Fur Thickness and Overall Shape - Revision history

Warren: /* Height Masks */

2023-09-27T01:48:40Z

Height Masks

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:48, 26 September 2023
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	=== Height Masks ===		=== Height Masks ===
	Height Masks are typically used to trim the fur when clothing is being worn. All 4 channels (ie. Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha) of all 4 Height Masks are ~~all~~ treated ~~the same~~ as ~~the~~ Fur Shape Data Map fur thickness ~~channel~~ (ie. Blue). The shader will use the lowest (ie. shortest) value out of all the channels that are active.		Height Masks are typically used to trim the fur when clothing is being worn. All 4 channels (ie. Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha) of all 4 Height Masks are treated as additional Fur Shape Data Map fur thickness channels (ie. Blue). The shader will use the lowest (ie. shortest) value out of all the channels that are active.

	For example, on my avatar, I have chosen to use Height Mask 1 for shirts, and Height Mask 2 for pants. I then use the Red channels for large items of clothing, Green for medium, and Blue for small. You don't need to follow my example, you are free to organize the masks however you wish.		For example, on my avatar, I have chosen to use Height Mask 1 for my shirts, and Height Mask 2 for my pants. I then use the Red channels for large items of clothing, Green for medium, and Blue for small. You don't need to follow my example, you are free to organize the masks however you wish.

	So, to trim my fur when I am wearing large pants and a large shirt, I use an Animation to turn on the red channels of my Height Masks:		So, to trim my fur when I am wearing large pants and a large shirt, I use an Animation to turn on the red channels of my Height Masks:
	[[File:Fur Mask Example - Large Masks.png\|none\|thumb\|645x645px\|My large shirt and large pants height masks.]]		[[File:Fur Mask Example - Large Masks.png\|none\|thumb\|645x645px\|My large shirt and large pants height masks.]]

			Height Mask channels are typically made by making a copy of your Fur Shape Data Map, re-grooming it to remove the fur from areas that are covered by clothing, and then copying the Blue channel from that re-groomed Fur Shape Data Map to a Height Map channel.

	~~Height Mask channels are typically made by copying~~ the ~~Blue channel from a~~ Fur Shape Data Map ~~to one~~ of the ~~channels of the Height Map~~.		The shader includes a utility to do this, in the Fur Shape Data Map Utilities section of the shader GUI.

	== Fur Thickness ==		=== Fur Thickness Calibration ===
			The shader will scale itself according to the length of a mesh's "Normals", which allows it to correctly grow/shrink the fur's thickness whenever the avatar itself is scaled.

			To do this correctly, it first needs to be calibrated. The shader GUI will attempt to do this automatically the first time a material is loaded, however, it may not be correct.

			The calibration can be manually adjusted by clicking the "Increase" or "Decrease" buttons, which will double or half the calibration number. Or, in v4.2 and higher, the calibration number can be set manually.

			=== Fur Thickness ===
			The Fur Thickness slider is multiplied by the calibration number in order to determine the fur's ''maximum'' length. This is then multiplied by the groomed length to get the fur's final length.

			The shader will automatically pack the geometric layers together wherever the fur is shorter, which increases the resolution. Fur that has been groomed to less than 50% maximum height will also have some of the layers skipped, as a speed optimization.

			'''Note: thicker fur is more demanding on the GPU despite being lower resolution, while shorter fur is less demanding despite being higher resolution.'''

			The resulting maximum world-space thickness is displayed in the GUI, as well as how dense the fur layers will be packed together:

			[[File:Image.png]]

			The "Max fur: 33mm thick" refers to the maximum thickness of my avatar's fur. On my avatar, most of my fur is groomed to 70% maximum length, and only my cheeks, tail, and chest are groomed to 100% maximum length.

			"100% density" refers to how the shader's automatic optimization algorithm will render the thickest fur. If the fur is very thick, the shader will need to make the gaps between the layers bigger, so a density level less than 100% means that the fur is being rendered at lower quality than normal. Conversly, very short fur will have the layers packed tightly together, giving it a density higher than 100%, and thus being rendered at higher quality.

			=== Fur Min Height Cutoff ===
			Any fur lower than this limit will be treated as zero-height, and will not be rendered.

			Note that this should never be set to zero, since texture compression artifacts will cause barely-visible "peach fuzz" fur to be rendered, which will lower the shader's performance.

	== Combing Strength ==		== Combing Strength ==

	== Body Shrink / Expansion ==		== Body Shrink / Expansion ==

Warren: /* Fur Shape Data Map */

2023-09-26T02:11:54Z

Fur Shape Data Map

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:11, 25 September 2023
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	== Fur Shape Data Map ==		== Fur Shape Data Map ==
	The Fur Shape Data Map contains the grooming data for the fur. ~~It is~~ encoded as follows:		The Fur Shape Data Map contains the grooming data for the fur. The channels are encoded as follows:

	* Red - Combing direction X (0 = left, 0.5 = centre, 1 = right)		* Red - Combing direction X (0 = left, 0.5 = centre, 1 = right)
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	The shader package includes a Fur Grooming tool for editing the Fur Shape Data Map.		The shader package includes a Fur Grooming tool for editing the Fur Shape Data Map.

	Advanced users may wish to edit the Fur Shape Data Map, using other tools. If so, then be aware that a "blank" texture should have the Red, Green, and Alpha channels set to 0.5.		Advanced users may wish to edit the Fur Shape Data Map directly, using other tools, such as Photoshop or GIMP. If so, then be aware that a "blank" texture should have the Red, Green, and Alpha channels set to 0.5, not 0. Also, it is worth noting that the Red/Green combing direction is the same encoding used by Normal Maps.

	== Height Masks ==		=== Height Masks ===
			Height Masks are typically used to trim the fur when clothing is being worn. All 4 channels (ie. Red, Green, Blue, and Alpha) of all 4 Height Masks are all treated the same as the Fur Shape Data Map fur thickness channel (ie. Blue). The shader will use the lowest (ie. shortest) value out of all the channels that are active.

			For example, on my avatar, I have chosen to use Height Mask 1 for shirts, and Height Mask 2 for pants. I then use the Red channels for large items of clothing, Green for medium, and Blue for small. You don't need to follow my example, you are free to organize the masks however you wish.

			So, to trim my fur when I am wearing large pants and a large shirt, I use an Animation to turn on the red channels of my Height Masks:
			[[File:Fur Mask Example - Large Masks.png\|none\|thumb\|645x645px\|My large shirt and large pants height masks.]]


			Height Mask channels are typically made by copying the Blue channel from a Fur Shape Data Map to one of the channels of the Height Map.

	== Fur Thickness ==		== Fur Thickness ==

Warren: /* Fur Shape Data Map */

2023-09-26T01:19:55Z

Fur Shape Data Map

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:19, 25 September 2023
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	* Alpha - Hair density (0 = 1% density, 0.5 = 100% density, 1 = 10,000% density)		* Alpha - Hair density (0 = 1% density, 0.5 = 100% density, 1 = 10,000% density)

			The shader package includes a Fur Grooming tool for editing the Fur Shape Data Map.

			Advanced users may wish to edit the Fur Shape Data Map, using other tools. If so, then be aware that a "blank" texture should have the Red, Green, and Alpha channels set to 0.5.

	== Height Masks ==		== Height Masks ==

Warren: /* Fur Shape Data Map */

2023-09-26T01:06:41Z

Fur Shape Data Map

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:06, 25 September 2023
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	== Fur Shape Data Map ==		== Fur Shape Data Map ==
			The Fur Shape Data Map contains the grooming data for the fur. It is encoded as follows:

			* Red - Combing direction X (0 = left, 0.5 = centre, 1 = right)
			* Green - Combing direction Y (0 = down, 0.5 = centre, 1 = up)
			* Blue - Fur thickness (0 = no fur, 1 = maximum thickness)
			* Alpha - Hair density (0 = 1% density, 0.5 = 100% density, 1 = 10,000% density)



	== Height Masks ==		== Height Masks ==

Warren: Created the skeleton

2023-09-26T00:44:24Z

Created the skeleton

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:44, 25 September 2023
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	== Fur Thickness and Overall Shape ==		== Fur Thickness and Overall Shape ==
	[[File:FurThicknessOverallShape..png]]		[[File:FurThicknessOverallShape..png]]

			== Fur Shape Data Map ==

			== Height Masks ==

			== Fur Thickness ==

			== Combing Strength ==

			== Body Shrink / Expansion ==

Warren at 00:40, 26 September 2023

2023-09-26T00:40:13Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:40, 25 September 2023
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	[[File:FurThicknessOverallShape..png~~\|thumb\|none~~]]		== Fur Thickness and Overall Shape ==
			[[File:FurThicknessOverallShape..png]]

SoftDiamond at 23:49, 24 August 2023

2023-08-24T23:49:17Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:49, 24 August 2023
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	[[File:FurThicknessOverallShape..png\|thumb]]		[[File:FurThicknessOverallShape..png\|thumb\|none]]

SoftDiamond: Created page with "thumb"

2023-08-24T23:12:04Z

Created page with "thumb"

New page

[[File:FurThicknessOverallShape..png|thumb]]