but not necesary easy) that Im allready working on, if
particle where more easily I could in the first testing build included to,
but if seems more complex, it will have to wait. after finish the shader
models,integration issues and if possible for now raytravel distance, I'll
start to learn and code the UI for the first testing build.