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TopoFusion Development => Beta Testing => Topic started by: mcuma on February 08, 2004, 12:58:21 AM

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: mcuma on February 08, 2004, 12:58:21 AM

Hello guys,

first of all, the 3D is amazing, especially the aerials. Spent good time of the afternoon and evening screwing around with it (in between of shoveling snow).

I saw most of the problems that I noticed in bug reports already, so, just wanna mention, that most pressing is some kind of caching of the DEMs. I have about 250 MB of them now, and, things are starting to get a bit sluggish, plus, Windows starts to complain about low virtual memory, which I've not seen before (I have 512 MB RAM).
The way I am solving this now is to have multiple directories with DEMs from Utah, California,...

The little problem I see is that the GPS track sometimes shows shadowing, probably it's plotted twice, once on the flat map and second time on the 3d? An example is at:
http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~mcuma/images/topo/shore.jpg

One more little thing, the screen capture does not work in 3D, but, that's not really a big deal.

Take care,
MC

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: Alan on February 08, 2004, 08:59:17 AM

Quote (mcuma @ Feb. 08 2004,12:58)

I saw most of the problems that I noticed in bug reports already, so, just wanna mention, that most pressing is some kind of caching of the DEMs. I have about 250 MB of them now, and, things are starting to get a bit sluggish, plus, Windows starts to complain about low virtual memory, which I've not seen before (I have 512 MB RAM).
The way I am solving this now is to have multiple directories with DEMs from Utah, California,...

Indeed, a variable (user-controlled) DEM cache is high on the priority list.

Quote

The little problem I see is that the GPS track sometimes shows shadowing, probably it's plotted twice, once on the flat map and second time on the 3d? An example is at:
http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~mcuma/images/topo/shore.jpg

Yes, it's not clear to me how these options should be available to the user. There are 4 options for viewing your track in 3d (painted on the texture, floating as given by the elevation in the track, neither, or both) You can control this currently by turning on/off the tracks in 2d view, switching to 3d, then turning on/off the tracks in 3d. We're open to suggestions for a good way to present these options to the user. We don't really want to add a bunch of toolbar modes.

Quote

One more little thing, the screen capture does not work in 3D, but, that's not really a big deal.

Right, I'll have to come up with something to do exports in 3d mode.

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: on February 08, 2004, 03:29:30 PM

Quote

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: on February 08, 2004, 03:32:13 PM

regarding track display selection (4 options: painted on, floating based on track, both or none) use context-based model:

User selects track, and {right-click} view options listed.

Mechanical CAD modeling tools are all shifting to context-based selection for feature creation: select an object, then get presented with what features can be created based on that object, etc.

-Dan

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: mcuma on February 08, 2004, 05:28:49 PM

Quote (Alan @ Feb. 08 2004,8:59)

Quote

I feel that default should be floating, and let user select if he wants flat, or both. But then, playing with turning the track on and off, both flat and floating are pretty close. I suppose the main thing that bothered me was the dual display, which sometimes showed two tracks instead of one.

Selecting this through right clicking on the track is a good idea. I would not think of enabling/disabling track display with the track selection also in 3D.

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: Alan on February 08, 2004, 05:39:07 PM

I'm not sure I understand. Are you sure you would want control on a per track basis? That is, to be able to select tracks by 'picking' at them in the 3d view and set them to one of the four options? What if you're on 'display neither', there's nothing to select then. If instead you meant 'per gpx file', then we would need to add something to show the display state information for each track (like the checkbox now).

Am I alone in thinking that this should option should apply to ALL tracks/files?

Also, the primary reason for displaying both the 'painted on' track and the floating one is to visualize the difference between them. Here you can see the difference between using GPS elevation and using DEM elevation. It's a bit of an illusion though because intuitively the DEM will seem "right" since it appears to be the basis. I have found cases where this is not right though (where the floating track has the correct elevation and the DEM is clearly wrong).

I'll think about it some more.

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: mcuma on February 09, 2004, 10:01:48 PM

Alan,

sorry for making this sound more confusing that it is.

I have no problem with having the track display selection apply to all tracks.

All I want is to be able to see either the floating or flat track. Having the two together to see the difference is interesting, but, can be distracting in a view in which you really care just about seeing which way you went up the hill ;-)

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: Alan on February 09, 2004, 11:41:34 PM

Agreed. We fully intend to add functionality to that effect. The user interface might lag a little behind other developments for a little while though.

Title: "Shadow" GPS trail in 3d
Post by: sanewcomb on February 10, 2004, 11:08:04 AM

Quote (Alan @ Feb. 08 2004,8:59)

Quote (mcuma @ Feb. 08 2004,12:58)

One more little thing, the screen capture does not work in 3D, but, that's not really a big deal.

Right, I'll have to come up with something to do exports in 3d mode.

Since TF just does screen captures at the moment, might as well just download a screen capture program. I like MWSnap, found here

http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

but there are many others.