Point Cloud Problems

[SvenP]

I am trying to get the distance between a point p and the nearest point in a pointcloud.Ive already tried everything i can think of in the last few hours to get the problem solved but the function always returns a value of 0

Ok heres the code maybe someone of you can help me.

Thanks in advance

Sven

float PC_GetDensity(string file ;vector mp;float r)

{

float d,temp_d;

int handle;

d=1000;

handle = pcopen(file,"P",mp,r,10);

while ( pciterate(handle) )

{

if( pcimport(handle,"point.distance",temp_d))

{

if( temp_d < d )

{

d=temp_d;

}

}

}

if (d <= r)

{

return(d);

}

else

{

return(0);

}

}

[sibarrick]

Hi Sven,

I can't see anything obviously wrong with your function.

So just throwing out a few suggestions.

The obvious question is there something wrong with the way it is called. Ie how does r get set?

It might be worth sticking a few "printf"s in there to see what values are getting returned, that might help you track down the problem.

Have you checked that the file path to your cloud is a correct path?

If this in a sop you need to use the full path. And if it's in a shader it has to be a path to an existing disk bgeo or tbf, I don't think you can use the op: path syntax. (not 100% sure about that though)

Also, have you made sure mp is in object space?

mp = wo_space(P);

[SvenP]

Oh well actually i never got the printf output working on windows Maybe someone can help me with this too .

oh and heres the part where the function gets called :

for (i = 0;i < steps; i++)

{

os_marchpoint = wo_space(marchpoint);

dnoise += density_function(marchpoint,distance(os_marchpoint,{0,0,0}));

density += PC_GetDensity ( filename,os_marchpoint,radius);

marchpoint += dir;

}

[sibarrick]

to use printf on windows in a shader just add a line like

printf("os_marchpoint %g \n", os_marchpoint);

then in the renderer set the output to verbose and set a file for the output.

mantra -V 1 -o "C:\Temp\debug.txt"

Another good way to debug is to create an exported parameter and output that in a deep raster.

So in your parameter list add

export float foo = 0;

then set foo to something useful, and in the deep raster tab set foo as one of your deep rasters.

One final thing, I've had problems on windows where a shader will only return 1 for the whole shader and it's turned out to be an otl issue, depending on how the shader was created. If you have your code in an otl it might be worth trying to resave it to another otl that sometimes kicks it back into life.

[SvenP]

Good to know . Thank you very much

Sven

[SvenP]

Well it seems that the otl was the problem

Sven

[sibarrick]

I've tried reporting it as a bug, but it's not repeatable since the act of sending it causes it to be fixed.

Good to know someone else has seen it. Maybe Sesi will believe me now.

Can I ask how you made the otl? was it with vcc or from the file menu?

[SvenP]

With VCC ( i am using Cutter for developing shaders )

actually it looks like if i write a shader that doesnt use pointclouds compile that into an otl and then add pointcloud functions and recompile into the same otl this happens.

if i delete the otl and then compile it works.

i will try to make a without and a with pointcloud functions shader that makes the problem repeatable by compiling them .

Sven

[sibarrick]

What's Cutter?

[SvenP]

Cutter is an IDE for writting VEX/RSL/MEL/Shake Script/TCL/C sourcecode.

http://www.fundza.com/

if you try it out add the houdini/bin/ dir to your path or the compiling wont work

Heres a screenshot :

Sven

[sibarrick]

Cool. Thanks for the link, looks interesting.

[Mario Marengo]

Cutter is an IDE for writting VEX/RSL/MEL/Shake Script/TCL/C sourcecode.

19397[/snapback]

At the risk of sounding antiquated (or should that be "antediluvian"?), I would heartily recommend VIM (or gVim)

[AdamJ]

one more to the mix... jedit. Usually end up going between gvim and jedit.

jedit

[SvenP]

Why do you prefer Vim over Cutter Mario ?

I never tried vim but cutter does a good job for me . All i sometimes miss is the ability to fold/unfold functions for a better overview in bigger shaders.

Sven

[Mario Marengo]

Hey Sven,

Why do you prefer Vim over Cutter Mario ?

19422[/snapback]

Heh... I never said I preferred it *over* cutter (esp. since I've never used cutter)... I was just offering it up as another good text editor worth checking out.

Vim (and its predecessor VI) takes some getting used to, no doubt. It's all keyboard based so it's interface is, uhmm... "unintuitive" shall we say?

But once you get to know it... wow... everything's under your fingers, so you're just flying! Editting becomes insanely fast and flexible... but maybe the whole keyboard thing only appeals to old farts like me

Anyway; check it out if you've got nothing better to do.

[TheUsualAlex]

lol I am a new fart and I like Vim too. Now I am not as fast at it tho...

[Wolfwood]

But once you get to know it... wow... everything's under your fingers, so you're just flying! Editting becomes insanely fast and flexible... but maybe the whole keyboard thing only appeals to old farts like me

The later versions of gvim (vim) are pretty mouse friendly. I'm still a fresh fart so I use the mouse a good bit to navigate through files in vim. If I find myself using a menu all the time I break down and learn the keyboard command for it.