New xLights 3D Layout Demo

[Gilrock]

If you missed it buried in another thread I did a demo of all the work I've been doing lately.  I probably have 200 hours work on this in the last couple months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oPJqETWuD4&feature=youtu.be

[SaZo]

That looks fantastic. Thanks to all who make this program a professional tool for us.
You are doing a great job. THANK YOU THANK YOU

[MrChristmas2000]

It looks like you have achieved the dream you once told me you wanted to do. Looks great and looking forward to seeing it merged into the main published thread.

Again thanks for this great addition.

Tom

[arw01]

Really impressive looking work there Gil.  Being able to zoom into the preview and layout has been a long time feature I missed and be a great addition.

Are you thinking of maybe making the Z "grid" configurable.  You mentioned in the video working through how to do the z slices as you render.  Could having a maximum grid be workable?  E.g. maybe 100 slices would be an option for me as I don't have a huge front to my yard vs going all the way to the peak roof is the back for me.  I could likely get by with not many slices as just have a few items like roof outlines etc.

[Ebuechner]

I'll have to say Gil, that looks freaking awesome!
I like that you are modeling it like blender.
I've been playing with blender lately and it'll make it an easier transition. ( at least for me)
Will there be an option to throw a 2D image down at the base like the aerial view of your home from Google?

[Gilrock]

Really impressive looking work there Gil.  Being able to zoom into the preview and layout has been a long time feature I missed and be a great addition.

Are you thinking of maybe making the Z "grid" configurable.  You mentioned in the video working through how to do the z slices as you render.  Could having a maximum grid be workable?  E.g. maybe 100 slices would be an option for me as I don't have a huge front to my yard vs going all the way to the peak roof is the back for me.  I could likely get by with not many slices as just have a few items like roof outlines etc.

Initially there will be no change to rendering.  When it first comes out the only benefit will be ability to pan and zoom in 2D and to model in 3D and watch playback previews in 3D.  I also should have the capability to store recallable camera positions.  My thought is we will be able to utilize camera positions to create render buffers so it would still be a 2D render just from a different angle and you could blend effect from multiple angles.   So nothing really need configuring regarding the Z grid at this time.

[Gilrock]

I'll have to say Gil, that looks freaking awesome!
I like that you are modeling it like blender.
I've been playing with blender lately and it'll make it an easier transition. ( at least for me)
Will there be an option to throw a 2D image down at the base like the aerial view of your home from Google?

Yeah it's only loosely based on Blender.  I got inspiration from some of the axis handles for translation and scaling and then did the rotation one a little different.

[deplanche]

Looks awesome!  Great work!

[Gilrock]

Will there be an option to throw a 2D image down at the base like the aerial view of your home from Google?

Yes I'll be adding that.  I already grabbed a snapshot of my own house from the aerial view.  Even without adding any new features I had it somewhat working with just using an ImageModel that I rotated and stretched out onto the ground.

[QldKing]

Gil - 3D layout looks amazing. I still don't know how you guys keep coming up with these enhancements and keeping day jobs.

Would it be possible to add a scale option to the future enhancement requests(probably me just thinking out loud more than anything)?  For instance, I would measure a few locations on my house (ie wall height, gutter length, tree height etc). Then in xlights mark these distances on the house image. xLights would then recognize these measurements, so if I add a 3m high x 2m wide mega tree, I can then input these dimensions into the model and the tree would be accurate.
Once again - thanks for all the hard work.

Brad

[brichi]

amazing job Gil!!!!

 Cant wait to use this.

[Ebuechner]

Will there be an option to throw a 2D image down at the base like the aerial view of your home from Google?

Yes I'll be adding that.  I already grabbed a snapshot of my own house from the aerial view.  Even without adding any new features I had it somewhat working with just using an ImageModel that I rotated and stretched out onto the ground.

All that I ask is that you make it so you can adjust the image x y and z for the terrain.
For instance while looking at my house the ground slopes to the right and down to the street from the house.
But I'm sure you already thought of this.

[Gilrock]

Gil - 3D layout looks amazing. I still don't know how you guys keep coming up with these enhancements and keeping day jobs.

Would it be possible to add a scale option to the future enhancement requests(probably me just thinking out loud more than anything)?  For instance, I would measure a few locations on my house (ie wall height, gutter length, tree height etc). Then in xlights mark these distances on the house image. xLights would then recognize these measurements, so if I add a 3m high x 2m wide mega tree, I can then input these dimensions into the model and the tree would be accurate.
Once again - thanks for all the hard work.

Brad

The coordinate system is all relative.  You could pretend the position numbers are in millimeters for instance and then use 300 for 3 meters or pretend its centimeters and use 30 for 3 meters.  As far as scaling that's a different story.  Models like trees already have a scale parameter but it multiplies against the render buffer size.  To do what you're saying there would need to be a way to say what 1 unit equals like 1 = 1 centimeter and then I'd have to let you enter the width and height of the tree and then I reverse calculate the scale values.  Believe me I've thought about this well before I even started working on the code.  There's usually not many enhancement requests I haven't already pondered.

[uncledan]

Just curious how things are progressing on this?  Large corner lot with lots of pixels and I need to redo my layout.  3d layout and the zoom would make life much easier!  Just curious if you think this is something that will be released for 2018? Thanks!  I cant wait for this