Using image with alpha for buttons

[spikylaura]

Hi all,

I am trying to work out a way to use an image file with an alpha as a button, that only triggers when you click on a visible (non-alpha) pixel. Is this possible?

Any help gratefully received!

Many thanks

Paul

[Christian Krix Schmidt]

Hi Paul!
I don't think that's possible as the interaction nodes work either with bounding boxes of geometry of the mesh itself for hit testing. If it is absolutely required then either roughly recreate the shape with a few simple geometries and group them after the touch node or create a rough mesh based on the shape of the image in a 3D application.

Chris

[spikylaura]

Thanks for the reply Chris.

What I'm trying to do (in case you can see another way of doing it) is have a 3D map of Europe (ideally the world!), where the user can click on individual countries to launch events. When I took the brief, I thought it sounded fairly straightforward, but now . . .

Paul

[chriss0212]

hi paul

it is realy not complicated...but of course: ventuz is a realtime 3d authoring enviroment....and so you need some basics in 3d creation. so create your button in any 3d package like cinema4d or sketchup export it and import it in ventuz and you can use the geometrie as a button!

or you combine a circle and a rectangle and you have a new button shape

greetz

christian

[Christian Krix Schmidt]

In the case of the typical interactive map (damn, i did that one too may times ... the fastest and most accurate way is to import the outlines of the countries into Illustrator, clean the curves, export as EPS V8 and import into your preferred 3D application. Make a planar mash for each country. Export and imprt into Ventuz - each country a subset of the mesh file or even as individual files. Doesn't matter. Place interactive nodes in front of each country mesh and switch from bounding box to mesh hit test., And you are down from the control side of things. If you adjust the vector country outlines based with the country textures and create planar UV mapping on the country meshes you can also add the country textures on the meshes. Or add rectangles on top of each country and apply the transparent country textures to those. Depends on your source material. You can even extrude and bevel the country meshes to get a more 3D look and apply specularity, different lightings, etc The sky is the proverbial limit.

[spikylaura]

Thank you Christian and Chris - very helpful