Beta Stage 2 is Out!

Been messing with the lighting tab for only a few minutes and it's awesome.
Still hope to get slider control added, but this looks great.

Awesome!

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meyendlesss wrote: Still hope to get slider control added

What control?

well, i knew the day was coming. someone's going to have to explain ambient occlusion to me, without me having to read six white papers on it you know... simple. i like simple.

i do like the new ball and lights. pretty darn cool. i dont know how to use them yet, but still, a short test showed some nice things.

and heck, as long as we're at it, someone could explain normals to me, also. i know it's a lighting thing used a lot in 3d work, but that's about it. i think we're going to need a glossary for all this stuff, and please, dont tell me wiki. wiki is made by folks that know how to explain it to someone who already knows the whatever, but not to someone who doesnt. at least, that's been my experience with wiki; a lot of very smart folks talking to other very smart folks who probably already know the subject. what i need, and i'm sure others do too, is a basic primer on all these map types, diffuse, normal, etc, etc. the trick is to explain things to someone like me without having to explain 1600 other terms you use in your explanation i need a KISS (keep it simple, stupid)

Kraellin:
Ambient occlusion darkens objects in their cracks and crevices. It basically calculates how much each point is occluded from ambient light. Artists will use this to make a model look "dirty" or to simply multiply it against an ambient light color to achieve a more realistic look.

A normal is the direction a surface is pointing. In respect to how it's used in graphics and texturing you imagine a flat plane has the same normal across the whole surface, it points upward (if the surface is laying flat). Well you can make a normal map that has a bunch of crazy colors but they represent directions in XYZ (X is usually red, Green is Y and Z is up) So you can use that texture to define the normals of a surface instead of using the flat ones of the plane. It's kind of like a bump map but a lot harder to understand but more powerful

jordan, thank you. that definition of ambient occlusion fits what i saw on my first tests, and i appreciate the simplicity of your definition. by george, i do believe i got it so, it really is just what it says it is, it's an occlusion of the ambient... duh! so, it's not an occlusion of the direct, just the ambient light.

i was trying to figure out who came up with this and why. it took me a while to realize that working in 3d and doing various lighting jobs, one would have a need to vary moods, noise, and other individual factors rather than just adjusting the main lighting for every situation and then it started to make sense. so, ok, i think i've got this one

ok, the normals thing makes a bit more sense to me, as well. so a normal is actually the surface area of a given object/plane. a bump map mostly just cares about height, if i remember correctly, so a normal map is defining not just a height, but an entire 3d object form, if i'm following you correctly here. yes, no?

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for remembering to add "reset environment rotation".

The AO is awesome guys, nice work. (Need to add a duplicate surface height slider in the AO option set though, IMO)

Love the AO! I can't wait to sit and play with it. If only I had my xmas shopping/decorating done.

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uberzev wrote: There should be a way to copy the lighting settings from one filter to another!

In fact why not just LIGHTING PRESETS?!

Vladimir Golovin wrote:

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We have released Beta Stage 2: We have released Beta Stage 2: http://www.filterforge.com/download/beta2/index.html New features include: - Ambient Occlusion - Point / Area Lights - Redesigned Lighting Tab

All super COOL!
Sure, we can always add to our wish list. Much needed improvements. Please keep em' commin! Thank you Filter Forge team!
Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Ron