Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
1. How does one produce uniform lighting of a surface, such as topography from a DEM, during rotation. I have experimented with idlgrlight with type set to 1, and with both a fixed light source and one that rotates with the model, but seem to get quite variable, and even spotlight-like, light intensities during rotation. 2. I am making animations of earthquakes seen beneath a transparent topographic surface. At present the memory limitation imposed by my video card limits me to about 150 frames. For xinteranimate each frame consists of an image of both the earthquakes and topography. The earthquakes change with each frame, but the topography remains the same. Thus it would be advantageous to produce frames with only the earthquakes, then play the animation using a single image of the topography as a constant background to each frame. I figure this could save much memory, allowing many more animation frames to be created. Does an alternative to xinteranimate (with the same ability to control the rate of animation) exist that could do this?
Re: lighting; alternatives to xinteranimate
"Thomas Wright" <twright@usgs.gov> wrote in message news:aee1db91.0303262236.1bf58dc2@posting.google.com... > 2. I am making animations of earthquakes seen beneath a transparent > topographic surface. At present the memory limitation imposed by my > video card limits me to about 150 frames. For xinteranimate each > frame consists of an image of both the earthquakes and > topography. The earthquakes change with each frame, but the > topography remains the same. Thus it would be advantageous to > produce frames with only the earthquakes, then play the animation > using a single image of the topography as a constant background to > each frame. I figure this could save much memory, allowing many more > animation frames to be created. > > Does an alternative to xinteranimate (with the same ability to > control the rate of animation) exist that could do this? My Motley library at... http://www.dfanning.com/hadfield/README.html ...includes animators implemented using various approaches with OG and DG. None is as fast as XINTERANIMATE, but on some problems they can use *much* less memory. They share a common playback interface, which allows control of frame rate, looping, random access, etc. Start by having a look at MGH_EXAMPLE_ANIMATE, MGH_EXAMPLE_DGANIMATE & MGH_EXAMPLE_IMAGE_SEQUENCE.