Could stickers be mapped instead of formed?

[N. W. Perry]

Just thinking of an extension to the idea discussed here…

…if LDraw code could indeed be mapped onto a surface the way bitmap images currently are, could you conceivably map an entire part onto a surface?

You see where I'm going with this—could a sticker part be authored only in its flat form, and then, when needed to be placed on a non-planar surface, could that flat part file be automatically transformed (along with its proper thickness) and applied as part of the rendering process?

Is such behavior even desirable? Or maybe the better question is, would the programming effort required to implement this outweigh the need to author formed versions of all non-flat stickers?

[Gerald Lasser]

I think this would involve a considerable amount of code within the viewers and editors. Like TEXMAP for LDraw code.

I had the thought over the cases where primitive substitution is carried out and after that the hi-res prim cuts into the sticker...

[N. W. Perry]

I think this would involve a considerable amount of code within the viewers and editors. Like TEXMAP for LDraw code.

Exactly, that was the basic genesis of the idea:

I was wondering about the usefulness of using normal type 1..4 lines to describe the pattern which a renderer can use to generate a texture. 

This would work much like embeded textures but instead of !DATA it uses normal ldraw code which must be 2d and flat.

I had the thought over the cases where primitive substitution is carried out and after that the hi-res prim cuts into the sticker...

Good point, you'd have to account for primsub both in the sticker pattern and the target part. I think it would just be a matter of doing the substitution first, before calculating all vertices, but perhaps you'd also need some regulations as to the allowable geometry of sticker patterns.

The trickiest part seems to be getting the proper 0.25 LDU thickness. But I think you would just ignore the stickerback geometry altogether; you'd just project the flat pattern surface directly onto the target part, generate a perimeter from that, and then translate the pattern surface 0.25 ldu on its own relative y-axis normal.

In other words, it would be the same process of creating a (printed) pattern by projecting LDraw code onto other LDraw code, just with the added step of building up the sticker thickness.

[Magnus Forsberg]

Sounds like Lasses PatternFolder  
https://c-mt.dk/

Long time since I played around with it

[N. W. Perry]

Sounds like Lasses PatternFolder  
https://c-mt.dk/

Long time since I played around with it

Uhhh…you're right! I've seen this too, but clearly didn't remember it!

There's also SVG to LDraw, another functionality I've been seeking.

Clearly a long time since I played with these, too!

[Roland Melkert]

Exactly, that was the basic genesis of the idea:

Actually I don't think this is hard to do if an editor already supports the !TEXMAP (and !DATA) extension(s).

It just needs to project the ldraw code onto a texture, something all major rendering api's have tools for.

Spec wise it would only need for !TEXTURE to allow normal ldraw references (besides png ones) and a fixed projection definition (ortho?).

[Chris Böhnke]

Would be awesome if that is possible 

Regarding formed sticker thickness (which seems to be an issue for some, if I read this right):

I found that Blender provides a (moderately) simple and reliable way to offset any 3D formed surface perfectly rectangular (you can also set it to exactly 0.25 LDU). It requires a bit back-and-forth in converting your files though, but there's barely any knowledge required and it's free.