TextureEditor
Parameters
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Parameters
A parameter consists of five elements:
collapse switch
name
map socket
value area
scale switch
This button will toggle between the icon being visible or
invisible. When visible, after clicking the collapse button, the parameter will
disappear at this level.
When the name is selected with a left mouse
click, a menu list with actions that may be performed on the parameter
will be displayed:
- rename
- When selecting the rename item, a
dialogue box pops up. A new name for this parameter may be entered. A
parameter name may not contain spaces. If spaces occur in a
parameter name they will be replaced by underscores ("_")
automatically.
- HSV/RGB
- A color parameter can be manipulated in 2 ways: with RGB
(red, green, blue) values or HSV (hue, saturation, value)
values. The HSV/RGB menu item allows the user to toggle
between them. If the parameter is in RGB values, the item HSV may be
selected; if the color is in HSV values, the RGB menu item may be
selected.
- reseed
- Some maps, such as the noise map, have the same seed. That is,
every noise map you take has the same pattern as the others. With the
reseed command, the noise pattern can be changed.
- fix event
- When fix event is selected,
a dialogue box pops up for setting a frame number. This is used for
animating textures. After a fix event
is given for a parameter, it cannot be renamed. After a
rename, the fixed events are lost. The events
are linked to the current GIG animation. They cannot afterwards be
used in another animation by using the same texture.
The fix event will generate a time-curve which can be
manipulated in the GIG animation menu.
- toggle collapse
- See collapse switch.
- limits
- When selecting the limits item, a
dialogue box pops up for setting new limits of the scale
values. Default values are between 0.0 and 1.0.
- The default setting for scales is linear. This means that every
interval of the scale is the same amount. If the scale is set to
exponential, the amount of scaling in the lower area is smaller than
in the higher area.
- To automatically adjust the scales around the current value, there
are the possibilities to `stretch' or `squeeze' the limits.
map socket 
This button is selected after the map plug of a map is selected or
a map in the map listbox of the general menu is
selected. In this way a map name can be plugged into the parameter.
- The value area has two means of visibility:
- as an
entry box in which values can be typed, or
- as a scale in which the
values can be changed by pulling a slider.
Any valid expression might be typed in the value area when it is
displayed as an entry box. For example:
-
For a simple field such as an intensity, this might be a
number. But there is also the possibility of typing an expression,
with the use of arithmetic operators (+ - *). Names of other
parameters in the same texture can be used in these expressions,
creating mutual dependencies of parameters.
Colors can be written in
the form:
( 0.2, 0.5, 0.75 )
- giving the red, green, and blue components. These values can again
be expressions or value maps. Another way is:
[ 0.125, 0.5, 1.0 ]
- giving hue, saturation, and value instead. In expressions colors
can be added together or multiplied by a number, in which case the
number must appear before the color. Parentheses can be used in
expressions as usual.
A special case is the transformation of a map. If `t' is a parameter
where a `2d_transform_map' or `3d_transform_map' map has been plugged
in, and `mp' is a
parameter with any kind of map, then in a value area one can type:
t@mp
- to indicate the interactively transformed map. If a
`2d_value_mask' map is
plugged in a parameter `mk', then in a value area one can type:
t @ mk * mp
- to indicate an interactively transformable map on which a mask map is
applied.
Note
When a map is plugged into a parameter field, the value area displays
a mnemonic text which can not be changed by the user. The background
color of the value area is a bit darker now. The TextureEditor does
not allow these mnemonic texts be part of an expression. However, when
a new parameter in a texture or map is added and a map is plugged into
this new parameter, then this new parameter name might be used in any
expression as long as the expression evaluates to the right
attribute. That is a number for an intensity parameter, a color for
a color parameter, and a bump-map for a bump parameter.
When trying to edit a value field with a map name the name
disappears. By clicking the right mouse button or keyboard Escape key
the name is restored.
The scale switch allows a user to toggle between a scale or an
entry box in the value area.
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