Daemons - Color Plane

"Color Plane" is a versatile and powerful tool for visualizing various properties of a particle-based fluid. It provides an extensive list of features and settings to make attributes like pressure, density, velocity and temperature visible. It is also the only daemon that has an export option under "Export Central". You can decide whether you want to store the numerical data or an image sequence. 

The field can either be represented as a coloured grid, a textured plane or as a set of isolines. "Color Plane" has a fixed sampling resolution, which can be adjusted by the user. The “Grid” option is selected as default, while other modes can be accessed using the “Color plane” panel or the "View" menu. A textured view can be activated via

View >Scene >Textured

If you want to switch back to the “Grid/Isoline” mode, simply choose the wireframe view again. The background can be changed using the “Color” property in the "Node" panel.

Field

You can choose from these attributes: “Pressure”, “Density”, “Velocity”, “Velocity x, y, z” and “Temperature”. “Temperature”, of course, is only available with gases.

Viz. Method

The first option is “Projection”. It draws the field values from particles vertically onto the plane, similar to plain or flat projection methods in 3D programs. Only particles within a fixed vertical distance of the plane contribute to the final plane colours. “Interpolation” performs a weighted interpolation of the surrounding field values for each of the plane’s sample locations. This provides a more physically accurate representation of the field.

Projection method

This setting is only visible with Viz. method’s “Projection” mode. “Exhaustive” examines all emitter particles to determine those which can contribute to the plane colour values. “Local” searches locally for the particles that will be considered for the final colour values. Under some circumstances – typically with small particle counts – ”Exhaustive” may be faster than “Local”. The “Local” mode is recommended for large particle counts. Please note: When choosing “Local” the maximum and minimum values are local maxima and minima.

Projection range

Again, this parameter is only visible in “Projection” mode. Particles with a vertical distance smaller than this value are used for printing marks on the plane, others are ignored.

Sampling res.

This determines the resolution of samples to write out the colours. A higher resolution produces more details on the plane, but needs longer to calculate. The default of 0.02 is equivalent to a 64 x 64 sampling of the plane.

Auto Ranges

By default this option is set to “No” and all values are automatically calculated. When set to “Yes”, the following two fields are accessible to enter custom values. This setting can be used to clip certain values and works very similarly to an emitter’s “Automatic range” function under “Display”.

Minimum

The minimum value of the visualized field. It is only editable when “Auto Ranges” is switched off.

Maximum

The maximum value of the visualized field. It is only editable when “Auto Ranges” is switched off.

Color Map

You can select from “RGB”, “Grayscale” and “B&W”, which is black and white.

Transparency

This value can range between 1.0 (opaque) and 0.0 (completely transparent).

Gamma

It is possible to raise the normalized “Field” values to enhance the plane’s gamma value.

Height Field

The normalized values can displayed as 3-dimensional peaks. These spikes are also coloured to show areas of higher and lower field values. You can choose between "Yes" and "No" to turn this feature on or off. 

Smoothing

The field values are interpolated to achieve a more continuous distribution of colours.

Iso-lines?

Areas with identical field values (pressure, velocity, density etc.) are drawn as lines of equal colour. This function is similar to a weather map, where you can see lines around high or low-pressure areas, indicating areas of equal air pressure. You turn this function on with “Yes”.

No. Iso-lines

The default number of “Iso-lines” is 10. You can alter this value to your needs.

Image width

Here you can define the width of the colour plane in pixel. This also represents the size of the exported images.

Image height

Here you can define the height of the colour plane in pixel. This also represents the size of the exported images.