Tutorial Talk

[Wingnut]

Hi gang!  Umm, I updated https://github.com/BabylonJS/Babylon.js/wiki/05-Cameras today...

 

- removed tutorial main picture and top lines.  Thinking about something new and fresh for that. 

- added gamepadcam and followcam

- fixed lies I accidentally told earlier... regarding anaglyph cameras

- added to oculus and told about a name change and a function removal

- did some capitalizing and wording work

 

Just stuff.  I'll be proofreading forever.  AlexB... let me know if you want changes to the followcam section, or feel free to edit it yourself, of course.  Davrous... if you read this... check my crap regarding vJoysticks and gamepad camera stuff...  correct me or correct the tutorial as wanted.

 

If someone knows about how to set oculus OVR settings AFTER an oculus camera is created... love to hear about it... thx.    Is OculusRiftDevKit2013_Metric the same as OVR?  Do we still allow an OVR "package" to be an optional parameter in the OculusCamera constructor?  Is .BuildOculusStereoCamera() gone forever?  Did it leave a goodbye note?   I'm so confused.

 

All comments welcome, on all subjects.  Thanks again for the followCamera information and demos from everyone... you guys made it easier for me to teach it.  (lowered stress - it reduces the amount of times I say stupid and/or wrong things)    (thx!)

[Wingnut]

Hi kids.  I did quite a few adjustments and renamings in the Basic Series tutorial menu ... to make the order of tutorials... match the order of the playground scenes that go with them.  There was a "stub" tutorial about Blender... that has been removed from the menu and is now called "Working with Blender".  It mostly just points to the MSDN tutorial for that subject.

 

That removal, and the removal of a menu item for "Environment", allowed the menu to match the demo playground scenes... number for number (up to #15).

 

The "Environment" tutorial still exists.  It is now called 'Scene Environment' and is still listed in the "Supplemental Tutorials" section... and in the side bar menu.  Its all about fog and skyboxes... pretty important.

 

Sorry if I have inconvenienced anyone.  The tutorials in the #10 - #15 section... needed some love.    More love ahead... for those, too.  But I'm still working on cameras at the moment... or at least thinking about working on that playground demo.    Party on!

[GameMonetize]

I love the love you gave to tutorials

[Wingnut]

My pleasure, as always, Deltakosh & friends.

 

The basic series Particles Tutorial has been updated.  The new optional fourth parameter was to be called FragmentElement initially, but is instead called customEffect (and it got more versatile/flexible).  You can read about it near the bottom of the tutorial, and enjoy a very nice demo of a customEffect on a ParticleSystem - authored by Deltakosh. 

 

We now have a versatile and powerful CUSTOM fragment shader system to use on our particles.  It's easy, it's fun, it's fascinating, it's Babylon.js! 

 

You can skip the tutorial visit and see the full-sized version of Deltakosh's new demo RIGHT HERE, and/or the playground version RIGHT HERE.  It's coooooool!  The time parameter cycles across about a 20-second period... faster, slower, rinse, repeat.

 

Thanks DK!

[Wingnut]

Hi everyone! 

 

   I have finally finished adjusting the English on all of the github-based tutorials.  I may have missed some things, because I did a marathon session to get finished. 

 

I must say, considering these tutorials were written by non-native-English-speaking authors, they were VERY well done.  Not only was the English quite clean and concise, but so were the explanations of the classes and processes (as best I can tell). 

 

Nicely done, Deltakosh, Davrous, and all other wiki contributors.  Be well, party on!

[GameMonetize]

Thanks dude!

[Dad72]

Arf double post. my mouse is too sensitive, I have to change....

[Dad72]

I just see the tutorial on  SceneOptimizer . it looks really great features as always. I see also that the LOD system is started, or finished I do not know because I have not yet seen the meshLODLevel.js file, just meshLODLevel.ts, but LOD system seems great, I look forward to see a tutorial for its use.

 

Deltakosh I thank you for the excellent features. I'll tests it 

[GameMonetize]

I hope so

[Dad72]

You plan to do a tutorial on the use of LOD Deltakosh system?

You also plan for a LOD heightmap terrain. The terrain mesh is divided into 3 or 4 level of detail.

 

I tested SceneOptimizer and it works very well. but I do not know how to for LOD

[GameMonetize]

Obviously there will be a doc

 

Some hints:

var knot00 = BABYLON.Mesh.CreateTorusKnot("knot", 0.5, 0.2, 128, 64, 2, 3, scene);var knot01 = BABYLON.Mesh.CreateTorusKnot("knot", 0.5, 0.2, 32, 16, 2, 3, scene);var knot02 = BABYLON.Mesh.CreateTorusKnot("knot", 0.5, 0.2, 24, 12, 2, 3, scene);var knot03 = BABYLON.Mesh.CreateTorusKnot("knot", 0.5, 0.2, 16, 8, 2, 3, scene);knot00.addLODLevel(15, knot01);knot00.addLODLevel(30, knot02);knot00.addLODLevel(45, knot03);knot00.addLODLevel(55, null);

[Dad72]

Thanks for hints. I saw it differently with an indication for level 1, 2, 3

 

And for the ground you are planning a LOD?

[joshcamas]

LOD? For optimizing ground? I NEED!

 

And what is SceneOptimizer?

[Dad72]

SceneOptimizer is really great for big scene to always keep your FPS up. more info here:

https://github.com/BabylonJS/Babylon.js/wiki/How-to-use-SceneOptimizer-tool

[joshcamas]

oh, cool!

 

I'll be adding a LOD system for my editor now

[joshcamas]

I think I found a problem in the wiki for SceneOptimizer:

 

• BABYLON.TextureOptimization(maximumSize, priority): This optimization tries to reduce the size of render textures.

But then in the example code it has:

 

result.optimizations.push(new BABYLON.TextureOptimization(priority, 256));

 

 One has priority first, the other second. Same for HardwareScalingOptimization.

 

Which is wrong?

[Dad72]

I correct the wiki. there also had the same problem with: HardwareScalingOptimization

[joshcamas]

Thanks for fixing!

 

 

 One has priority first, the other second. Same for HardwareScalingOptimization.

 

there also had the same problem with: HardwareScalingOptimization

 

Yea ik

[Seyren]

Speaking of LOD, the LOD levels don't seem to work properly when using instances, did everyone try?

[joshcamas]

Another question for LOD is: Would it be possible to "simplify" a ground mesh? (Remove every other vertices, ect)

[Wingnut]

Hi guys.  I'm sure the author of the SceneOptimizer will have some answers for you guys, eventually.  Thanks for the recent wiki fixes, too.  Well done.  The SceneOptimizer is real new, and it's likely we will see modifications to it as it matures.  Instances will definitely be looked-into.

 

Josh, if you look at the other actions that the optimizer can take, none of them reduces the poly-count of any meshes.  That is really not its purpose.  In a way, calling the SceneOptimizer... an LOD device, is probably not appropriate.  It enables/disables framework features/details, but, again, in no way does the optimizer ever reduce a mesh resolution.

 

Also, Josh, a framework-ready ground subdivision-reducer would also have to deal with heightMaps, and tiled grounds, and possibly with displacementMaps.  It would be a substantial bit of work to do such a thing.  But you could make your own function to do reducing for your own needs, and therefore make it be simpler.  For example, if YOUR scene didn't use tiled grounds, then your poly-count reducer code wouldn't need to honor tiled grounds.  You could write a "specialized" poly reducer... just for your own needs.

 

You might also discover that the fastest way to reduce the poly-count of a ground... is to dispose the old one and recreate a new, lower-resolution one in its place.

 

As you can see at the bottom of the SceneOptimizer wiki, you can add your own "layer" (your own pass) of optimization by making (and stocking) your own optimizer object.  So, you COULD code-up a ground/plane LOD adjuster and it could be included during the default (built-in) optimizations.  It would/could be treated just like the other optimizations, having delays between passes and priorities be honored.

 

I guess we could call those add-ons... 'user-optimizations'.  We could establish a library or repository of user-made optimizations.  Optimizer add-ons. 

 

So, yeah, although you might not convince the author into making a poly-reducer be part of the default optimizations, you could code one up yourself and offer it to the team as an add-on.  *shrug*  Just speculating here.  But I think you will admit that a poly-count reducer is not really the same type of optimization... as the default ones seen on the optimizer.  It is a different "type", yes?

[joshcamas]

According to this link: http://www.html5gamedevs.com/topic/10484-lod-bugged-when-being-used-in-instances/

 

Poly-count optimizations are being added soon. :3

[Dad72]

Poly-count optimizations are being added soon. 

 

Who said that? I do not see anything official on it.

[Wingnut]

I think we all might be talking about two different things.  Seyren is developing a poly-reducing LOD system, I think.  I suspect it is a different thing than the new SceneOptimizer class.  But maybe I'm wrong.

 

And maybe it's only ME that is totally confused.    Nothing new there.

[joshcamas]

I personally was talking about the LOD system, and never mentioned SceneOptimizer for poly-reducers. So I think that's the confusing factor.