Feature Request: Multiple Textures

[Sum0]

I think it'd be pretty cool to be able to specify several different textures for a planet in a .ssc that would change over time. So we could do something like...

Code: Select all

Texture1 "volcanic earth.jpg" {
   TextureStart (Julian date)
   TextureEnd (Julian date again)}

Texture2 "blue earth.jpg"{
   TextureStart (another date)
   TextureEnd (whenever)}
...


And so on. Another thing would be looping textures to create something like an animated texture. This would allow us to show swirling hurricanes on Earth, or the broiling clouds of Jupiter...

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LoopedTexture {
CloudMap1 "jupiter-clouds1.png" {
   TextureStart 0.001 (<--- days, minutes, I don't know)
   TextureEnd 10.0
}

CloudMap2 "jupiter-clouds2.png" {
  TextureStart 10.01
  TextureEnd 20.0}
}


These are just rough ideas, so apologies for any glaring inaccuraces. What do you think?

[selden]

I certainly agree that texture-specific time specifications would be a lot more convenient than the current Beginning and Ending directives, which apply to entire objects.

I think the looping construct would have to be somewhat different, however. For the loop itself, I think you need to specify a start time and end time, while for the individual textures you'd need to specify offset times: their times have to be measured with respect to the starting time of the current passage through the loop. Actually, I think you only need end times for the individual textures, assuming they are appied sequentially. Otherwise, the author of the .ssc file has to worry about what happens when the times either overlap or have gaps between them.