TLHPro Documentation ready for download :-)

#1

Dear fellow messiah users, the wait is (almost) over! :bounce:

I am very happy to present you with the documentation for my upcoming TLHPro shaders:

Download it here (~12MB):

http://www.screendream.info/TLHPro/TLHPro_Documentation.rar

If possible, use the above server, since I have unlimited traffic there. But if it is unbearable slow, you can also use this URL:

http://www.screendream.de/TLHPro/TLHPro_Documentation.rar

You will need at least Adobe Reader 6 (7 recommended) and for the included videos you need Quicktime (Version 7 recommended). Activate Type- Vector- and Image Antialiasing in the Reader Preferences for best results.

Let me know if there are any problems.

Tomorrow I will work on example scenes and content and if ShareIt is fast enough, the release will be on monday.

I hope you like it :bowdown:

#2

:bounce:

Excellent Thomas, downloading now :thumbsup:

#3

I use Shareit! for my shaders as well and they tend to not post on Monday if you submitted in Friday. When did you upload and set it up? I usually donā€™t get a response until Tuesday. Anyway, great to hear! Iā€™ll have to wait until after my next payment to purchase them, but I canā€™t wait:)

#4

Wow Thomas, excellent documentation. Good job :slight_smile:

#5

i see you went witha pdf this time :slight_smile: nice.

#6

Thanks to all of you! :bowdown:

Stooch: Yes, but not because of the weird problem you were having with the .chm :wink: , but because of the much better printing and design possibilities. InDesign CS2 really makes it fun to do a document like this, including rollover images, video, and something .chm canā€™t do: font embeddingā€¦

BTW: If you want to see the Docs in ā€œHelp View Modeā€, you have to do a little trick:

Create a shortcut on your desktop, rightclick->Properties and add this line into the path field - be sure to replace the two paths with the ones on your system:

ā€œPathToTheReader\AcroRd32.exeā€ /A ā€œhelp=content=OpenActionsā€ ā€œPathToTheDocs\TLHPro.pdfā€

Iā€™m looking into ways to automatically open the reader in this form from buttons in the interface, without the main Reader window going up too and with the content list visible by default - but that seems a bit more involved than for .chm files. Adobe is so close to put Windows Help to a rest but the final steps are missingā€¦

I will update the docs depending on user feedback, so if you find something missing or if my german shows through too much, please let me know :thumbsup:

Best regards :bounce:

#7 
"PathToReader\AcroRd32.exe" /A "help=content=OpenActions" "PathToDocs\TLHPro_Documentation.pdf"

Iā€™m not getting my Reader to act in help mode just yet. Any extra tips? Or just the OpenActions?
Hereā€™s the path Iā€™m using (adapted to the paths) a bit quicker for copy/pasting in case anyone else is setting this upā€¦

edit:
not testing, just reading the docsā€¦ (great so far!)
but shouldnā€™t the ā€œChannelsā€ node have an alpha as well?

#8

It works here - do you use Adobe Reader 7?

As I said, Iā€™m under the impression that Adobe only thought about their own help needs, so this mode is only thought for the Reader Help itself. But this would be such a big opportunity since I am sure, a lot of developers would prefer PDF over compressed HTMLā€¦

You can always open the Help for the Reader itself to see that mode in actionā€¦

Edit: About your Edit :wink: Good question - I have to admit that I donā€™t know exactly how color is meant to be transported in messiah since the SDK is very unclear in that point (at least for me). Every node has an opacity channel that canā€™t be removed. So f.i. the gradient has opacity as well as alpha, but other shaders donā€™t have that.
Inputs and outputs are declared as FX_Color in the SDK header, but in other areas there is also a FX_Color4 (4 channels, including alpha). So I am just unsure what the right thing to do would beā€¦
Can I use a four channel color as input/output? I donā€™t know how.
I think I dimly remember a discussion with Lyle about that topicā€¦
It would be the best to have RGBA as the standard for all color, but it may make things more complicatedā€¦

So to answer your question: A color input/output has no alpha according to the SDK. The core shaders gradient and texture map have alpha. I am as confused as you :slight_smile:

Cheers :bowdown:

#9

Yeah. Just installed it. Iā€™ll try a reboot later. No animation sworking either, definitely have Quicktime7 installed. Hmm.

Ha! Now youā€™ve disillusioned me! It just seemed odd that it wouldnā€™t be available as an option.

#10

AlexK tested it with Adobe Reader 6 and it worked for him.
Did you accept those security warnings that come up for the videos?

Did you install Quicktime 7 lately or after it was released? The first versions (up to 7.0.4, the latest) were quite buggy on windowsā€¦?

Hm - Firewall? Virus scanner? Security settings? Stooch had weird security problems with the .chm for AoN, so the pages were not visible.

Sorry, Iā€™m new to all this pdf goodness myself so I canā€™t offer much help.
Did it work for everybody else? Please raise hands :slight_smile:
Anybody else has ideas about this problem?

Cheers,

#11

Excellent Thomas !!!

Canā€™t wait for the shaders :bowdown:

Phil

P.S : works well for me (acrobat reader 7)

#12

Thank you Thomas! Apart from the clarity of the documentation itself which is quite stellar,
I find the visual style and layout very, very clean and attractive. Links and videos working fine for me.

#13

Wow :bowdown: Thank you very much! :blush: :slight_smile:

I always try to make everything as good as I possibly can. Otherwise I have neither fun nor am I satisfied afterwards. I am going more and more in the direction of designer and art director, so it means a lot to me to get such beautiful feedback.

:bounce:

Best regards,

#14

Ever thought of writing your own 3d app ? :stuck_out_tongue:

#15

Yes, but then I woke up :wink:

#16

Hi Thomas,

great documentation! :thumbsup: Very entertaining to read.

Just a small remark: In the description of TLHPro:Color you mention that, in order to create a plain color for a node input, you would usually use a gradient node (which, as you mention, is an overkill). But canā€™t you just use a standard matte shader and use the surface color output instead !?
Anyway, looking forward to buying your shaders! :love:

#17

Well, that would be overkill to the power of 10.
A complete surface calculation just for a color?
Or did I get you wrong?

Confusedā€¦
:shrug:

#18

Err, I was thinking more in terms of setting up the node rather than in terms of render calculations. :blush:
You are absolutely right that from a calculation point of view a matte node is indeed complete overkill if you just want to get the surface color. Thanks for clarification!

#19

Just to clarify: I often need a color for instance to make the background white together with a RayType that has textures for Reflection and Refraction.
If you never need it, just ignore it.

To make a surface blue, you sure can just set the color in the interface to blue :wink:

It definitely isnā€™t even a shader :slight_smile:

Cheers,

#20

After another day (and half the night) of work, the files are on their way to ShareIt.
They are doing a major transformation of their service over the next days, so I hope that everything will work out fine anyway.

As the perfectionist that I am, Iā€™m not fully satisfied with this release :rolleyes:
I havenā€™t tested the tools as thoroughly as AoN:Studio and there are no shader presets coming with the package, since everything is rather scene dependent.
Also, there are no tutorials yet. :frowning:
But at least 29 example scenes are included :slight_smile:
So I want to emphasise once more, that I want to hear from you, what things may be needed, what topics you want to see in tutorials and what you think should be improved in the shaders. I hope we will be able to work together on making this a really cool package, but I really need your help this time since I am out of the messiah loop.

The things I am not satisfied with is the EasyGlass shader (should support real fresnel algorithms)and Thickness (needs diffuse Thickness calculations).

If you have a good idea that would fit in, please let me know - but donā€™t bug me with ā€œHairā€ or ā€œPaint Effectsā€ or the like :wink:
I can only do simple stuff, Iā€™m a designer, not a coder in the end.

Thank you all for being such a cool tribe :wavey: :beer: :wavey:

Cheers,