Okay, this'll seem silly but bear with me...

With a revised TaoA:M under way, is there a way we can upgrade A:M's current default ground plane?

Some considerations:

- The current Ground plane isn't even a proper extrusion of a spline which makes quickly editing it something of a pain.
It's easier (and seriously, it is easy) just to replace the default model but because it is A:M's default it'll always come back again.

- Should we develop a new 'TaoA:M approved' method of managing/switching the Ground Plane to other pre-made sets?

- Would users be interested in such a thing?
Some would be utterly simple while others would be very complex; thus demonstrating concepts and examples of composition, lighting and environmental animation and effects).
As some of these assets exist already (Cornell Box anyone?) it may just be a matter of collecting and organizing the resources available.

- Perhaps, like the Camera Rig, something similar could builtfor the Ground Plane?

- User level solutions that work really well can inspire further development and enhancement A:M.
When v17 is released perhaps it could usher in a new default 'look' as well.

Your thoughts? Ideas? Recipes?
Are you happy with the Ground Plane we've got already?

My beef about the Ground plane is it has "Cast Shadows" OFF which causes single thickness patches to not cast shadows. Turning it ON fixes that.

Hm why not change it? I would although like to change the default camera to a 16:9 ratio. 720p may be an option so it could be a smaller resolution too... 720x405 for instance.
That would just be more modern...

See u
*Fuchur*

I would second both of these!

It's easy enough to post a revised default.cho on the forum but to really change it it would need to be incorporated into the data that gets installed with A:M.

Yes, perhaps easier to post a short tutorial on the subject of swapping these assets out versus rewriting A:M's code. Replacing the defaults would have a rippling effect that cascades down to every user that launches A:M.

When related to these areas, perhaps coding time would be better spend on ways to really lock in customized changes between installations.
These changes may be at the level of sophistication where we could say that if you know enough about the need for the customization you probably already now how to effect the change.

Not sure... that's why we are discussing it here.

Would be a question we would need to ask Steffen about... if it is only a resource, it would be as simple as replacing the file before compiling.
If it would be that easy, I would say it would be worth it... if not, it could be posted here.

See you
*Fuchur*

I think the ground plane is the way it is because it rendered faster. In the beginning that was probably an important consideration. Today, with faster computers, the advantage is probably insignificant.