The Baseshape Editor

Main Controls

Edit

This control opens and closes the baseshape editor.
It also, changes the view windows from the standard point based render, to a vector representation of the fractal elements.

Open

This button opens all of the elements of the editor. Works only if there are baseshapes.

New and Delete

These buttons creates and remove baseshapes.

• New, opens the baseshape selector and once a baseshape is selected, it opens the parameter controls.
• Delete, deletes the current baseshape.

Arrows

These two arrows let you to move into the baseshape list.
In the View Windows, the selected baseshape are in red, while the unselected ones are green.

Baseshape Index

This label shows the index number of the current baseshape.

Append, Save and Load

These buttons are used for saving, restoring and appending baseshapes from a file.

• Save, exports the baseshapes to a file.
• Load, imports baseshapes from a file, replacing current ones.
• Append, appends baseshapes to the current ones from a file.

Undo

This button undoes the baseshape last change. Only the displacement maps and the STL meshes are unaffected by it.

View Panel

This control alternates between the vector representation of the elements of the scene, and the actual camera itself.
The options are:

• Vector, The Standard editor representation.
• Points, Real time view of the fractal. Use it if you want to fine tune the baseshape parameters.

Note: The mouse controls of the Vector representation remains in this view mode.

Window Vieport

This control let you chosse between four types of viewports:

• Camera: The actual camera angle, you can rotate and pan the camera (using the mouse buttons). The baseshape and viewport movements are restricted to the (X,Z) plane.
• Front: This is a front viewport (+Z). Here you can use the right mouse button to change the baseshape position in the (X,Y) plane. The left mouse button let you pan over the plane, and the zoom slider let you zoom in it.
• Left: In this vieport (-X), you can control the movement of the baseshape in the (Y,Z) plane with the right mouse button. The left mouse button let you pan over the plane, and the zoom slider let you zoom in it.
• Top: In this vieport (+Y), you can control the movement of the baseshape in the (X,Z) plane with the right mouse button. The left mouse button let you pan over the plane, and the zoom slider let you zoom in it.

Mouse Control

This selector is mainly used to control how the left mouse button operates in the Camera viewport.
The options are:

• Rotate, left mouse button will rotate the camera.
• Pan, the left mouse button, will be used to pan around the scene.

Material

This control assigns a material slot to the current baseshape.
Use it when you want to render multiple baseshapes with various materials.

The Shape Tab

On this tab the baseshape parameters are defined.

Baseshape Selection Box

This control let you to choose the baseshape, by clicking on the baseshape image.
Use the arrows (situated on the right side of the control) to move around the baseshape list.

Parameters Box

This Control determines the baseshape iteration depth, size and many other parameters that baseshapes requires. The parameters are:

• Depth: This parameter determines how many fractal iteration are calculated for the baseshape. If you set it to 1, no fractal iterations are calculated.
• Radius: This parameter determines the actual size of the baseshape.
• Baseshape Parameters: These are baseshape specific parameters. They are different in every baseshapes. You can use the Tab control to move around the different parameter sets.
• The Random Button: Randomizes the parameters of the current baseshape (not all baseshapes supports this option).

The Show Baseshape Option

This option allow to show or hide the un-iterated baseshape.
This come handy in fractals like the quaternion julia set, because the original baseshape can be bigger than the iterated ones, effectively hiding them.
This is an example of the effect of this option:

Breadth First Option

When enabled, this option changes the overhall iteration schema, favoring the first steps of the iteration rather than going depth into the iteration tree. This is specially useful for fractals like the Julia sets, on where the size of the first iterations are very large compared to the last ones.

Surface Textures

Starting with Incendia 1.3, surface textures are supported.
These textures maps over the surface of the baseshapes directly, unlike the material textures that are directional. This mean that the baseshape surface is colored according to the specific baseshape features. The surface controls are:

• Use Surface Texture, when this option is activated, the use of the surface textures are enabled.
• Load Texture, this button is for loading the surface texture.
• Clear Texture, this button clears the texture from the memory.
• Smooth Texture, Since the surface textures are limited on resolution, when this option is enabled, a biliner interpolation is activated, so it smooth the overhall apareance of the texture.

Surface Textures and the Material definitions
Since Surface textures values are added to the standard Ambient Material definition, if you want to get the exact color representation of the surface texture, you must set the Ambient material to a very dark value (usually a black color).

Special Baseshapes

On Incendia there are two special type of baseshapes, that requires external files in order to define the presented shapes.
They are:

• The Displacements Maps Baseshapes, that uses an external bitmap files for surface definitions.
• The Mesh Baseshape, that allows the user to import an external 3D mesh.

Displacement Maps Baseshapes

The Displacement Mapping Baseshapes (dmaps), are an special case of baseshapes, that uses bitmap files as a displacement maps.
These baseshapes are colored in gold instead of green. They are seven and when one is selected, a button labeled "Load DMap" becomes visible:



This button let you load a bitmap. This bitmap is converted on a heightmap (by selecting the highest value for every RGB point), and its mapped over the surface of the baseshape. If the value of a pixel is black (0,0,0 in RGB), the pixel is considered transparent, and this is mapped into the heightmap as a hole.
The seven baseshapes are:

Name	Image	Script Index
Displacement Plane		49
Displacement Double Plane		50
Displacement Column		51
Displacement Cylinder		52
Displacement Disc		53
Displacement Sphere		54
Displacement Cylinder SQ		55

The Mesh Baseshape

The STL Mesh baseshape is an special type of baseshape, that allow the user to import an STL 3D mesh. When this baseshape is selected, it has the following controls:

• Load STL Mesh: This button let you load an STL mesh into Incendia. The mesh can be a binary or a text based format.
• Clear Mesh: This button removes the mesh definition from the memory.

For more information about the STL fileformat, follow this wikipedia article regarding STL Fileformat

The Control Tab

This Tab is mainly used for definig the baseshape orientation and position. It also helps to restrict the movement of the baseshapes on an especific axis or define special orientations.

Trackball

The Trackball control consists in a virtual sphere made of three colors. This sphere controls the orientation of the baseshape. In order to rotate the baseshape, put the mouse pointer over the trackball and move it with the left mouse button pressed. The colors represents:

• Green, Rotations around the X axis.
• Red, Rotations around the Y axis.
• Blue, Rotations around the Z axis.

Translation

This control restricts the translation of the baseshape to an specific axis. The options are:

• F, Full translation (no axis restriction).
• X, Translation restricted to the X axis.
• Y, Translation restricted to the Y axis.
• Z, Translation restricted to the Z axis.
• 0, No Translation, the baseshape is centered at (0,0,0).

Rotation

This control restricts the rotation of the baseshape to an specific axis. The options are:

• T, Full trackball rotation.
• X, Rotation restricted around the X axis.
• Y, Rotation restricted around the X axis.
• Z, Rotation restricted around the X axis.
• 0, Resets the baseshape rotations.

Fixed Rotation

This control defines a set of fixed rotations applied to the baseshape.
The options are:

• +X, Sets the baseshape rotation to 90 degrees on the X axis.
• +Y, Sets the baseshape rotation to 90 degrees on the Y axis.
• +Z, Sets the baseshape rotation to 90 degrees on the Z axis.
• -X, Sets the baseshape rotation to -90 degrees on the X axis.
• -Y, Sets the baseshape rotation to -90 degrees on the Y axis.
• -Z, Sets the baseshape rotation to -90 degrees on the Z axis.
• Rf, Reflects the actual baseshape orientation, so the axes points to the opposite direction.

Hint: Try this control with the Teapot Baseshape.

Scale

This control affects the baseshape scale in the three axes. Its important to note that the scale are applied before the baseshape rotation. The options are:

• X, Scale in X.
• Y, Scale in Y.
• Z, Scale in Z.

A value of 1.0 means no scaling.

Shear

This control affects the baseshape with shear values in six possible directions. Its important to note that the shear and scale transformations are applied before the rotation transformation is applied. The options are:

• XY, Shear in the XY direction.
• XZ, Shear in the XZ direction.
• YX, Shear in the YX direction.
• YZ, Shear in the YZ direction.
• ZX, Shear in the ZX direction.
• ZY, Shear in the ZY direction.

A value of 0.0 means no shear.

Reset

File:Reset.jpg

This button resets both Scale and Shear transformations.

The Baseshape Editor Window

The Baseshape Editor Window shows the following elements:

• The Selected Baseshape: This is a vector representation of the actual baseshape, every change in the editor are reflected on this representation. This element has a red color.
• Unselected Baseshapes: This is a vector representation of the various baseshapes that are in the scene. These elements has a green color.
• Transformations: The Transformations aren’t used in this editor, but they appears here as 3 dotted circles centered on the transformation axes. These elements has a blue color.
• The Scene Center: This element points to the center of the scene (camera rotations happens around this point), and its represented as a green cube.
• Iterations Points: These points are the actual iteration of the whole fractal components (baseshapes and transformations). They are white colored and serve as a guide for editing the elements.