[Bf-funboard] Re: ShadowBuf name

[Campbell Barton]

GSR,
Can we use tooltips in popup menu's even..?
We can have 1 tooltip for all 3 but Im not sure theres a way of having a 
tooltip for each.

if its a choice between algo and a descriptive name. Id opt for 
descriptive. If people want to know the math behind it- they can look at 
the source.

These names arnt well known like Phong...


GSR wrote:
> Hi,
> matt at mke3.net (2006-12-01 at 1519.28 +1100):
>   
>> With legacy being the old style approach that I presume is only there  
>> for backwards compatibility, Soft being normal shadow buffers and  
>> Sharp being the irregular ones. Perhaps something like 'Versatile' or  
>> 'Flexible' would be better than Soft since those can also become  
>> sharp to an extent...?
>>     
>
> Legacy / classic / minimum can also be used for translucency effects
> better than soft / halfway / midpoint, as it follows the first surface
> without caring about how far is next surface.
>
> BTW, halfway idea comes from Renderman where it is called with the
> more appropiate term "midpoint" (see page 60 of Siggraph 2000 paper
> http://www.renderman.org/RMR/Books/infbeyond.pdf.gz).
>
>   
>> In any case, names that actually help artists in understanding what  
>> these do, unlike the tech-centered names that are there currently  
>> would be a big improvement.
>>     
>
> OTOH, those new names hide any option of looking for paper that
> explain how and why things happen. It reminds me of those chemical /
> car / software companies that hide generic things (cyano glue,
> variable injection, sorting algorithm...) behind cryptic trade names
> and acronyms (SuperDuperGlue, VITXplus, FooIntelliSystem), to create a
> brand, confuse the buyer or negate the information to competitors
> (being GPL software, they are failed tactics except for branding,
> anyway).
>
> So I propose to just use the names that define how the samples are
> done and matching "tooltip" (better with wrapped or autowrapped kind)
> accepting there will always be terms and knowledge required for any
> activity:
>
> - Minimum "Samples are the minimum distance from the light source,
>   requires bias tweaking, traditional method for soft shadows"
>
> - Midpoint "Samples are midpoint, the average of 1st and 2nd distances
>   from light, improved method for soft shadows"
>
> - Irregular "Irregular distribution of samples to match scene geometry
>   as seen by camera, pixel sharp shadows, invisible for raytracing"
>
> No magic, no guessing, no radical changes if details change (imagine
> if irregular type gets some kind of softness tech and you named them
> sharp, it would be full rename vs tooltip change).
>
> GSR
>  
> _______________________________________________
> Bf-funboard mailing list
> Bf-funboard at projects.blender.org
> http://projects.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-funboard
>
>   


-- 
Campbell J Barton

133 Hope Street
Geelong West, Victoria 3218 Australia

URL:    http://www.metavr.com
e-mail: cbarton at metavr.com
phone: AU (03) 5229 0241