More Panorama Images

Interesting site, thanks Devin, but there's something not quite right about those photos. They don't map to a spherical room as well as the others Paul posted. The tops and bottoms don't match up.

Come to think of it, the pics in Paul's link look to be made to be mapped to an entire sphere. SolidWorks maps only a half a sphere at a time which means there is some tweaking to be done somewhere.

I didn't see that dilemma until now. I'm assuming the solution would be to cut the bitmap in half and map the two separate spheres with each bitmap?

Mike Wilson

Yep, that be it alright...

Now we have a perfectly mapped spherical room. Ah, I feel better now. Why didn't anyone say something!

Question: Should I post the entire set of instructions on my website describing exactly what I did? Be honest, if this may be useful info I'll take the time and do it.

Don't be stingy with the suggestions either. Let em' rip.

Mike Wilson

this is a bit out of my area but you guys might find this link interesting.. check out the HDR Shop software for creating and editing hdri

whoops : )

Mike,

Looks great. I'd like to see the steps you followed.

Thanks Rob

OK, you twisted my arm. I'll see what I can do. Meanwhile here is a rendering of Mr. Martian if you were to plate him with copper (like on that biker show where they argue all the time) and use that reflection bitmap...

Mike Wilson

Mike,

Sorry, but earlier, Ed mentioned the splitting of the images, top/bot hemispheres. So, that would give you a fully mapped sphere as you have figured out.

Summary image:

SW Corp has made the whole process more complicated than it needs to be.

BTW, I totally removed SW from my system and did a fresh install of only SW2004. When using "display preview window",... I get these errors randomly..

Also, this is something I sent to SW last year for SW2003 PW2 and it is still not fixed!? What a POS!!

Hey SW Corp, actually consider fixing stuff!?!?!? And, combine the words, user enhancement and ease of use!?!?!?!? Lastly, don't sell it as if it is something new or a user enhancement when it should have been fixed long ago!?!?!?!?

..

"Mike J. Wils>

Oh cool. You got it covered, right on Paul.

The only thing I did different was to rotate my bottom bitmap (via a photo editor) 180 degrees. When you do that, you don't have to modify anything in the Texture area (i.e. mirror). It's all automagic, or maybe it's autobuggish.

Duh, I didn't grasp what Ed said. I was totally confused by all of the bugs he posted. Now I see.

As far as the blackened halves are concerned, I'm wondering if it only happens if you create a new material while in the Scene Editor?

Thanks, Mike

You guys are right - I just assumed that it was understood to split the image.

My problems are that the top and bottom images don't align using logical numbers when we try to do it... ever. Now, I always increase the size of my images, and size might matter. Right off the web site these images are OK, but individual pixels in the environment map can show as big squares on reflective surfaces. I increase the size of the image first in PSHop and then blur the image so the big squares (environment pixel reflections) go away and the smaller 'squares' blur one into the next. Maybe this quality tweak is what's killing me?

Paul - question... you have a preview window rendering of the correctly mapped sphere. Do the top and bottom hemispheres align when you force a rendering in the preview window, use immediate render in the preview window, and render to the screen? I have always gotten different results for at least one out of the three, and, of course, the rendering to screen is the only one that matters. I understand if you don't have time to run these three tests - we all have jobs to do. Nice work on sharing the step-by-step on creating the 3d sphere, and I am sure many will be grateful for it.

Ed,

You're right, the preview render does not align exactly or the pixels at the rim of the halves are not aligning and sometimes (or at least I can not see it always) the rendered sphere on the screen does not align exactly. (when it does this, it's nasty looking) So, yeah, the images are split perfect and the top/bottom seams are not aligning perfectly. (close, but no cigar) So, as you mention, the seams which do not align will create problems with reflected surfaces and resizing and adding blur should help with seam blending and reflections.

Yeah, no problem with doing the step-by-step image, like your hide/show discovery, it's worth sharing stuff like this to help anyone from loosing their sanity and time over something so basic.

.. 8^)

Edward T Eat>