[Radiance-general] about file *.vf in radiance software

[Axel Jacobs]

Hi Imene,

>> in Radince Tutorial given in this site :
>> http://www.jaloxa.eu/resources/radiance/documentation/docs/radiance_tutorial.pdf
>> and in page 28, after creating scene.oct, I try to make : rvu -vf
>> views/nice.vf scene.oct but i have this message : cannot open view file
>> "view/nice.vf", so how to create a file nice.vf and what are its parameters?
>> thank you
>> Im?ne

> Did you download the tutorial files? They can be found here:
>
>      http://www.jaloxa.eu/resources/radiance/documentation/docs/radfiles_tutorial.zip
>
> I believe that this has what you need to work through the tutorial
> including views/nice.vf.
>
> -Jack

Just to add to Jack's and Thomas' replies to your question (I'm assuming 
you're using a UNIX version of Radiance). You're probably wondering now 
how this view file was created in the first place.

If you run
$ rvu scene.oct
the interactive Radiance scene viewer rvu is launched with your scene in 
it. BTW: If you are reading some VERY old documentation which is still 
out there on the Internet, the command would be 'rview', not 'rvu'. You 
can now use the command prompt at the bottom of the rvu window to move 
the camera around. A list of the most useful rvu commands is in the 
table on p18 of the Tutorial. Apart from 'aim', which is always handy, 
the commands I use most often are:

- when inside a room: 'rotate'
- when looking from the outside: 'pivot'

The tricky bit is always to get the view point right. If you are inside 
a room, a good starting point is to identify a good view point (think 
tripod and camera) by looking at your plan and elevations/sections 
which, of course, you have at least as scribble on a bit of paper.

For external views, a good start is to first run
$ objview scene.mat scene.rad etc

objview takes the material and scene files, adds a few light sources, 
compiles an octree, and then calls rvu. Now use 'pivot' (and the other 
rvu commands to move around the model. Once you have a good view, save 
it like this from the rvu prompt:
: view views/nice.vf
: q

You can now run rvu to look at the scene under your proper light 
sources, rather than the ones objview puts in:
$ rvu -vf views/nice.vf scene.oct

Or, you can run
$ rvu scene.oct
and
: last views/nice.vf

Hope this helps

Regards

Axel