RE: Problem displaying objects that are sub-pixel size

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Andrew Vincent (andrewv++at++canberra.sgi.com)
Thu, 5 Feb 1998 12:11:04 +1100


This is just a guess at the problem you are trying to solve, but if it is a data visualization problem, you may be better off using another technique.
Approaches worth examining would be the volumetric rendering techniques that take a voxel rather than polygonal view of data. Check out the splatviz tool in the latest MineSet release for an idea of that approach could do. MineSet uses Inventor, with its inherent restriction of not utilizing MP h/w but there's no reason why you can't use Performer to implement something similar.

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Angus Dorbie [SMTP:dorbie++at++multipass.engr.sgi.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 1998 4:44 PM
To: Charles Seberino; info-performer++at++sgi.com
Subject: Re: Problem displaying objects that are sub-pixel size

This is purely an aliasing problem, the polygons should actually
average out at about the right density due to point sampling
IrisGL used to cull < .5 pixel^2 area polygons but I don't think
OpenGL does this.

You should enable multisample anti-aliasing on the iR after choosing
a visual with 8 multisamples.

Call pfAntialias(PFAA_ON) from your draw process.

If you don't want full scene anti-aliasing then you should try
enabling blending and calling glEnable(GL_POLYGON_SMOOTH)
before drawing the degenerate polygons and disabling afterwards to see
if this helps.

Cheers,Angus.

On Feb 3, 10:39am, Charles Seberino wrote:
> Subject: Problem displaying objects that are sub-pixel size
> I am having a problem displaying small polygons, which when viewed at long
> distances, don't (or rarely) appear on the screen. Here is what I am trying
to
> do:
>
> Creating several hundred OPENGL GL_QUADS with the same texture applied to
each
> of them. The polygons are drawn so that they are always facing the
> display(billboarded). The problem I get is when I view the polygons(1 in^2
> each) from far away, the individual polygons only take up from 1-4% of a
screen
> pixel. The polygons are all close to each other so I should be seeing the
> cumulative effects of all the objects(a particle cloud), but I only get a
pixel
> every so often. I am using a luminance-alpha texture to display the square
as
> a sphere. I have tried changing the minification filters, but none give the
> correct result.
>
> What can I do to get these objects to appear as they should?
>
> I decided not to go the route of creating several hundred pfGeoSets/pfGeodes
> (maybe pfBillboards) because I thought it would be more time consuming and
not
> give any added benefit.
>
> Running on Onyx2 IR pf2.1
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Charles
>
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Charles Seberino Raytheon Missile Systems Company
> seberino++at++or_lab.tu.hac.com phone: (520) 794-7078
> fax: (520) 794-8625
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>-- End of excerpt from Charles Seberino

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