Fledermaus 8.3.0 - New Functionality
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Eye-Dome Lighting for Points
Eye-Dome Lighting (EDL) is a shading technique for points that improves depth perception and shape recognition. In addition, the technique is very fast and scales well with large point clouds.
The EDL option is available for the following data objects:
- Points (when using the pixel marker)
- QPD files
- LAS and LAZ files
When using EDL, it is important to increase the point size so that there are little to no gap between each point. There are also two options:
- EDL Strength: The intensity of the EDL depth effect
- EDL Radius: The size of the shadow effect in pixels
The EDL shading works very well in combination with the 3D mesh creation tools in Fledermaus. Using EDL you can get a quickly improve the depth perception and shape recognition within a point cloud, without having to wait for the creation of a 3D mesh. When further perception is needed, or quantitative analysis is required, a mesh can be created.
NOTE: For smaller point clouds, the "Sphere" marker can provide a similar shading effect, but with full control on the shading angle. Please see the Improvements section of the release notes for more information.
3D Device Support
Fledermaus 8.3.0 adds a brand new system for using 3D devices to navigate within the main 3D window. These devices improve navigation within a 3D scene, and can be used in combination with a mouse, and the keyboard controls (A,S,D,W). By having a multi-input capability, you can quickly switch between devices (such as a mouse and a SpaceNavigator) to use the more optimal device. Supported devices are the Space Navigator (and similar devices), the Patriot BAT, and the HTC VIVE controller (via an emulation tool).
The new system is easier to use and provides clear feedback on the state of your connection to the device. Any connected device can be used right away, without needing to go into any special flight modes. In upcoming releases we will add the ability to record the flight path to be used with the Presentation mode slides. To add a device, there is a new "Interaction Devices" tab in the Preferences dialog.
Once a device has been added and configured in the preferences, it will show up on the right side of the status bar in the main window.
The device status can be changed manually with the popup menu, or will the status change based on certain events, such as starting the application when a device is not connected to the computer. Multiple devices can be configured and easily switched between when using different devices.
| Icon | Status | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Connected & Active | Device is connected and being used |
| Connected & Not-Active | Device is connected but not being used |
| Disconnected & Non-Active | Device is not currently connected to your machine |
There is also a new device event log, which can help troubleshoot problems with connected devices. This is a display only window that shows all the incoming events from connected and active devices.
Export Scene to a Georeferenced Image
One important capability that has been missing from Fledermaus 8 so far, is the ability to export a georeferenced image of the entire scene. This new option is located in "File > Export Scene to Image" and produces either a GeoTIFF or other common image formats with a companion world file for bounds. There is also the same scaling option to create high resolution images, that is available in the standard screen capture tool.
A sample output from the above scene, is displayed below:
Command Line Scripting
A new tool for scripting operations on the command line has been added to Fledermaus 8.3.0. This tool is an optimized version of the "cmdop" tool that Fledermaus 7 users may be familiar with. This tool allows common operations, such as importing and grid operations, to be run as part of script. By using a script to perform these operations, large numbers of files can be processed in batch.
The FM8 cmdop includes a set of utilities optimized for the new file formats, including three new tools for operations on QPS surfaces:
surfacecontour: For creating contours from a surface file
surfaceextract: For extracting a subset of a larger surface file
surfacediff: For doing a surface difference between two surface files
Each of these operations use the same algorithms and options as the versions directly in Fledermaus.