Textures with Pyramids

[ryangarnett]

Hello All,

I was wondering if SketchUp models can handle textures (.jpg, .tif) that have pyramids. In the geospatial world raster files commonly have pyramids built. The pyramids are used with distances, to help performance. I am wondering if there is a way to do the same in SU. So having a texture with different pyramids, which are represented to distance of viewing.

Thanks...

[mitcorb]

Hi.
I read your post, but wasn't familiar with the pyramid/ geospatial question. So I looked here:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CFcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fedndoc.esri.com%2Farcsde%2F9.2%2Fconcepts%2Frasters%2Fbasicprinciples%2Fpyramids.htm&ei=KxIdUPH1GMPi2gX-0YGoAg&usg=AFQjCNHOvOcjs8nUWJcxRk7TFKDuYb5k-A.

Thanks for sparking my interest- and I wish I had some kind of answer.

[ryangarnett]

Glad I sparked your interest. I was hoping there would be a way to do this within a SketchUp model. It would be great to be able to have have levels of detail associated to the texture.

Thanks again...

[Aerilius]

If you mean by pyramids something like mipmapping (and not something from stone), then it's possible that SketchUp supports it (I think I once found a hidden key indicating that) but it's something that is done automatically and users don't need to care about.

[ryangarnett]

Yes a mipmapping is similar to what I am looking at. But I want to be able to define the switching range of the mipmap. The human eye identifies differences at different distances, so I want to be able to identify the switch in that change. Openflight files have the ability to have different LODs, which user defined switch ranges. To my knowledge, SketchUp does not support LODs or switch ranges, therefore, I was thinking of using texture "mipmaps" as a means to accomplish part of this.