Hi all
Are there any known size limitations with regard to using a draped image.

I tried to use a jpg file 13800 * 12800 pixels (29MB) it wouldn’t work.
The image was resized to 50% and it was fine.

I will be starting a new job shortly.
It will consist of 7 images which will be stiched to to make one image or can multiple images at different coordinates be used on the same surface.

David

Can’t remember exactly but whatever it is, it sucks.  I think I had an image of 18500 x 7000 loading but that was it.  Will you be stitching the images yourself or will it be done properly?  Either way, I’d dare say it’s better to work with them seprately.

David,

Its 10,000x10,000 pixels currently having the same problem got 38km of highway. Suggest you follow the thread of Keith’s for multiple draped material slots for the best res, otherwise resizing does work but lowers the res. It will save on render time though.

From our own tests we have found 10,000 pixels on either axis to be a useful limit to bear in mind for draped photos, but the size will be machine specific depending on the availability of system and graphics memory. This is a limitation in the way that VIZ and MAX manage the overhead of loading large image files into memory unfortunately.

If you decide to resample the image, it’s best to reduce the image to sizes such as 75%, 50%, etc to retain as much quality in the resampled image as possible. Resampling the image to exactly 10,000 pixels (and thus percentage values such as 87.3% [for example]) causes uneven averaging of the RGB values on each original pixel.

I hope this makes sense.

Yeah, Bruce and co are on the money.

Just remember that the benefit of rescaling an image isn’t directly proportional regarding file / image memory size.  i.e. an image that’s scaled to 50% of the resolution size actually drops to about 25% of the file and memory size.

If you can setup multiple tiles along the alignment (if it’s a corridor) then that’s good because it may be possible to stage renders for a drivers eye camera with higher resolution images along the way.  If it’s a flythrough then you can still do this but it’s not as easy but further away may allow lower resolution images anyway.

Then there’s Wavegen’s ECW plugin.  The problem with it is that licencing requires a purchase per machine even if it’s on a render farm

I guess I wasn’t that clear, I do what you do Peter, but rather than using the ecw plugin I set up the ecw within er mapper and size up the images to a) reduce file size but also b) keep the higher res within the view distance of the viewer. Then I save these as tiff files with the benefits of their world coordinates.

Mark Roberts - 14 June 2007 11:09 PM

rather than using the ecw plugin I set up the ecw within er mapper and size up the images to a) reduce file size but also b) keep the higher res within the view distance of the viewer. Then I save these as tiff files with the benefits of their world coordinates.

Neat.  Hadn’t thought of that.  I use the ECW to place a JPG in CAD then transfer it to MAX.  I presume you’re then using Dynamite to place the image with the TIFF coordinates?

I don’t use the Wavegen plugin, I just know people who have tried it.  I can’t get the trial to download from their site from work or even at home.

Er Mapper creates the tfw file or jpf file so Dynamite reads it. Its so much easier.

Another handy piece of software ( free - 4 hours worth anyway) is MrSid GeoExpress Viewer. Trial version can be downloaded at http://www.lizardtech.com - Its very good for creating geo-referenced TIFs, JPGs etc from SID images, but it can also be used for resampling TIFs, JPGs etc.

If anyone is working with SID files, this GeoExpress viewer is excellent. Loads SIDs in record time…..........and converts to other formats just as quick !!

Thanks Mark. Sounds worthy of a listing in the links section. I’ll get it added.

Done.

Incidentally, any community member can submit suggestions for inclusion in the Links section simply by sending an e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Each suggested link will be added to the site after moderation by a member of staff at 3am Solutions.

There is only one software product out there can can handle plus 10k by 10k uv maps and textures in 3D software . You need to go to http://www.wavgen.com. We support all of the rendering engines out there like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, Softimage XSI, Mentalray, Vray, FinalRender, Brasil, Turtle, Maxwell, et cetera. We also support 100% thrid party tools, and plugins, and our highway planning and urban development customers render like a hot knife through butter as ECW is such an elegant raster solution.

Please send us an email or check us out at wavgen.com (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).

Jorg

Hi, Jorg.  Could you please clarify something?  I was impressed with the demo and thought about trying your product a few years ago but at the time either I couldn’t download the trial or it didn’t work.  Anyway, I haven’t yet to try it and one of the guys I know mentioned that pricing is based on per seat.  That’s fine but he was of the belief that with Dynamite (and many other plugins), you could purchase one license but install on as many render farm nodes as you have however with your software you had to pay per node.

Si, if we have two workstations using Max and 50 machines on a render farm, do we need to puchase two licenses or 52?

Thanks and welcome to the forum.

Mark Roberts - 14 June 2007 11:09 PM

I guess I wasn’t that clear, I do what you do Peter, but rather than using the ecw plugin I set up the ecw within er mapper and size up the images to a) reduce file size but also b) keep the higher res within the view distance of the viewer. Then I save these as tiff files with the benefits of their world coordinates.

very helpfull

ER Mapper, is a seperate program. ER viewer is a free addon to Mapinfo.

I’m not sure its fair to the 3am guys to be posting prices of products external to the company here. What I can say is that software costs money. Especially good software. I can also say that we are not a plugin. We are quasi a very embedded wavelet based render engine that behaves natively to a 3D package and all that it supports (3rd party tools, plugins, renderers). And the nice thing is that we allow folks the ability to load, model and render gigantic, and I mean enormous files in these packages. We once rendered a 2TB image in 3D Studio Max in under 2 seconds.