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[article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by trepid_jesse on Sat May 7th at 1:10am 2005


This is a discussion topic for the article "Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces" by trepid_jesse which can be found here

Article description:

Creating curved geometry using arches






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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by ReNo on Sun May 8th at 1:40pm 2005

Good tutorial, you explain most of it pretty well and back it up with good images. I can picture a lot of people getting lost at a couple of the steps, but this is some fairly complex brushwork so its to be expected.

One thing of note is that in the last picture of step 3, the lengths you mark out aren't all correct. You say the diagonal internal lines are 6 units long, but that isn't quite the case seeing as they are crossing the diagonal distance of 3 squares, which is closer to 8.5 units. Not a big deal or anything, but it does mean that the centre parts of your arch are thicker than the parts towards the ends. This would be important if you were creating an archway trim or something as it would throw off your texturing, but for a curved archway such as this I can't picture anybody noticing.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by habboi on Sun May 8th at 1:45pm 2005

Excellent just what I needed!
I thank you lots!



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by trepid_jesse on Sun May 8th at 2:47pm 2005

Yeah, I was somewhat hesitant about labeling them that way too, Reno. I figured it would be better to label them that way to possibly alleviate any confusion from the statement, "[...] the width between each point on the base arch is preserved around the edges of each profile arch;" albeit, it's a mathematically incorrect statement. I had planned on pointing that out in the "Caveats and Other Information" section, but forgot by the time I got there.

Ah, ok, tutorials can be edited, and I brought up in the last section of the tutorial.

Thanks for reminding me, ReNo.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Guessmyname on Sun May 8th at 7:14pm 2005

Had me confused for a bit, but I figured it out. Very good!



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Ferret on Mon May 9th at 12:03am 2005

Did a lot of that in my fairytale level



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Paladin[NL] on Mon May 9th at 7:00am 2005

Overal a nice tutorial, though I find the bit where you are actually making the smoothed part of the arch fairly fast-forward.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by satchmo on Mon May 9th at 5:38pm 2005

I am thinking that there might be an easier way to accomplish the same structure with displacement surfaces. I haven't experiment with this alternate approach, so I can't say it's entirely feasible.

But good tutorial, nevertheless.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by ReNo on Mon May 9th at 7:23pm 2005

Its very hard to use displacement surfaces with any degree of accuracy however, hence why they are better suited to somewhat rough (inaccurate) features like terrain. Its entirely feasible you could use them to make something like this, I just don't think it would be easy. In fact, perhaps the best way to make this using displacement surfaces would be to build it as in the tutorial, and use it as a reference for shaping your displacement.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Campaignjunkie on Mon May 9th at 9:43pm 2005

There's an easier way to do this that I learned during my "HL1 Days", heh. I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to write another whole tutorial for it though. But I know it's substantially cleaner and less work than this method. The gist of it is in this diagram from a few years ago:

<a href="http://www.snarkpit.net/pits/campaignjunkie/pipeturn.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.snarkpit.net/pits/campaignjunkie/pipeturn.jpg</a>

Basically you vertex-manipulate trapezoidal prisms so that they have even slopes, as seen in the diagram. But hey, trepid_jesse's method works, and as he states in the beginning, that fact is pretty important.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by DrGlass on Tue May 10th at 1:09am 2005

Very nice, I always have a hard time when I have to make odd shapes like this you really have to plan out what you are doing. I'm sure many a noobs will find this helpfull.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Damic on Fri May 13th at 3:35pm 2005

Nice nice smiley



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by pepper on Wed May 18th at 9:22am 2005

Impressive, and very smart, using the .45 degree angle you wont get any invalid brushes if you do it right. I wouldnt have come on this myself.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by trepid_jesse on Wed May 18th at 1:26pm 2005

Thanks, pepper, but I thought I'd put out that the reasoning for using a 45 degree line for interior edge is to ensure that each section of the profile arch corresponds to a section of the grid. This makes the arch retain a uniform shape as you progress through the arch.

Step 4 is what will help you to not create invalid brushes, and because of what was done in Step 1 life is made much easier.

Thanks for all of the comments, though, from everyone.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by pepper on Sat May 21st at 3:20pm 2005

I dont think that you would need to split the whole arch in triangles. I can do it wihtout all those triangles:
<a href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~dewitnel/peppersplanet/arch.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.xs4all.nl/~dewitnel/peppersplanet/arch.jpg</a>



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Zevensoft on Tue May 24th at 1:27pm 2005

You don't even need the arch tool:
<a href="http://img217.echo.cx/img217/6269/smoothwire8fk.jpg" target="_blank">http://img217.echo.cx/img217/6269/smoothwire8fk.jpg</a>



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Lethal.au on Mon Jun 6th at 9:57am 2005

Not bad...bit hard to understand =S



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Jim The Hermit on Wed Dec 20th at 5:24pm 2006

&quot;after creating the full 180 degree arch, I made it into one brush. &quot;

We can do that?! How?



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Flynn on Fri Jan 5th at 10:52am 2007

Yes I was wondering that also.



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 Re: [article] Curved Geometry along Curved Surfaces
Posted by Captain P on Fri Jan 5th at 10:57am 2007

I assume he created one brush and clipped it or otherwise manipulated it, using the arch as an example. In all my 6 years I haven't seen a 'combine brushes' tool either. :P




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