Introduction
Usage
Examples
History
Requirements
Installation
Ordering

TrueBump is LightWave ® Modeler plugin to transfer fake bump map to true geometry on the object surface.

The main working mode and unique, practically unreplicable while using the others tools available on the market is analize of texture set in Surface Editor. TrueBump for each polygon with any surface set, checks whether it contains bump map texture and if it does evaluates texture value in the analized point.

It could be also used as terrain generator at will, but in comparision to other landscape generating tools it's you who fully decide where newly generated geometry will be placed, not plugin. Want to have land on single polygon? Want to have planet with mountains, valleys and oceans when camera go near it's surface? Got it!

This plugin completely replaces functionality of obsolete PolygonsDivider, and the all customers who bought it will be able to purchase TrueBump with discount. Please contact to support for details.

Currently image and procedural texture layers are supported. Multiple layers of texture are also handled.

It's interactive tool, therefore you can see result object in the real-time while adjusting parameters in the control panel.

The plugin operates on the all or directly selected polygons, and will be inactive in other modes. You can safely select any number of polygons, even one. Polygons do not need to be connected in any way; their placement and order in which they were selected also does not matter.

This plugin behaves similarly to built-in LightWave ® modification tools like Move, Rotate or Size and is immediately active. The main reason for this is having fast preview of geometry after spraying or painting weight bump maps.

To fulfill operation TrueBump divides polygons, if Segments is higher than 1, to smaller ones, and for each point calculates displacement. For Source set to: Bump Surface bump map texture set in Surface Editor is analized. For Weight Map you choose which weight map is used to displace points. And for Texture custom texture is used.

Having perfect quality requires using high Segments values. We advise to use, after realizing bump map, Merge Points to eliminate potentially same points, then Smooth to make surface less sharp, and at the end qEMLOSS2 or others tools to optimize to the closest possible mesh. This has adventage over dynamic methods of subdivision and displacing in Layout, because mesh is smoother and overall number of points and polygons is smaller after optimization and therefore scene renders faster.

On the left image you can see the plugin control panel.

If you don't see this after running plugin you should press 'n' key to open Numeric options window.

Segments parameter defines the number of segments to which original polygon will be divided. Source triangle is divided into array of triangles. Source quad is divided into array of quads. The minimum is 1 segment.

Shift parameter defines distance for which points will be transformed. There is no hardcoded limits for this value. Zero simply divides polygons, negative creates concave object and positive creates convex object. The direction is calculated for each point from average polygons normal vector.

Source parameter defines source data type of bump mapping which will be applied to the object surface. It could be one of the following: Bump Surface, Weight Map or Texture. Other sources could be added for request. We are welcome for any ideas and ways we can improve product in the future releases.

Bump Surface has no additional options.

Weight Map has weight map pop-up control.

Texture has texture editor switch on/off button. It is intelligent and is automatically closed when Source is changed to anything else than Texture.

Refresh button to refresh object after modifing texture parameters in the Texture Editor. Added in v1.5.

Weight Map Source Examples

If both Shift and weight map value are positive (red colour) the object surface is rising. If Shift is positive and weight map value is negative (blue colour) the object surface is falling.

We advise using already smoothed weight maps, to receive better results.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Download animation illustrating TrueBump plugin at terrain painting (0.000 MB).

Texture Source Examples

On a few below pictures you could see example of realizing bricks on the tower, giving you extremely realistic effect. You don't have to shying anymore and could move camera close to the object.

The recommended way is using a few objects and assign them in object replacement plugin depending on distance from the camera. In this method you receive fast rendering in long distance when you need no perfect quality, and using faked bump mapping, and when camera gets closer and closer receive better and better quality object.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Changes made in the 1.8 (21-Jan-2006)

  • Great improvement in speed up to 200% thanks to using binary-tree for point normal searching routine.

Changes made in the 1.5 (20-Nov-2004)

  • Completely rewritten point normal vector calculating technique.
  • The large speed increase of the main building function, thanks to using hash table for calculating point normal vector.
  • Many clean up and optimizations in the entire plugin.
  • Added security check to ensure that Segments parameter is always in proper positive range.
  • Added Refresh button in Texture source mode to refresh object after modifing texture in the Texture Editor.
  • Removed remembering Segments parameter after finishing session in the plugin. Now you have to set it manually each time you run it. This way after using big Segments value and running plugin another time, you don't have to in some cases very long wait for building object.

Changes made in the 1.0 (15-Feb-2004)

  • The first official (Windows and Macintosh) release.

Minimum Windows Requirements

  • LightWave v6+
  • Pentium or better
  • Windows 32 bit

Recommended Windows Requirements

  • GeForce2 Titanium 32 MB or better
  • x86 compatible CPU 1.0 GHz or better
  • Windows Me or better

Minimum Macintosh Requirements

  • LightWave v6+
  • PowerPC or better
  • MacOS X

Recommended Macintosh Requirements

  • PowerPC G3/G4 CPU 1.0 GHz or better

Installing the product

In order to install the program, please extract the archive to some location on your hard disk.

On Windows ®, the archive is in the ZIP format. You will need 3rd party software such as WinZIP, which you can download from http://www.winzip.com (it's not included in the package), or other compatible software to decompress the archive.

Windows XP ® has built-in ZIP support (simply right click on the archive�s icon, and choose �Extract all files...�).

On Macintosh ®, the archive is in the SIT format. You will need 3rd party software such as StuffIt, which you can download from http://www.stuffit.com (it's not included in the package), or compatible software to decompress the archive.

The LightWave ® plugin does not require files to be in specific locations, which is a very nice feature. But for easier file management it is recommended that the plugin files (i.e. those with .p extension) be copied to your LightWave ® plugins folder (f.e. LightWave\Plugins\).

Installing LightWave ® Modeler Plugins

Run the LightWave ® Modeler executable. Select pop-down menu Modeler > Utilities > Add Plugins..., then choose the folder containing the new plugins and select them. You should see a message from LightWave that the plugins have been added successfully. The changes will be saved to your configuration file when you quit the program.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Uninstalling the product

Uninstalling LightWave ® Modeler Plugins

Run the LightWave ® Modeler executable. Select pop-down menu Modeler > Utilities > Edit Plugins..., then select the plugin files and press the Delete button. The changes will be saved to your configuration file when you quit the program. Now you can safely remove the files from your hard disk.

Click on the image to see it at full resolution.

Price

The price for a single license (product installed on the one machine) is 300 USD (United States Dollars).

On-line ordering

This is the preferred ordering method. It has several advantages:

  • Easy. You just need to type your personal and credit card details into the order form, and you will receive your goods within max. 48 hours.
  • Fast. Usually, you will receive the purchased products within an hour (depending on the time difference between where you live, and the hours we are working)!
  • Safe. You are sure your order won�t be stolen in transit, or held up by postal strikes etc.