Texture 3D TOP
Summary
The Texture 3D TOP creates a 3D texture map. It saves a series of images in one array of pixels. This TOP can be used with Time Machine TOP, as well as materials. Using materials, a particular image in this array can be accessed by specifying a W texture coordinate, while the U and V coordinates are used to specify a texture location on that image. Refer to the 3D Texture article for more information.
The Texture 3D TOP is similar to the Cache TOP which holds a set of images in a different form: the images are separate and you cannot use the W texture coordinate in a material to interpolate to access all of them in a shader.
The Texture 3D TOP replaces one slice of its 3D data with its input every frame. When it has filled up all of its slices it wraps around and starts overwriting the oldest slice.
The Texture 3D TOP can also create a 2D Texture Array. 2D Texture arrays are much like 3d textures, except are sampled using a non-normalized w texture coordinate. (i.e, 0 is the first slice, 1 is the 2nd slice, 2 is the 3rd slice etc.). Texture arrays also don't support blending between different slices when sampling at coordinate that falls between two slices. This a much faster alternative to 3d textures when interpolation between slices is not required. The non-normalized w coordinate makes it very easy to directly access a particular slice in the array. 2D Texture arrays also don't have a concept of w extend mode: they only work in their 0->(N-1) range.
Locking the Texture 3D TOP preserves the entire 3D and 2D array in a .toe or .tox file.
Parameters - Cache Page
Type
type - ⊞ - Specifies the texture type to create.
- 3D Texture
texture3d- A series of images in an array (slices). Slices can be blended when samping a coordinate in between two slices. Slices are accessed using the W texture coordinate.
- 2D Texture Array
texture2darray- A series of images in an array which does not support blending between slices. The W texture coordinate is non-normalized and dosn't have a concept of w extend mode: they only work in their 0->(N-1) range.
Active
active - When set to 1, the Texture 3D TOP will fill up it cache with images. The texture3D TOP replaces a slice of its 3d data with its input every frame. When it has filled up all of its slices it wraps around and starts overwriting the oldest slice.
Replace Single
replacesingle - While this is set > 0, the Texture 3D TOP will replace the slice at 'Replace Index' with the input image. This allows you to replace specific slices of the 3D texture at will.
Replace Single Pulse
replacesinglepulse - Replace an image for the single frame this was pulsed.
Replace Index
replaceindex - Select the slice index that will be replaced by the input, when 'Replace Single' is turned on.
Pre Fill
prefill - This feature is used to pre-setup all of the slices of the 3D texture in a single cook. When set to 1, it will fill the cache. If set to 1 during playback, it will fill immediately. If set to 1 and saved out, then next time the file is opened the cache will pre-fill. It sets up the cache by cooking its inputs at $F = 1, $F = 2, $F = 3 etc. up until the number of slice it needs to fill. Refer to Pre-Filling for more information.
Pre Fill Pulse
prefillpulse - Pre-fills a single image during the frame this was pulsed.
Cache Size
cachesize - The number of images the Texture 3D TOP will hold. This is the number of 3D slices in the texture.
Step Size
step - This parameter sets how many frames pass before the TOP grabs one into cache. A Sample Step of 1 will grab each consecutive frame, a Sample Step of 2 will grab every other frame, and so on.
When Prefilling you would normally setup the inputs to the Texture 3D node in some way that is tied to $F. Such as a Movie File In TOP where set the Specify Index parameter to $F - 1 (since 0 is the first frame). Or a Noise TOP that is changing it's translation based on $F. If Step Size is 3, it would cook frame 1, 4, 7 etc.
Reset
reset - When set to 1, the cache is flushed and the TOP is reset.
Reset Pulse
resetpulse - Instantly empty the cache.
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- Fits the width and height to the resolution given below, while maintaining the aspect ratio.
- Limit Resolution
limit- The width and height are limited to the resolution given below. If one of the dimensions exceeds the given resolution, the width and height will be reduced to fit inside the given limits while maintaining the aspect ratio.
- Custom Resolution
custom- Enables the Resolution parameter below, giving direct control over 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.
Passes
npasses - Duplicates the operation of the TOP the specified number of times. Making this larger than 1 is essentially the same as taking the output from each pass, and passing it into the first input of the node and repeating the process. Other inputs and parameters remain the same for each pass.
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.
- 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.
Operator Inputs
- Input 0: -
Info CHOP Channels
Extra Information for the Texture 3D 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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