Normalization – PRG Mbox Mini Manual 3.8 User Manual

Page 55

MBOX

MINI USER MANUAL

All appropriate files in the

Models

folder will be compiled automatically the first

time Mbox Mini is started (and successfully locates them). Thereafter, files in
the

Models

folder will only be compiled if they are new or if they have been

modified since the last time Mbox Mini was used. Compiling all of the stock
files in the

Models

folder takes some time, but this task occurs in the

background, allowing all other functions to be available during this process. If
models or digital gobos that are still waiting to be compiled are requested,
Mbox will display a substitute image until the requested file has been compiled.
If a file that hasn't been compiled yet is requested, Mbox will display the
"Waiting for Gobot" gobo (shown at right).

Note: If you place a large number of new files in the

Models

folder, don't expect them to be available as soon as the

software launches, but once compiled, the files will be available immediately.

Compiled object files are automatically placed in the

Mbox/model_cache

folder. These files are given a numerical

prefix and the .vtxa (vertex array) suffix. These vertex array files cannot edited or renumbered. Any additions,
deletions, or renumbering of model or digital gobo content should be done in the

Models

folder rather than in the

model_cache

folder.

Normalization

By default, both model and digital gobo files are "normalized" when they are compiled. The Mbox vertex array
compiler performs this task to ensure that the files appear at a usable scale rather than being too large or too small.
Given the wide variety of applications that can be used to create models or digital gobos, an object that appears to be
just right when created might appear to be gigantic or tiny when displayed by Mbox. Different applications may use
different units of scale – pixels, inches, meters – but each of these units of measure will be saved as a generic unit in
an .obj or .svg file.

Therefore, when compiling, Mbox's default action is to normalize all models and digital gobos. Normalization is
accomplished by scaling objects to fit into a bounding cube that is 480

on each side. Objects are scaled up or down

so that their largest dimension is 480

and their other dimensions are then scaled proportionally.

To stop the compiler from normalizing an object, the suffix ".noscale" can be added to its name before the file is
compiled and the file will not be normalized when it is compiled. If this option is used, one generic unit will equal 240
pixels in the Mbox 3D environment. Example:

a file named - 001.MyObject.obj should be renamed as - 001.MyObject.noscale.obj

To create an object with a scale factor (relative to other files), use the ".scale" switch. In the following example, the
second file would appear at half the size of the original:

a file named - 023.DigiGobo.svg would be renamed as - 023.DigiGobo.scale_0.50.svg

If you create an object that is scaled to match a particular piece of 2D content (which is measured in pixels), and you
want Mbox to treat generic units as pixels, add the suffix ".pixels" to the file's name before it is compiled. Example:

a file named - 001.NewObject.obj should be renamed as - 001.NewObject.pixels.obj

In this case, an object that is 200 generic units tall will appear as 200 pixels tall within Mbox. And a piece of 2D
content that is 200px high would fit exactly when applied to that object.

Waiting For Gobot