View source for Geometrica

[[image:Geometrica_Anim.gif]]<br><br>
Geometrica is an external Incendia module, designed for building meshes from Incendia Fractals and baseshapes. This program comes with Incendia NEXT.<br>
The program works by iterating the baseshape approximation for the specified fractal. In that way , the resulting meshes are more accurate than the ones produced by the volumetric methods.<br>
For tutorials, please visit the '''[[Geometrica Examples]]''' page.
=Main Panel=
[[image:GeometricaPanel.png]]<br>
The workspace of Geometrica is divided in two principal areas: The control and the preview section.
<br>
==Fractal and Baseshape Information==
[[image:GeometricaInfoPanel.png]]<br>
This panel show the information about the calculated number of faces, the number of fractal transformations used and the number of baseshapes.<br>
Of this information, the Number of Faces is the most important, since it tell how complex the resulting mesh will be.<br>
A red square will appear as a warning is the number of faces in the final mesh is larger than '''1000,000'''.<br>
<br>
The '''Read IGM''' button.<br>
This button if for loading the file exported by Incendia "Geometrica" button (visible on Incendia Main Panel).

==Preview Type Panel==
[[image:GeometricaPreviewPanel.png]]<br>
This panel has two controls, the preview type and the triangle type:
===The Preview Type control===
This control will show the baseshape or the fractal. By default Geometrica will show the Baseshape preview, since the main objetive of the program is to works with the baseshape resolution.<br>
When a fractal model is too large, the program automatically return to this preview type. <br>
The fractal preview will actually shows the fractal with the baseshapes. Also, if the baseshapes has animation parameters from Incendia, the animation will also be showed.<br>

===The Triangle Type control===
This control defines how the triangles will be shaded on the previews. The options are:
*Solid, non transparent triangles
*Solid GR, works like solid, but shows a gradiented triangle instead.
*Transparent, The triangles will become transparent.
*Wireframe, shows a wireframe representation of the triangles.
Those options works for both the Baseshape and the Fractal Preview.<br><br>

==Control Panel==
[[image:GeometricaControlPanel.png]]<br><br>
The control Panel has two main sections, The Main Baseshape controls and the Animation options.
===The Main Baseshape Controls===
The first part of this control consists in an small browser for the baseshapes that are in the loaded model (the the arrow buttons).<br>
The baseshape number and the name of the baseshape will be visible.<br>
<br>
'''Parameters'''<br>
This control has three elements:
*'''Iter.''', The iteration number of the baseshape.
*'''Filter''', The filter iterations. This particular option is not included on Incendia. This filters the baseshape iterations, so they are not visible in the fractal. For example, if you want to create a plant with flowers at the end of the stems with two baseshapes, you can use the filter iterations to filter all of the flower iterations, save for the last. This is also useful for showing the true fractal, since in most cases the baseshapes becomes very small at the final iterations. 
*'''Radius''', This is for changing the actual baseshape radius. The change of the radius will be only visible on the Fractal Preview.
<br>
The Recursion and Division Controls.
Depending of the baseshape type, one of those controls will be visible.
*The '''Recursion''' control will let you adjust the recursive depth of the baseshape. That is, how complex the baseshape will be.
*The '''Division''' control works by subdividing the X and Y elements of the baseshape. On the Mandelbrot Fractal it also defines the resolution of the resulting mesh for the set.<br>
On the Mandelbrot fractal is important to note that the fractal resolution will not be show in the preview.<br>
When a baseshape has animations parameters, the number of frames for both the rotation and the movement will be show on this frame. This helps to define the final number of frames for the animation controls.<br><br>
===The Animation Controls===
[[image:GeometricaAnimPanel.png]]<br><br>
This panel has two sections, The Animation parameters controls and the animation generation button.<br>
The '''Animation Parameters''' let you change the number of frames (meshes) to be generated.
*'''Start''', In the animation secuence, this defines the starting frame. This works in the same way as Incendia animation options.
*'''Amount''', This defines how many frames(meshes) will be generated, starting from the Start value.
<br>
Th '''Generate Anim.''' button. 
This button starts the export of the meshes and will ask for a base filename. <br>
The mesh frame number will be appended to the chosen name.<br><br>
'''Geometrica Animations''' works by saving sequential meshes, each one with the animation parameters for that frame.<br>
You must take care about this because if you have a large mesh and generate an animation of this mesh, you will get a very large amount of meshes that can easly fill your harddrive.<br>
Programs like Blender has scripts options for loading a numbered sequenced meshes and generating a render for each one.<br>

=Preview and Mesh Generation Panel=
This panel consists in the main preview window, that shows the the baseshape or the fractal and the generation, quit and about buttons.
==Preview==
Here the baseshape or the fractal model will be show. You can use the left mouse button for rotating the model and the mouse wheel for zooming on it.
==About, Help, Quit and Mesh Generation button==
*'''About''', This shows the about information of Geometrica. Press it again for closing the About information.
*'''Help''', This buttons opens your default web browser with this wiki page.
*'''Quit''', This button will quit the program.
*'''Generate''', The mesh generation will start when you press this button. The format of the mesh will be Wavefront OBJ.
<br>
=Important Notes=
Here are important details about Geometrica:
*'''Mesh Format''', Currently Geometrica exports Wavefront OBJ Meshes.
*'''Multiple Baseshapes''', When a fractal has multiple baseshapes, they are exported as a groups, so you can add different materials to them on programs like Bryce or Blender.
*'''Duplicate Vertices''', If you're using Blender, you can use the "Remove Doubles" option, on the mesh editor. For other programs, you can use Meshlab "Remove Duplicates Vertex", located in the Meshlab Filter section, on the "Cleaning and Repairing" subsection. The Mandelbrot Set meshes doesn't require this step.
*'''Triangle Normals''', Sometimes a fractal transformation inverts the normals. I'm trying to solve this. Also, the smooth normals vill become visible when you remove the duplicate vertices.
*'''Animations''', Since most 3D renderers doesn't supports the concept of a fractal animation, the method used is to save each animation frame as a mesh. In Blender, for example I have written scripts that allow you to load an animated sequence of meshes. For an example of how it looks, check this simple animation rendered in Blender: [http://aexion.deviantart.com/art/Rotating-Boxes-285750943 Rotating Boxes]. If anyone is interested on these scripts please let me know.
*'''Symmetries''', Geometrica supports all of Symmetries options of Incendia, but they are not show on the preview, due to their overheard computing complexity. When you import an object with symmetry, you must take care of the face count, since symmetries greatly increased them.

=Video Tutorial=
Here is an small video tutorial  (on YouTube) of Geometrica.<br>
{{#ev:youtube|7iI7MkPo4f0}}
=Example Renders=
Here are some renders generated by programs like Bryce and Blender made with Geometrica meshes:
<gallery caption="Example Renders" widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="3">
File:Flowers.png|Flowers, rendered on [http://www.blender.org/ Blender] Cycles
File:LoxoSphere.png|Loxo Sphere, rendered on Blender Cycles
File:Crystal Lamp.png|Cyrstal Lamp, rendered in Blender
File:Space Station.png|Space Station, rendered in Bryce
File:Amber Kingdom.png|The Amber Kingdom, rendered in Bryce
File:Temple.png|Temple, rendered in Blender Cycles
</gallery>
You can also visit the [http://www.incendia.net/geometrica/gallery/index.html Geometrica Gallery], it has several fractal animations rendered in Blender.