Review

In 3D graphics world various techniques are used to make geometry visualisation closer to reality. The most interesting of them are those giving maximum effect with minimal resources consumption. Three dimensional computing technologies usually work with triangle as geometry primitive due to their simplicity. The aggregation of these minimal primitives are used to create geometry of any level of complexity. In practice the limit of maximum number of triangles exists which software and hardware can operate with. The more triangles we use, the closer to real geometry we'll be, the more computing resources we will need.

The limit of number of triangles dramaticaly decreases oportunities. However techniques, that allow to increase the quality of geometry visualisation do exist. These techniques are mainly used for lighting and microreliefing of 3D objects. They allow to achieve better results with minimum overhead. Such algorithms are for example normal mapping and relief mapping.

These techniques are suitable for wide range of programms, which use 3D graphics for visualization, but they cause problem of normal or relief map calculation, which are unique for every object. This problem is solved in different ways, the easiest one is manual texture map building with usual image editing software such as GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). This way usually means that you have to create relief map and then the normal map is built with the use of special programms or plugins such as Normalmap for GIMP. But this easy method cannot be used for complex geometry.

This application introduces another way of producing Normal and Relief maps. This technique considers two-mesh presentation of the same object, first is a low-polygonal model, which will be used for rendering in your application, second is a high-polygonal, which is very close to the truth and is used only for generation of maps. The result of comaprison of those two models is used to produce normal and relief maps.

Reliefer is designed as standalone application, you will need special plugin or script if you want to use it from 3D editing software. At the time of writing this manual, the integration script was only developed for Blender 3D modeling tool.