1. The ArtMatic Suite 8 (Designer 7.5.3 + Voyager 4.5.3 + V-Quartz 4.5.3) Buy Now: $299. The Deep Space Library (for The ArtMatic Suite 7.5.3 and CTX 1.0) Buy Now: $199 -The Architecture Library (for The ArtMatic Suite 7.5.3 and CTX 1.0) Buy Now: $199 -ArtMatic Designer 7.5.3 (for the ArtMatic 7.5.3 Engine) Buy Now: $149.
2. ArtMatic CTX is a suite of integrated applications that expand the possibilities of each in very unique ways. Designer is a modular synthesizer for creating 2D Graphics, 3D models, and Sound Design or Music, but it is also a 3D model editor for Voyager. Voyager is a 3D renderer for Designer.
3. Picture digitally created with ArtMatic Voyager. Picture digitally created with ArtMatic Voyager. Alien artmatic avenue bad weather buildings city cloud clouds digital digital art fog fractal green grey clouds megalopolis metacity mirror night reflections scifi sky skyline skyscraper skyscrapers smog sun sunset sunshine town water watersurface.

Apple's new operating system no longer supports applications built for their MacOS X 'Carbon' platform. Designer CTX is a new program created for Apple's 'Cocoa' platform. Programs for Apple's Cocoa are backwards compatible to MacOS 10.10.

Designed in ArtMatic Designer, rendered in ArtMatic Voyager. Voyager has a built in environment for controlling clouds, sun position, haze, sea level for landscapes creation. With the no-planet mode you can also render cosmic scenes, with multiple lights, you can have multiple suns.The Voyager camera can animate all environmental parameters with keyframes as well as the camera characteristics and position. ArtMatic systems can animate any ArtMatic objects through its components parameters. Combining both allows you to render incredible fly-throughs with animated objects. Be sure to check out the amazing videos created with both software applications.

Voyager renders ArtMatic 3D objects and generates landscapes from 2D images. It has a built-in environment for controlling clouds, sun position, haze, sea level for landscape creation. With the no-planet mode, you can also render cosmic scenes, with multiple lights, including multiple suns. The Voyager camera lets you animate all the.

When the 'live link' is enabled in Designer, Designer communicates any changes of parameters to Voyager when both are launched. This allows you to edit complex models in Designer while watching a pop up preview rendered by Voyager. The Designer/Voyager hot-linking tutorial video explains the basics of this key feature.

The new Designer CTX includes all the features you came to love in the 'carbon' OS versions, and has multiple new features including:

• 9 New Components and 135 New Functions
• New Looper Component for Seamless Flow
• Built in Browser with Preview
• Launch Online Component Definitions from Tree Icons
• Full Support for Apple ProRess 4444 Codec
• Full Support for 16bits Per Pixel Images
• New User Interface and Custom Themes
• Multiple Levels of Undo, and More...

Designer CTX - Click here to learn more.

Voyager CTX - Click here to learn more.

Designed in ArtMatic Designer, rendered in ArtMatic Voyager. Voyager has a built in environment for controlling clouds, sun position, haze, sea level for landscapes creation. With the no-planet mode you can also render cosmic scenes, with multiple lights, you can have multiple suns.The Voyager camera can animate all environmental parameters with keyframes as well as the camera characteristics and position. ArtMatic systems can animate any ArtMatic objects through its components parameters. Combining both allows you to render incredible fly-throughs with animated objects. Be sure to check out the amazing videos created with both software applications.

When the 'live link' is enabled in Designer, Designer communicates any changes of parameters to Voyager when both are launched. This allows you to edit complex models in Designer while watching a pop up preview rendered by Voyager. The Designer/Voyager hot-linking tutorial video explains the basics of this key feature.

Designer 7.5 - Click here to learn more.

Voyager 4.5 - Click here to learn more.

Now included in th 7.5 suite V-Quartz is the missing link is here. Originally only available internally at U&I, a version of V-Quartz is now available for ArtMatic Designer+Voyager and MetaSynth+Xx users. It ties together our visual and audio applications into one editor - a powerful video and image synthezier and renderer. You can use V-Quartz to create stills, animations, music videos, motion graphics, and video art.

FEATURES

OVERVIEW
- Two Production Rooms: Video or Image
- ArtMatic Designer PreRendering Not Required
- MetaSynth Integration for Music Video Creation

ARTMATIC DESIGNER
- Import ArtMatic Designer files to sequence ArtMatic Animations
- No PreRendering in Designer Required (7.5 required for editing)
- Combine ArtMatic, Quartz Composer & OpenGL filters
- Resulting in a limitless open environment for creation

METASYNTH
- Synchronize MetaSynth with V-Quartz for making music videos
- Use 'Measure:Beats:milliseconds' and BPM tempo to edit visuals

APPLE QUARTZ
- Edit & Composite with Quartz, Quicktime and OpenGL
- Use Quartz vector graphics for motion graphics & graphic design
- Hundreds of filters, effects, & Composer visuals including DFRM fractals
- Rendering & sequencing of Quartz Composer patches

GENERAL
- Infinite Number of virtual tracks & nested groups
- Advanced compositing with all major blend modes & alpha channel logic
- Import ArtMatic files, Quicktime, & Images (all major graphic formats)
- Export Video, Quicktime, image, or a list of images
- Familiar U&I Interface

Building 3D Objects : DFRM Guide

Introduction:

ArtMatic Voyager uses a unique approach to 3D objects modeling & rendering called Distance Field Ray Marching, DFRM for short.This document covers the details you need to know to create or modify 3D objects represented by distance fields (DF for short) and gives many practical guidelines. The technical information may help you to understand the reasoning behind DFRM and develop your own techniques.

Ray marching essentially calculates the intersection of the possible light rays between the observer and the scene by sampling along the ray. It is a slow process as the object or terrain have to be sampled many times to know where the ray intersects the object. Ray Marching is needed when the mathematics that describe the object are too complex to find intersections analytically, typically when the object is an entire procedural planet or generative infinite City like in Voyager case.
By using distance fields Voyager can find the intersection of the ray with the surface of 3D object much more quickly than using the brute force technic of ray marching. This is because the DF (read Distance Field) itself gives some information about the distance to the surface which allows the sampling to be much more efficient by converging quickly to the surface.
A distance field is just a scalar field where the value of the field gives a good (or exact) approximation of the distance to the surface.
The distance field does not have to be mathematically exact to allow proper convergence, but the more exact the distance estimate is, the faster the convergence will be. If the distance estimate deviates too much from the true distance the ray will miss the object (overshoot) if it overestimates that distance. Underestimation won't impair the ability to converge to the correct solution but the convergence will be slower.
A distance field function takes a space or plane coordinates and calculates an estimate of the distance from that point to the object surface. The object surface is those places where the distance is 0, that is the 'zero crossing' of the field. A value greater than 0 indicates a point inside the object with the field value indicating the distance from the surface. A value less than zero indicates a point outside of the object. ArtMatic's Geographic Clut color shader is useful for visualizing distance fields as its colors indicate distances.
A distance field can be 2D or even 1D. A 1D distance field is simply x or y or z provided they are unscaled. Thus you can directly use - y for example to create a DF infinite flat ground where y0 defines a flat ground plane.
The simplest 3D distance field is a sphere. What is remarkable (and unique) is that the sphere equation is its own distance field equation. The field is described by this equation: R - sqrt( x^2 + y^2 + z^2) ( or R-length(x,y,z), 'length' being the euclidian distance) which comes from the sphere equation: x2 + y2 + z2 = R with R being the radius of the sphere. The minus sign is needed to adjust the field values so that the field is negative outside the sphere and positive inside. With the sphere the convergence can be done in a single step as the DF field R-length(x,y,z) gives you the exact distance to the solution. The field exist everywhere in space which makes DF objects non-local unlike with classical polygonal description.
One can see a distance field as a special kind of 'scalar field'. Scalar fields are non-directional (unlike vector fields) and non-local. This non-locality (field exist everywhere in space) makes the object information expand way beyond its boundaries. This property is quite interesting as a simple offset of the field value will expand or shrink the object.

DF fields can be manipulated in many ways impossible (or very difficult) with polygonal descriptions:
-DF fields can be blended or morphed together
-DF fields can be distorted by space distortion functions
-DF fields can be combined using boolean operators
-DF fields can be used as the input coordinates for another DF field calculation.
DFRM is useful not just because of its computational efficiency, but because very simple operations can be used to create complex and interesting shapes. Animating these transformations can create fascinating object morphs that would be very difficult to create with more traditional 3D tools.
DF fields provides an unified representation for very different types of objects, a tree, a fractal, a building, a sphere. This representation is non-local and independent of a particular topology. That makes morphing and combination of very different types of objects quite easy. Thus efficient and simpler technics for 3D modeling are possible with DF objects and ArtMatic Engine provides hundreds of functions designed for DF modeling.

3D DF objects are created using ArtMatic Designer. Creating and modifying them requires a fairly good understanding of ArtMatic Structure Trees. Many pre-existing DF primitives are available in ArtMatic Engine to provide you with basic DF building blocks that you can combine using boolean functions. For the most part, you will use built-in ArtMatic components that generate distance fields and combine them (using the guidelines provided later) to create complex objects. Although advanced users can create their own distance fields, it is unlikely that you will ever need to create a distance field from scratch.

ArtMatic trees need certain properties to work as DF objects: Any 2D or 3D scalar function can be interpreted as a distance field as long as the field value provides a good distance approximation to the function zero crossing (the surface). 3D objects trees needs to be 3D which means they use the X,Y and Z global inputs. The field has to be negative outside the object surface and positive inside. All functions that are clamped to zero (positive only) cannot be used as a DF generating function.
A DF object is not necessary bounded and small. You can have one DF object describing an entire city or a forest. Using Compiled tree, there is virtually no limits in the number of functions and complexity of geometry you can have in a single DF object instance.

• Scaling & Size
  The scaling of DF object is always absolute and the overall size can be set within Voyager in percent in the Object Inspector LINK. But sometimes it is needed to scale DF elements within the ArtMatic tree when merging various shapes or building fractals. In general most DF building box will have a Radius or Scale parameter that sets the element size directly.
  Changing object size is generally done by adding an offset to the distance field value rather than by scaling space. If you must scale the space, it is necessary to compensate by inverse scaling the field value to maintain a proper DF estimate. Take the case of a sphere. If x,y and z are scaled by 4, the distance estimate will become four times larger than it should be. Scaling down by 1/4 corrects the error. This is the same as just lowering the radius by subtracting an offset to the field itself.
  A couple of special component (S-Space Scale scaling) keeps track of scaling automatically so that the field can be adjusted at the end of the tree with the proper inverse value. 44 space transforms will give you many operators keeping track on the S-scale to build fascinating DF based volumetric fractals.
  Rotations and Mirroring functions can be used safely as they don't change the space scaling and keep the distance field always accurate.
  
• Positions
  Voyager provides many sliders and ways to position the entire DF object in the scene. When an ArtMatic tree mixes several DF objects it is often needed to position the objects relatively within the tree. A simple space translation doesn't modify the DF field accuracy and is safe to be used. 1D Offset component, 3D Offset component and any vector offset functions can all be used to move various parts. A translation is a simple addition of a constant value to a space coordinate. If the relative displacement is needed only in one dimension it is efficient to use the 13 Add vector function.
  To Animate the object position you will use the artmatic keyframes with varying offset tile parameters, or more complex motion functions connected to global time input w.
  
• Object Color
  To associate a color with a DF field you will typically use the RGBA stream format with A holding the Distance estimation data. A constant color tile can provide the RGB data if the object has a single color and no texture. Advanced user will build a color texture function to feed the RGB associated with the object. Like with terrain textures the object texture is computed after the intersection phase and you can optimize rendering speed by separating the texture computation from the object Distance field computation. In that case put all tiles used to compute the color texture in a compiled tree and set the compiled tree to be Evaluate Only For Colors : Any tile that has the Evaluate Only For Colors option set won't be computed during the Intersection phase. (See Rendering passesArtMatic Surfaces. The Color texture function will often be a 33 tile that gets its input from incoming space and outputs RGB data.
  
• Previewing in ArtMatic
  Since ArtMatic Designer has only a 2D view you will see a Slice of the field. 33 space transforms like 3D Spaces# ArtMatic top view is handy to see a top view map of the field even if the Voyager rendering shows the object standing. You may also use a 3D rotation tile and set up a bunch of views using ArtMatic keyframes to 'look' at the object slice from different directions.
  When creating DFRM objects in ArtMatic, it is often useful to switch between shaders.The Geographic Clut in particular is great to visualize the distance field to make sure that it is correct. The Geographic Clut makes it easy to see if there are anomalies caused by too much scaling or distortion. For all objects, there should be an orderly and reasonable transition as one moves away from the surface or into the object's interior. The negative region outside the object are shaded in blue while interior is shaded with a geographic color ramp according to distance estimate. To see a preview of a texture function you can switch the ArtMatic shader RGB Density to get a slice of the color texture. Regions outside the object are treated as transparent.
  But the most efficient way to model in ArtMatic is to have Voyager run in the background and allow ArtMatic to send data to Voyager using the ArtMatic Voyager hot link toggle (bottom-left of ArtMatic Designer toolbar). In that case you will see a preview window of the 3D Voyager rendering while working in ArtMatic Designer. Then you can fine tune many parameters while seeing the 3D result interactively.
  Note: When using Voyager and Designer concurrently, make sure that you have ArtMatic Designer launched before you click on an 'Edit in ArtMatic button'. That will ensure the correct version is used.
  
• Design guidelines
  -Don't scale the space
  If you must, do it uniquely with the 34 S-Space Scale function and don't forget to divide the DF field by the S value at the end. In general growing DF objects is more efficiently done by adding/subtracting to the field itself.
  -Don't distort space too much or compensate by scaling down the DF field When using arbitrary noise functions for displacement, make sure not to use amplitudes that are too large. If the amplitude is too large, the displacement may be so large that the DFRM will not converge or will miss certain areas (resulting in artifacts). The solution is to reduce the amplitude parameter or to add a filter to the output to reduce the values.
  -Don't over-blend with non DF functions Many interesting functions for terrains design are available in ArtMatic engine. Theses functions, even without being true DF estimates, can still be used to add textures or deformations to DF fields by blending them with the DF function. As with scaling do it sparingly and if the convergence is affected reduce the amplitude of the final DF value.
  -Use rotate interpolation or linear interpolation in preference to addition when blending fields.
  -Use logical operators to combine DF fields. Logical operators like MIN(intersection) or MAX (union) don't scale or damage the field accuracy so they are perfect for mixing various DF objects. Many Logical operators components are provided for scalar and RGBA DF fields by ArtMatic Engine :
  S:P Logic &Profiles
  21 Logic tools #
  24 Packed Logic #
  34 Packed Logic #
  Examples of Logical operators are located in Voyager Examples/Components/Logic tools
  

DF Modeling technics

Many times it is simpler to build a 3D object using 2D DF profile like the ones provided by 21 Profile Shapes # or 21 DF Curves#.
A 2D DF profile is just a DF field defined only in 2 dimension : it will be infinite in the undefined dimension. For example a 2D DF disc connected to (x,z) will render as an infinite column in Voyager because y is not specified.
Examples of basic modeling technics are located in Voyager Examples/DF Modeling/Basic technics
The most useful technics to work with 2D profiles are :

• Intersection:
  You can intersect two 2D DF fields defined in different planes to create a 3D object. Think of a 2D DF field as a 'profile path' where the zero crossing of the field define the path shape. Used directly in 3D these profiles will be infinite in the other axis, typically z if the 2D DF component is connected to (x,y) or y if the 2D DF is connected to (x,z).
  By intersecting a (x,y) profile with a (x,z) profile you will ensure the object is bounded in all dimensions. The result will be a 3D object that look like profile A in one direction and profile B in the perpendicular direction. The intersection is typically performed using Boolean (logical) operators like 21 Logic tools # or S:P Logic &Profiles but for a basic intersection a simple Minimum function will work.
  A 2D triangle in (x,y) intersects with a 2D ellipse in (y,z)
  The intersection can itself add details to the geometry using various flavors of the boolean operator. 'Edged intersect' for example will add edges at the intersection.
  A 2D triangle in (x,y) Edged - intersects with a 2D red ellipse in (y,z)
  
• Sweeps:
  As DF fields can be used as the input coordinates for another field calculation it is possible to use a 2D DF field as an input (x or y or z) for another DF function either 2D or 3D. This will basically 'sweep' the object B along the profile of object A. For example to get a torus sweep a disc in (x,y) along a disc profile in (x,z). Sweeping any profile with a disc will create a revolution object, like a glass or a bottle.
  Usually you will connect directly a 2D profile to one coordinate input of another 2D profile. Another way is to use the 32 Revolution & Sweeps # component that provides many paths for sweeps.
  When 2D uv coordinates are needed you may also use the uvid Sweep_Volumes component that will perform sweeps internally and return uv as well as the DF field itself.
  A 2D pentagon (21 Profile Shapes #) sweeps along an Archimedes spiral path (21 DF Curves#)
  
• Cross Sweep:
  A cross-sweep will be achieved when a 2D profile is connected to two others 2D profiles, one fed in x input, the other in y input.
  Quite complex models can be achieved that way.
  A 2D Triangle and a 2D disk (21 Profile Shapes #) feeds coordinates of a 21 DF Curves# object.
  

There are many ways to work with 3D DF fields and the techniques below can all be combined to achieve quite complex geometry.

• Intersection, Union.. etc
  Most of the time you will build complex 3D objects by mixing various 3D DF fields using Boolean (logical) operators like 21 Logic tools #
  Many examples of Logical operators usage are located in Voyager Examples/Components/Logic tools
  
• Morphing fields
  Use the Morph components to make a morphed union of 2 objects. For Scalar fields you can use the Math tools # Morph function. To morph 2 colored DF object you will use the 24 tile Packed Morph.
  A cyan sphere array morphed with an infinite red DF plane
  


• Sweeps & cross-sweeps
  Sweeps can also work between 3D and 2D DF objects. You 'sweep' a 2D DF profile along a 3D DF field by feeding the 3D object field to one of the 2D DF profile coordinate.
  A 2D arc curve sweep along an four sided 3D pyramid
  It is also possible to sweep a 2D profile along the intersection of two 3D DF volumes : In that case the 2D profile will trace the shape of the intersection contours.
  A 2D disc sweep along the intersect of a sphere and a four sided pyramid
  
• Space Deformation
  A very efficient way to shape the DF object is to add a space-distortion function to modify the incoming space. Mirroring and Rotations are very often used to force the object to be symmetrical or to have various number of rotational symmetries.
  3D Plane Mirror, 3D Mirrors & Rotates #, and 3D Mirrors & Offset # provides 3D Mirroring and Rotations functions.
  A 3D fractal displacement like 3D Fractal displace will completely change the look of a simple sphere. Some displacement functions are specifically designed to deform DF fields like 3D Distorts & Bend #
  A DF sphere and ground with 3D space displaced by 3D Fractal displace
  
• Displace the field value
  To add a bump texture or small details you can simply add a little bit of a 3D noise function to the field. A number of 3D DF noise and 3D DF pattern functions are available in ArtMatic Engine to add textures at the geometry level, but for small details almost every ArtMatic functions can be used to modulate the DF field.
  Examples of 3D noise added to a sphere : 3D Ridged Fractal , 3D Fractal Bubbles
  
• Instantiation by Space manipulation
  The most efficient way to duplicate and instantiate objects is to manipulate space so that a single object will appear at many places at once. A simple 1D Modulo function (11 Modulo) will repeat the object in one axis infinitely for example. One may use voronoi diagram (2D or 3D) to partition space into many cells, each having its own coordinates. ArtMatic Engine provides many components that create instances by tiling or partitioning the space :
  3D Repeats and Tile, Jitter Spherical, Jitter Axial, Motion Cluster, 3D Motion Path render
  The difficulty with this technic is the DF field has to be well centered and relatively far from the space cell boundaries where space coordinates will suddendly be discontinuous and jump to totally unrelated values. To maintain an accurate Distance estimate and avoid overshooting one can clamp the DF value when using these to not be below a fixed value.
  When the tiling is regular and space symmetrical the problem vanishes as the space is coherent even at cell boundaries.
  
• Carving
  A 3D pattern or noise component can provide details to any 3D volume using S:P Logic &Profiles displacements functions like 'Displace','Chisel displace' and 'Circle displace'. They will carve the volume along the contours defined by the zero crossings of the 3D volumetric pattern.
  An elongated sphere (XYZ Shapes #) carved with a voronoi split pattern(3D Bubble & skins)
  

Shading DF Objects

Textured or not Voyager provides several rendering and shading options for DF objects. In general you will use the opaque mode but alternate modes can provides clouds and gazes, fuzzy objects, lights fields and transparent/translucent objects.
Examples are provided in Voyager Examples/Shading & Rendering/folders.

• Volumetric opaque:
  This mode shades the 3D object as an opaque solid object. If the ArtMatic system has only a single output value, the output defines the object's shape, and the color is white (but the apparent color can be changed using the object's specular/reflection properties). If the ArtMatic system provides RGBA output, the alpha channel defines the object's shape and the RGB outputs provide the object's colors. ArtMatic extra outputs (X Outs) are used if there are any specified in the Voyager settings. Volumetric opaque can be used for a mind- boggling variety of objects and features.
  


• Volumetric light:
  This mode shades the DF field as a volumetric light density field by accumulating color/opacity values along the ray. It is suited for a wide range of luminous effects, fire, city lights, array of lights etc. The occlusion slider determines how much light from the background is occluded by the object. The light density parameter scales the distance field interpreted as density values when inside the object. You often need to adjust it when the light gets too saturated or too bright. This mode is slower than volumetric opaque as the object (its density field) needs to be scanned inside and out (whereas evaluation of an opaque object stops where the light rays meet the object's exterior).
  Volumetric light objects can cast light. The light emission range parameter controls how far light are cast from the distance field center. The light direction is taken from the normal of the DF field unless you use the 'Shade as projector ' mode in which case the object center becomes the source of light. The light casted with DF normal may be physically impossible and won't cast shadows but nevertheless is quite efficient to render multiple lights or complex light field like cities streets lights. Alternatively you may have an extra output defining the light direction vector. In that case you can automate the X-out settings by using letters 'ib' at the end. The 'b' tagged X-out vector will define the light direction vector. In that case the light field will cast shadows.
  Examples: Voyager Examples/Shading & Rendering/DF lights fields
  In the Desert Light Field example you can see an array of lights casting light on the desert.
  


• Jitter opaque:
  This mode replicates an object throughout an environment with small variations so that the repetitions are not identical. Voyager essentially breaks up the environment into randomized cells and instantiates one copy of the object into each cell with a 'jittered' (randomized) center and rotation. ArtMatic global A3 is sent a unique randomized value for each cell that can be used to randomize the object properties. You can use this technique to create an entire forest from a single tree. If you do use an ArtMatic system that uses a jittering component, make sure that the ArtMatic system's jittering clip radius is smaller than Voyager's jitter cell size and keep the object small enough so it stays away from cell boundaries. This may require some experimentation to find the correct parameter values. For a greater control you would usually use a jittering tile within the ArtMatic tree.
  Learn more at DFRM guide : Modeling technics : Instantiation by Space manipulation.
  


• Volumetric and translucent:
  This shading variant of opaque mode is dedicated for vegetation (leaves and plants) shading. It adds some light going through the object and light scattered inside the object surface. The thickness of the object is important as thin object (a leave for example) tends to be more translucent than a trunk obviously. The 'light transmission and 'light transmission range' parameters controls how much and how deep light can travel trough the medium. 'light transmission range' ranges 0 to 200 meters. Light traveling inside the medium is colored by the reflection color and the object texture color.
  Backlighted tree will still have light passing through the leaves in this mode
  


• Fractal opaque:
  This mode is designed for fractal objects and objects with very rough surfaces as it smooths the sub-pixel details that would otherwise make the image noisy, especially when far away. The global high-frequency limit and the fractal object detail % (in the Preferences dialog) can further allow you a fine control over objects details. Use this mode for fractal objects with very rough or infinitely thin structures like the MandelBulb, the MandelBox and similar created with 32 3D Fractal sets #.
  


• Transparent (surface):
  This mode is suited for transparent objects like glass or windows. The object surface is treated as transparent without internal volumetric shading. Light color is tinted as it passes through the object much as it would be affected by tinted glass. The stained glass windows in the Opaque + Transparent example are treated as transparent surfaces. Notice how they project their colors on the ground and walls.
  


• Transparent (volumetric):
  The surface is shaded with specular and blended with a volumetric accumulation of the inside of the DFRM field. Opacity can be controlled by the 'opacity' slider. There is a slight deviation of light when it passes through the medium since Voyager 4.5.
  Translucent jellyfish
  


• Translucent (self illum):
  Similar to 'Transparent (volumetric)' surface is shaded with specular and blended with a volumetric accumulation of the inside of the DFRM field but the interior of the object is shaded independently of external lights sources ( self-illum mode). This setting is suited for self-glowing underwater creatures for example.
  Translucent self illum jellyfish
  


• Fuzzy loose:
  This is a faster version of 'Fuzzy' mode that renders less accurately than 'Fuzzy' by sampling the volume much more sparingly. Use this mode if the other is too slow for fast previewing.
  


• Fuzzy
  Only the volumetric interior is rendered and shaded by accumulation and there is no surface shading. Specular is off in this case. 'Fuzzy' shading mode can be used for fuzzy objects an even plants
  


• Gas and Clouds:
  In this mode Density objects are shaded like clouds. This provides an alternate, more flexible and controllable solution than the volumetric clouds. With Gas and Clouds you can make smoke, steam, fog, clouds and even vegetation for an impressionistic approximation when seen from afar. Examples : Voyager Examples/Shading & Rendering/DF Gaz :Cloud shader
  Shading parameters are:
  'Opacity gain': scales the density of the gas.
  'Self shadow dist' : length of self shadow accumulation ray
  'Self shadow gain': strength of self shadow
  'Derivative level': should be zero in most cases as the derivative mostly captures surface details that are not really there for true gazes.
  'Contrast': global shading contrast.
  'Ambient level': amount of light scattered from the environment and passing through the medium.
  
• Opaque + light
  Combines Opaque mode with Volumetric light mode (see above). The volumetric light has to be provided by a second output of the ArtMatic file. Opaque + light is suited to create lamps, illuminated cities and for special effects like lights rays or reactor exhausts coming out of a space ship.
  With volumetric light casting real light you can have 'Opaque + light' lamps that can be manipulated as a single object
  Utopia city combined with a DF lights field.
  
• Opaque + Transparent
  Combines Opaque mode with Volumetric Transparent mode (see above). The transparent volume has to be provided by a second output of the ArtMatic file. Like the other multi-mode, this mode requires an ArtMatic system that has two sets of outputs: one for an opaque object and one for a transparent object. The second object is interpreted as a transparent and reflective object. It can be colored but light is not accumulated volumetrically. This mode is particularly useful for creating objects that have window in architectural design.
  Stained glass aisle
  

• Ambient occlusion
  Ambient occlusion approximates how much light coming from the environment is blocked by the object in addition to true shadows. It provides a kind of clarity and realism not possible without it especially when directional sun light is absent like in overcast sky situations. When rendering rough textured terrains or fractal objects, ambient occlusion is especially helpful for bringing out the scene details. Ambient Occlusion estimates the amount of non-directional ambient light that reaches various areas (as opposed to shadows which are caused by directional light). AO is independent of the main light direction. Concave or hard-to-access areas will be darkened. It can be applied to terrains and objects independently. Ambient occlusion affects ambient and diffuse lighting but not specular and reflective light channels because it mostly simulates the blocking of light coming from any direction but not the light hitting the surface from a single direction.
  Ambient occlusion can take some time to compute and is set to OFF in draft mode.
  DF objects provides several algorithm for Ambient Occlusion. The Low freq AO is the most accurate but also the slowest.
  There is a global preference for the AO Radius in the main preferences dialog but each object in a scene can have its own AO amount setting.
  AO Amount. When the AO amount is less than 100% only convex surfaces are affected. Amounts greater than 100% tend to affect all areas but may leave convex areas intact.
  AO Radius Preference. Voyager scenes can have varied needs. Preferences contains a global control for the Ambient Occlusion Radius that allows you to adjust the AO for the scene's context. On a landscape dominated by large-scale features, a size of 50 meters or so will give good results. Changing the radius will influence features of certain size or detail. The same object can look quite different with different settings. So, it is worth some experimentation to find the setting that gives you the results you prefer.
  Ideally, AO should be scale-independent but this is currently impractical because of the enormous impact it would have on render time so AO radius is scaled by the DF object scale when below and above 100%. This allows in the same scene to have a 40 meter A0 radius for terrains and large DF structures while still have correct AO for a small 20 cm object in the foreground.
  Here is an example of a fractal DF object entirely shaded by Ambient occlusion
  


• Using extra outputs
  When an ArtMatic DF object has one or more extra outputs, the extra output can be mapped to various shading properties such as wetness, self illumination or reflectivity. Using extra output (or X-outs for short ) to modulate texture shading can greatly enhance realism and visual complexity. For example you may have a model that provides a texture for day light and a texture for night in an X-out channel. Turning on the channel by selecting 'Self illumination' is easy and you will typically do it for night renderings without having to change the model itself.
  The extra output can be mapped to:
  'nothing' : the way to turn off a particular shading option.
  'Self illumination' Unlike 'Ambient & Wetness' which sets the amount of diffuse reflection coming from the environment 'Self illumination' adds its own light to the scene giving the impression of a luminous object. The self illumination light color is the X out color or white if X out is scalar.
  'Wetness level' control the specular amount of light coming from the environment. This light can be filtered by the X out color if any.
  'Ambient & Wetness' control the amount of light coming from the environment, diffuse and specular. This light can be filtered by the X out color if any.
  'Reflection level' Mirror reflection of light from the environment. The reflected light can be filtered by the X out color.
  Auto Mapping of X-out option: The following letters put at the end of an ArtMatic 3D DF object multi outputs file will cause Voyager to set a proper shading option default when opening/importing a new AM system. The letters can be combined in any order up to 3 letters ('ri', 'wir' 'wbi' etc) when multiple X-outs are used but a space needs to be present before to not get confused with letters in the name itself.
  'i': sets corresponding output to 'Self illumination color & level',
  'r': sets corresponding output to 'Reflection color & level',
  'w': sets corresponding output to 'Wetness level / Specular color ',
  'b': sets corresponding output to 'Bump Map ',
  'l': (in first position only) will set the first extra output to be assigned to 'Volumetric Light' in the mode 'opaque + light',
  't': (in first position only) will set the first extra output to be assigned to 'Transparent' in the mode 'opaque + Transparent'
  

Artmatic Voyager

When working on a slow computer or working with a particularly CPU-intensive DFRM based scene on any computer, you may find times when making adjustments become very difficult because the CPU is bogged down calculating the preview while you adjust sliders and other user interface controls. Or simply because feedback is too slow to be practical.
When this happens, there are a few tricks that you can use to improve the user interface's responsiveness.
Reduce render quality.
The first thing to try is setting the Render Quality setting to draft or good. In some cases, this provides a dramatic improvement. Work at the reduced quality setting until you actually need the higher quality. In some cases using Best or Sublime quality is very slow and unnecessary. There are many cases where a Good or Better quality render is almost indistinguishable from a Best or Sublime quality render -- and the lower quality render may take 1/10th the time.
Make objects temporarily inactive.
With very CPU-intensive systems -- especially with object's that are set up with a reflection color -- it is often useful to temporarily make the object inactive in the ArtMatic Object and Positions dialog. Make the object inactive and then make whatever adjustments you need (sun position, camera position, etc.) and then make the object active again. Temporarily turn off reflections. When the Reflection Color amount is set to anything other than 0, a lot of processing goes into calculating the reflections. If this bogs things down, set the Reflection Color amount to 0 while you are making your other adjustments.
Make texture computation separate
Finding the intersection between the ray and the object is the most CPU intensive task with DF objects, especially if the object field is poorly convergent. Texture computation is not necessary at this stage and should be put in a CT (Compiled tree) set with the Compute only for colors. Sometimes the texture algorithm is much more complex than the object volume function and you really don't want it to be computed for every samples along the ray when it is only needed for the object shading. For constant colored objects or simple and fast colored textures it may be not worth to do that as there is a little overhead when using CT.
Temporarily change the sky mode.
If your scene uses objects and volumetric skies or the volumetric light sky mode, you may want to temporarily set the Sky Mode to Clear Sky or Cloudy Sky. Volumetric clouds and volumetric lights can be very cpu-intensive.
Turn off Cast Shadows and Ambient Occlusion
The Cast Shadows option can dramatically increase the calculation time. In some cases, this option can increase rendering time by as much as a factor of 10. Turn it off until you need it. If you are rendering animation, you should render some test frames to see if the option is worth the added rendering time. Ambient Occlusion can be set to none for each objects or is globally bypassed in Draft render mode.

Artmatic Voyager

Object invisible
Make sure the object is not below ground, too small, or outside camera range.
Object artifacts
Artifacts in the rendering or shadows usually means the DF field is inaccurate and convergence poor. Revise the maths of the field or lower the field amplitude to make convergence safer.
Black screen
Camera is probably within the object. To fix this situation, move the camera outside the object's bounds. Otherwise it may be that the field has no more any 'outside', that is, negative values that defines empty region around the object. Revise the maths of the field to ensure it does have an 'outside'.

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