The Annotated VRML 97 Reference

1 Intro     Concepts     3 Nodes     4 Fields/Events    Conformance
A Grammar     B Java     C JavaScript     D Examples     E Related Info    References
Quick Java         Quick JavaScript         Quick Nodes   
 

  About the Book
  
Help
  Copyright © 1997-99
  Purchase the book from Amazon.com

Chapter 3:
Node Reference


Intro
Anchor
Appearance
AudioClip
Background
Billboard
Box
Collision
Color
ColorInterpolator
Cone
Coordinate
CoordinateInterpolator
Cylinder
CylinderSensor
DirectionalLight
ElevationGrid
Extrusion
Fog
FontStyle
Group
ImageTexture
IndexedFaceSet
IndexedLineSet
Inline
LOD
Material
MovieTexture
NavigationInfo
Normal
NormalInterpolator
OrientationInterpolator
PixelTexture
PlaneSensor
PointLight
PointSet
PositionInterpolator
ProximitySensor
ScalarInterpolator
Script
Shape
Sound
Sphere
SphereSensor
SpotLight
Switch
Text
TextureCoordinate
TextureTransform
TimeSensor
TouchSensor
Transform
Viewpoint
VisibilitySensor
WorldInfo

+3.19 Fog

Fog { 
  exposedField SFColor  color            1 1 1      # [0,1]
  exposedField SFString fogType          "LINEAR"
  exposedField SFFloat  visibilityRange  0          # [0,INF)
  eventIn      SFBool   set_bind
  eventOut     SFBool   isBound
}

The Fog node provides a way to simulate atmospheric effects by blending objects with the colour specified by the color field based on the distances of the various objects from the viewer. The distances are calculated in the coordinate space of the Fog node. The visibilityRange specifies the distance (in the local coordinate system) at which objects are totally obscured by the fog. Objects located visibilityRange meters or more away from the viewer are drawn with a constant colour of color. Objects very close to the viewer are blended very little with the fog color. A visibilityRange of 0.0 disables the Fog node. The visibilityRange is affected by the scaling transformations of the Fog node's parents; translations and rotations have no affect on visibilityRange. values of the visibilityRange field shall be in the range [0, INF).

TIP: Controlling the fog color allows many interesting effects. A foggy day calls for a fog color of light gray; a foggy night calls for a dark gray fog color. You can get a depth-cuing effect in which objects get darker the farther they are from the viewer by using a black fog color, and can get smoke and/or fire by making the fog blue or red. Use visibilityRange to control the density of the fog, smoke, or haze.

Since Fog nodes are bindable children nodes (see "2.6.10 Bindable children nodes"), a Fog node stack exists, in which the top-most Fog node on the stack is currently active. To push a Fog node onto the top of the stack, a TRUE value is sent to the set_bind eventIn. Once active, the Fog node is bound to the browser view. A FALSE value sent to set_bind, pops the Fog node from the stack and unbinds it from the browser viewer. More details on the Fog node stack may be found in "2.6.10 Bindable children nodes."

TIP: You can use the Fog stack to create effects like the inside of a house that is free of fog located in a very foggy town. When the user enters the house, a ProximitySensor can be used to bind a Fog node that turns off Fog. When the user leaves the house, the Fog node is unbound and the user sees the foggy street. The transition from outdoors to indoors might also involve binding a Background node with prerendered foggy street scenes that will be seen out of the windows of the house and binding a NavigationInfo node to let the VRML browser know that the user can't see very far when they are inside the house.

The fogType field controls how much of the fog colour is blended with the object as a function of distance. If fogType is "LINEAR" (the default), the amount of blending is a linear function of the distance, resulting in a depth cuing effect. If fogType is "EXPONENTIAL," an exponential increase in blending is used, resulting in a more natural fog appearance.

The impact of fog support on lighting calculations is described in "2.14 Lighting model."

TIP: If the Background color or image doesn't match the fog color, then you will see fog-colored silhouettes of faraway objects against the background. There are cases when it is useful to have only part of the background match the fog color, which is why the background is not forced to match the fog color when fogging is being done. For example, to simulate ground fog at night you might have a background that is fog colored close to the horizon, but has an image of slightly foggy stars straight overhead. As long as there were no objects floating in the sky overhead (which would appear foggy and spoil the effect), as viewers looked out over the city they would see the buildings fading into the fog while still seeing stars overhead.

TECHNICAL NOTE: Fog can be very useful as a technique to limit how much of the world the user can see at any one time, giving better rendering performance. It can also give users valuable depth cues that enhance the feeling of being in a 3D space. However, fog is a fairly advanced rendering feature that implementations may be forced to approximate by performing fogging calculations only once per vertex or even once per Shape node instead of the ideal, which is to fog each pixel rendered.

TIP: Use the Fog node in combination with LOD to reduce the visual complexity of the scene and thus increase rendering performance. Tune visibilityRange to match the maximum range in the LOD nodes and set the last child of the LOD to a WorldInfo node. This has the effect of not rendering any objects outside the Fog range! Since the Fog creates a natural fade to the visibilityRange, users will not notice objects popping in and out as the LOD goes to maximum range. This can be a very effective technique for producing interactive frame rates. Experiment and tune the ranges for each particular scene. Also note that the visibilityLimit field of the NavigationInfo node can produce a similar result and should be considered as well (verify that the browser supports the visibilityLimit feature).

Also, use ProximitySensors to bind and unbind Fog nodes as the user enters and exits regions of the world with differing Fog values. In regions where there is no fog, set visibilityRange to 0 to disable Fog.

As stated, Fog nodes are typically used in conjunction with a Background node by setting the Background's skyColor equal or similar to the Fog's color.


EXAMPLE (click to run): The following example illustrates typical use of the Fog node see Figure 3-24). Notice how a Background node is created to correspond to each Fog node. ProximitySensors are used to bind and unbind the two Fog nodes:
#VRML V2.0 utf8
Group {
  children [
    DEF F1 Fog { color 1 1 1 visibilityRange 10 }        # Room fog
    DEF F2 Fog { color 0.5 0.5 0.5 visibilityRange 85 }  # Out fog
    DEF B1 Background { skyColor 1 1 1 }                 # Room bkg
    DEF B2 Background { skyColor 0.5 0.5 0.5 }           # Out bkg
    Transform {
      translation 0 1.5 0
      children DEF P1 ProximitySensor { size 4 3 4 }
    }
    Transform {
      translation 0 25 -52
      children DEF P2 ProximitySensor { size 100 50 100 }
    }
    Transform { children [           # A room with a cone inside
      Shape {                        # The room
        appearance DEF A Appearance {
          material DEF M Material {
            diffuseColor 1 1 1 ambientIntensity .33
          }
        }
        geometry IndexedFaceSet {    
          coord Coordinate {
            point [ 2 0 -2, 2 0 2, -2 0 2, -2 0 -2,
                    2 2 -2, 2 2 2, -2 2 2, -2 2 -2 ]
          }
          coordIndex [ 0 1 5 4 -1, 1 2 6 5 -1, 2 3 7 6 -1, 4 5 6 7 ]
          solid FALSE
        }
      }
      Transform {                    # Cone in the room
        translation -1 0.5 -1.7
        children DEF S Shape {
          geometry Cone { bottomRadius 0.2 height 1.0 }
          appearance USE A
        }
      }
    ]}
    Transform { children [           # Outside the room
      Shape {                        # Textured ground plane 
        appearance Appearance {
          material USE M
          texture ImageTexture { url "marble.gif" }
        }
        geometry IndexedFaceSet {    
          coord Coordinate {
            point [ 50 0 -100, -50 0 -100, -50 0 2, 50 0 2 ] 
          }
          coordIndex [ 0 1 2 3 ]
        }
      }
      Transform {                     # Object outside
        scale 20 20 20
        translation 0 10 -25
        children USE S
      }
    ]}
    Viewpoint { position 1.5 1.0 1.8 orientation 0 0 1 0 }
    DirectionalLight { direction 0 -1 0 } 
  ]
}
ROUTE P1.isActive TO F1.set_bind # These routes bind and unbind the
ROUTE P1.isActive TO B1.set_bind #  room fog/bkg & outdoors fog/bkg
ROUTE P2.isActive TO F2.set_bind #  as the avatar enters/exits the
ROUTE P2.isActive TO B2.set_bind #  the ProximitySensors.

 

Fog node example (2 frames)

Figure 3-24: Two Frames from the Fog Node Example