Depth TOP
Summary
The Depth TOP reads an image containing depth information from a scene described in a specified Render TOP. The resulting image is black (0) at pixels where the surface is at the near depth value (Camera's parameter "Near"). It is white (1) at pixels where the surface is at the far depth value (parameter "Far").
The Depth TOP is used to do shadow mapping. It can have many other uses also, such as edge detection based on depth.
The depth range is by definition the near plane -> far plane. Values in the Depth TOP will be 0 at the near plane, and 1 at the far plane. Generally the image in the Depth TOP will be white, unless you have your planes really tight around your object. But just because you can't visually see anything, it doesn't mean the information isn't there.
Another option is Linear Camera-Space Depth. If the Render TOP's Depth Buffer Format is set to 32-Bit Floating-Point and its Linear Camera-Space Depth parameter is on, then the Depth TOP will output linear camera space depth.
You can use the Level TOP to re-range the Depth TOP's values. However make sure you set the Pixel Format of the Level TOP to 16 or 32-bit, or you'll lose a lot of information from the Depth TOP's data (The Depth TOP has 24-bit data).
The Depth TOP creates a 24-bit fixed-point or 32-bit floating-point single channel image. When the Depth TOP is used as an input to another TOP, its data will be treated like an RGBA value of (D, D, D, 1). The same is true when sampling a depth texture in a GLSL shader.
Parameters - Depth Page
Render TOP
rendertop - Specifies the Render TOP used for depth values.
Camera Index
cameraindex - When using Multi-Camera Rendering, chooses which camera's output to select.
Peel Layer Index
peellayerindex - When using the 'Depth-Peeling' feature in the Render TOP, this chooses which peel layer to select.
Pixel Format
pixelformat - ⊞ - The pixel format the Depth texture should be output as.
- Depth Texture
depth-
- 8-bit fixed (RGBA)
rgba8fixed-
- 16-bit float (RGBA)
rgba16float-
- 32-bit float (RGBA)
rgba32float-
- 10-bit RGB, 2-bit Alpha, fixed (RGBA)
rgb10a2fixed-
- 16-bit fixed (RGBA)
rgba16fixed-
- 11-bit float (RGB), Positive Values Only
rgb11-
- 8-bit fixed (R)
r8fixed-
- 16-bit fixed (R)
r16fixed-
- 16-bit float (R)
r16float-
- 32-bit float (R)
r32float-
- 8-bit fixed (RG)
rg8fixed-
- 16-bit fixed (RG)
rg16fixed-
- 16-bit float (RG)
rg16float-
- 32-bit float (RG)
rg32float-
- 8-bit fixed (A)
a8fixed-
- 16-bit float (A)
a16float-
- 32-bit float (A)
a32float-
Depth Space
depthspace - ⊞ - The space the depth values should be output in.
- Input
input- The unchanged values the shaders are writing for the depth values. Usually this is a logarithmic curve where 90% of the values are within the closest 10% of the distances to the near plane.
- Camera Space
cameraspace- Convert the depth values to be in camera space, where 0 is at the camera and it is positive values moving away from the camera.
- Reranged from Camera Space
reranged- First convert to camera space values just like the 'Camera Space' mode, but then apply a re-range operation to another custom range.
Range from
rangefrom - ⊞ - The range to convert from when using 'Rerange from Camera Space'. This would often be your area of interest in the camera's depth.
rangefrom1- The near range to re-range from.
rangefrom2- The far range to re-range from.
Range to
rangeto - ⊞ - The range of values you want to convert the depth values to. This is the range you would find the depth to more useful for processing, often 0-1.
rangeto1- The near range to re-range to.
rangeto2- The far range to re-range to.
Clamp to [0-1]
clamp - Enable to clamp the depth values between 0 and 1.
Gamma
gamma - Apply a gamma curve to the depth values.
Parameters - Common Page
Output Resolution
outputresolution - ⊞ - quickly change the resolution of the TOP's data.
- Use Input
useinput- Uses the input's resolution.
- Eighth
eighth- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- Quarter
quarter- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- Half
half- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- 2X
2x- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- 4X
4x- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- 8X
8x- Multiply the input's resolution by that amount.
- Fit Resolution
fit- Grow or shrink the input resolution to fit this resolution, while keeping the aspect ratio the same.
- Limit Resolution
limit- Limit the input resolution to be not larger than this resolution, while keeping the aspect ratio the same.
- Custom Resolution
custom- Directly control the width and height.
Resolution
resolution - ⊞ - Enabled only when the Resolution parameter is set to Custom Resolution. Some Generators like Constant and Ramp do not use inputs and only use this field to determine their size. The drop down menu on the right provides some commonly used resolutions.
- W
resolutionw-
- H
resolutionh-
Use Global Res Multiplier
resmult - Uses the Global Resolution Multiplier found in Edit>Preferences>TOPs. This multiplies all the TOPs resolutions by the set amount. This is handy when working on computers with different hardware specifications. If a project is designed on a desktop workstation with lots of graphics memory, a user on a laptop with only 64MB VRAM can set the Global Resolution Multiplier to a value of half or quarter so it runs at an acceptable speed. By checking this checkbox on, this TOP is affected by the global multiplier.
Output Aspect
outputaspect - ⊞ - Sets the image aspect ratio allowing any textures to be viewed in any size. Watch for unexpected results when compositing TOPs with different aspect ratios. (You can define images with non-square pixels using xres, yres, aspectx, aspecty where xres/yres != aspectx/aspecty.)
- Use Input
useinput- Uses the input's aspect ratio.
- Resolution
resolution- Uses the aspect of the image's defined resolution (ie 512x256 would be 2:1), whereby each pixel is square.
- Custom Aspect
custom- Lets you explicitly define a custom aspect ratio in the Aspect parameter below.
Aspect
aspect - ⊞ - Use when Output Aspect parameter is set to Custom Aspect.
- Aspect1
aspect1-
- Aspect2
aspect2-
Input Smoothness
inputfiltertype - ⊞ - This controls pixel filtering on the input image of the TOP.
- Nearest Pixel
nearest- Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
- Interpolate Pixels
linear- Uses linear filtering between pixels. This is how you get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
- Mipmap Pixels
mipmap- Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail.
Fill Viewer
fillmode - ⊞ - Determine how the TOP image is displayed in the viewer.
NOTE:To get an understanding of how TOPs work with images, you will want to set this to Native Resolution as you lay down TOPs when starting out. This will let you see what is actually happening without any automatic viewer resizing.
- Use Input
useinput- Uses the same Fill Viewer settings as it's input.
- Fill
fill- Stretches the image to fit the edges of the viewer.
- Fit Horizontal
width- Stretches image to fit viewer horizontally.
- Fit Vertical
height- Stretches image to fit viewer vertically.
- Fit Best
best- Stretches or squashes image so no part of image is cropped.
- Fit Outside
outside- Stretches or squashes image so image fills viewer while constraining it's proportions. This often leads to part of image getting cropped by viewer.
- Native Resolution
nativeres- Displays the native resolution of the image in the viewer.
Viewer Smoothness
filtertype - ⊞ - This controls pixel filtering in the viewers.
- Nearest Pixel
nearest- Uses nearest pixel or accurate image representation. Images will look jaggy when viewing at any zoom level other than Native Resolution.
- Interpolate Pixels
linear- Uses linear filtering between pixels. Use this to get TOP images in viewers to look good at various zoom levels, especially useful when using any Fill Viewer setting other than Native Resolution.
- Mipmap Pixels
mipmap- Uses mipmap filtering when scaling images. This can be used to reduce artifacts and sparkling in moving/scaling images that have lots of detail. When the input is 32-bit float format, only nearest filtering will be used (regardless of what is selected).
Passes
npasses - Duplicates the operation of the TOP the specified number of times. For every pass after the first it takes the result of the previous pass and replaces the node's first input with the result of the previous pass. One exception to this is the GLSL TOP when using compute shaders, where the input will continue to be the connected TOP's image.
Channel Mask
chanmask - Allows you to choose which channels (R, G, B, or A) the TOP will operate on. All channels are selected by default.
Pixel Format
format - ⊞ - Format used to store data for each channel in the image (ie. R, G, B, and A). Refer to Pixel Formats for more information.
- Use Input
useinput- Uses the input's pixel format.
- 8-bit fixed (RGBA)
rgba8fixed- Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel.
- sRGB 8-bit fixed (RGBA)
srgba8fixed- Uses 8-bit integer values for each channel and stores color in sRGB colorspace. Note that this does not apply an sRGB curve to the pixel values, it only stores them using an sRGB curve. This means more data is used for the darker values and less for the brighter values. When the values are read downstream they will be converted back to linear. For more information refer to sRGB.
- 16-bit float (RGBA)
rgba16float- Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (RGBA)
rgba32float- Uses 32-bits per color channel, 128-bits per pixels.
- 10-bit RGB, 2-bit Alpha, fixed (RGBA)
rgb10a2fixed- Uses 10-bits per color channel and 2-bits for alpha, 32-bits total per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (RGBA)
rgba16fixed- Uses 16-bits per color channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
- 11-bit float (RGB), Positive Values Only
rgba11float- A RGB floating point format that has 11 bits for the Red and Green channels, and 10-bits for the Blue Channel, 32-bits total per pixel (therefore the same memory usage as 8-bit RGBA). The Alpha channel in this format will always be 1. Values can go above one, but can't be negative. ie. the range is [0, infinite).
- 16-bit float (RGB)
rgb16float-
- 32-bit float (RGB)
rgb32float-
- 8-bit fixed (Mono)
mono8fixed- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 8-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (Mono)
mono16fixed- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit float (Mono)
mono16float- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 16-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (Mono)
mono32float- Single channel, where RGB will all have the same value, and Alpha will be 1.0. 32-bits per pixel.
- 8-bit fixed (RG)
rg8fixed- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits total per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (RG)
rg16fixed- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
- 16-bit float (RG)
rg16float- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits total per pixel.
- 32-bit float (RG)
rg32float- A 2 channel format, R and G have values, while B is 0 always and Alpha is 1.0. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits total per pixel.
- 8-bit fixed (A)
a8fixed- An Alpha only format that has 8-bits per channel, 8-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (A)
a16fixed- An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit float (A)
a16float- An Alpha only format that has 16-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (A)
a32float- An Alpha only format that has 32-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
- 8-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha8fixed- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 8-bits per channel, 16-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit fixed (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha16fixed- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
- 16-bit float (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha16float- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 16-bits per channel, 32-bits per pixel.
- 32-bit float (Mono+Alpha)
monoalpha32float- A 2 channel format, one value for RGB and one value for Alpha. 32-bits per channel, 64-bits per pixel.
Info CHOP Channels
Extra Information for the Depth TOP can be accessed via an Info CHOP.
Common TOP Info Channels
- resx - Horizontal resolution of the TOP in pixels.
- resy - Vertical resolution of the TOP in pixels.
- aspectx - Horizontal aspect of the TOP.
- aspecty - Vertical aspect of the TOP.
- depth - Depth of 2D or 3D array if this TOP contains a 2D or 3D texture array.
- gpu_memory_used - Total amount of texture memory used by this TOP.
Common Operator Info Channels
- total_cooks - Number of times the operator has cooked since the process started.
- cook_time - Duration of the last cook in milliseconds.
- cook_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the component timeline.
- cook_abs_frame - Frame number when this operator was last cooked relative to the absolute time.
- cook_start_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator started cooking in the frame it was cooked.
- cook_end_time - Time in milliseconds at which the operator finished cooking in the frame it was cooked.
- cooked_this_frame - 1 if operator was cooked this frame.
- warnings - Number of warnings in this operator if any.
- errors - Number of errors in this operator if any.
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