projection node

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Projection nodes can take any 2d texture, and make a 3d texture out of it, using one of the many projection types available.

Projection nodes are created automatically by the system when you tell it to create a 2d texture as a projection.

The Out Color attribute of the 2d texture is connected to the Image attribute of the Projection node. Then, the Out Color attribute of the Projection nodes is connected to where ever it needs to go. (Usually, the Color attribute of a Phong, Blinn, or Lambert shader).

Aside from the attributes described here, Projection nodes also inherit many attributes from Texture3d.

In the table below, important attributes have their names listed in bold in the Description column.

This node is MP safe

Node name	Parents	Classification	MFn type	Compatible function sets
projection	texture3d	utility/general	kProjection	kBase kNamedObject kDependencyNode kTexture3d kProjection

Attributes (104)

The following quick index only shows top-level attributes (too many attributes to show them all): amplitudeX, amplitudeY, angWts, camAg (3), camPos (3), defaultTransparency (3), depWts, depth (2), fitFill, fitType, image (3), infoBits, linkedCamera, normalCamera (3), outTransparency (3), passTr, projType, ratio, refPointCamera (3), refPointObj (3), ripples (3), srfNormal (3), tangentUCamera (3), tangentVCamera (3), transparency (3), transparencyGain (3), transparencyOffset (3), uAngle, uvCoord (2), uvFilterSize (2), vAngle, vertexCameraOne (3), vertexCameraThree (3), vertexCameraTwo (3), vertexUvOne (2), vertexUvThree (2), vertexUvTwo (2), xPixelAngle

Long name (short name) Type Default Flags

normalCamera (n) float3 0.0, 0.0, 1.0

The input normal

normalCameraX (nx) float 0.0

The X component of the input normal

normalCameraY (ny) float 0.0

The Y component of the input normal

normalCameraZ (nz) float 0.0

The Z component of the input normal

srfNormal (srn) float3 0.0, 0.0, 1.0

The input normal on the surface based on world matrix

srfNormalX (snx) float 0.0

The X component of the input normal

srfNormalY (sny) float 0.0

The Y component of the input normal

srfNormalZ (snz) float 0.0

The Z component of the input normal

refPointObj (rpo) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

The current reference sample point that has to be shaded

refPointObjX (rox) float 0.0

The x component of the current reference sample position

refPointObjY (roy) float 0.0

The y component of the current reference sample position

refPointObjZ (roz) float 0.0

The z component of the current reference sample position

refPointCamera (rpc) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

The current reference sample point that has to be shaded

refPointCameraX (rcx) float 0.0

The x component of the current sample position

refPointCameraY (rcy) float 0.0

The y component of the current sample position

refPointCameraZ (rcz) float 0.0

The z component of the current sample position

xPixelAngle (xpa) float 0.002053

The pixel angle

image (im) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

Image. The Out Color attribute of a 2d texture should be connected to this attribute. This is the texture that will be projected.

imageR (imr) float 0.0

The red image value for the current sample

imageG (img) float 0.0

The green image value for the current sample

imageB (imb) float 0.0

The blue image value for the current sample

transparency (it) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

Transparency. The Out Transparency attribute of a 2d texture should be connected to this attribute. This is the transparency channel of the texture that will be projected.

transparencyR (itr) float 0.0

Transparency red value

transparencyG (itg) float 0.0

Transparency green value

transparencyB (itb) float 0.0

Transparency blue value

uAngle (ua) angle (double) 180.0deg

U Angle controls how the input 2d texture is mapped around a circle, if you are using Spherical or Cylindrical texture mapping. If U Angle is set to 90 degrees, that means that one instance of the texture is fit into each 90 degrees around the circle in the U direction.

This attribute does nothing for other projection types. See also V Angle.

vAngle (va) angle (double) 90.0deg

V Angle controls how the input 2d texture is mapped around a circle, if you are using Spherical or Cylindrical texture mapping. If V Angle is set to 90 degrees, that means that one instance of the texture is fit into each 90 degrees around the circle in the V direction.

This attribute does nothing for other projection types. See also U Angle.

projType (t) enum PLANAR

Proj Type controls how the 2d texture will be projected into 3d space. The supported projection types are:

0. No Projection

1. Planar: Places the texture on a planar surface and projects it onto the object.

2. Spherical: Places the texture inside a sphere and projects it onto the object. There will be two "pinch points", one at each of the poles of the sphere.

3. Cylindrical: Places the texture inside a cylinder and projects it onto the object. There will be two "pinch points", one at each of the ends of the cylinder.

4. Ball: Places the texture inside a ball and projects it onto the object. This is similar to the way that a candy wrapper is pulled around a lollipop. There will be one "pinch points" at the Z-pole.

5. Cubic: Places the texture on six faces of a a cube, and projects them onto the object.

6. TriPlanar: Projects the texture by extruding it along the axis defined by the maximum current direction of the surface normal. This is somewhat like fabric being wrapped around the object.

7. Concentric: Projects the texture by randomly selecting slices from it and making a concentric pattern from it.

8. Perspective: Projects the texture by matching exactly the perspective of a particular camera. To use this, you need to link the Projection node to a camera. This type of projection is intended to be used to match modelled CGI to scanned backdrops. To do this, use the same texture as a backdrop (put it on an Image Plane attached to the camera) and as a shader (use Perspective projection, and link the projection node to the same camera). Objects in your scene using the shader will seem to disappear, since they will match the backdrop. You can then convert the object's shader to a solid texture, and animate the objects. For more detail on this process, see the rendering books.

linkedCamera (lc) Message n/a

Linked Camera is a connection to a camera node. This is only used when Proj Type is set to Perspective.

fitType (ft) enum 1

Fit Type controls how the texture will be fit to the camera when Proj type is set to Perspective. If you are using this to match a backdrop, you should set this to match the setting in the Image Plane.

Usually, you will have an image plane that is the same size as the rendered image. If that is the case, you should use the Resolution Gate setting.

You can also choose No Fit, which means that the image is not squeezed or stretched to fit. One of its axes (determined by the Fit Fill attribute) will be fit to the filmgate, and the other will just be as big as it needs to.

The third choice is Film Gate, which squeezes the image to fit the film gate.

fitFill (ff) enum 0

Fit Fill is only used if Proj Type is set to Perspective, and Fit Type is set to No Fit. If the image plane aspect ratio is not the same as the filmgate aspect ratio, then this attribute decides which axis of the image is fit to the film gate.

ripples (r) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

Ripples determines how wavy the image will be when projected, but controlling the scale of the fundamental frequency of any fractal noise added to the texture.

If you increase Ripples in any particular direction, the fractal detail will seem to smear out in that direction.

This attribute will not do anything unless Amplitude X or Amplitude Y is non-zero. (That is, there must be some fractal noise added to the system.)

ripplesX (rx) float 0.0

The noise along X

ripplesY (ry) float 0.0

The noise along Y

ripplesZ (rz) float 0.0

The noise along Z

depth (d) float2 0.0, 10.0

Depth controls how much calculation is done by this texture when Ripples are added. Fractal noise such as ripples are created by an iterative mathematical process; as the process goes over more levels, it produces a more detailed fractal, but takes longer to do so. Normally, the texture will choose a level it thinks is appropriate for the volume being rendered. You can use Depth Min and Depth Max to control the minimum and maximum amount of calculation that the texure will do.

depthMin (dmn) float 0.0

The minimum value for recursion depth

depthMax (dmx) float 0.0

The maximum value for recursion depth

amplitudeX (ax) float 0.0

Amplitude X can be used to scale the amount of fractal noise added to the projection in the X direction. When Amplitude X and Amplitude Y are 0, no fractal noise is added. Adding fractal noise is a way of randomizing or blurring the texture.

amplitudeY (ay) float 0.0

Amplitude Y can be used to scale the amount of fractal noise added to the projection in the Y direction. When Amplitude X and Amplitude Y are 0, no fractal noise is added. Adding fractal noise is a way of randomizing or blurring the texture.

ratio (ra) float 0.3

Ratio controls the frequency of the fractal noise. Increase this value to increase the fineness of detail in the fractal noise (if there is any; see Amplitude X and Amplitude Y above).

infoBits (ib) integer 0

Information bits passing along information about type of shading

depWts (dwt) float 0.0

Depth Wts is the array of depth weights computed in projection node and passed on to texture composer for blending process

angWts (awt) float 0.0

Angle Wts is the array of angle weights computed in projection node and passed on to texture composer for blending process

camPos (cpo) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

Camera position in world space

camPsX (cpx) float 0.0

Camera position in world space

camPsY (cpy) float 0.0

Camera position in world space

camPsZ (cpz) float 0.0

Camera position in world space

camAg (cag) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

Camera angle in world space

camAngX (cax) float 0.0

Camera angle in world space

camAngY (cay) float 0.0

Camera angle in world space

camAngZ (caz) float 0.0

Camera angle in world space

passTr (pst) bool 0

Pass through option to project paint on surfaces oriented towards and away from camera.

transparencyGain (tg) float3 1.0, 1.0, 1.0

Use Transparency Gain to fine-tune the balance of a texture's Out Transparency.

Transparency Gain is applied as a multiplier to the texture's transparency. If Transparency Gain is white, it has no effect. Reducing the amount of all channels in Transparency Gain will scale down the amount of output transparency.

transparencyGainR (tgr) float 0.0

Transparency Gain Red Value

transparencyGainG (tgg) float 0.0

Transparency Gain Green Value

transparencyGainB (tgb) float 0.0

Transparency Gain Blue Value

transparencyOffset (to) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

Use Transparency Offset to adjust a texture's Out Transparency.

Unlike Transparency Gain (which is a multiplier), Transparency Offset is simply added to the texture's Out Transparency. Therefore if Transparency Offset is black, it has no effect. Increasing the amount of all channels in Transparency Gain will uniformly increase the amount of the final output transparency.

transparencyOffsetR (tor) float 0.0

Transparency Offset Red Value

transparencyOffsetG (tog) float 0.0

Transparency Offset Green Value

transparencyOffsetB (tob) float 0.0

Transparency Offset Blue Value

defaultTransparency (dt) float3 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

Default Transparency is the Transparency of the texture in the areas that are not mapped. If the placement of this texture is not covering an entire surface, then Default Transparency will be used in the areas not covered.