Changing Opacity of Geoscope Layer in Producer
Is it possible to animate the opacity level of a geoscope layer in Producer?
I wanted to show the active fires layers over the course of a year and do a smooth transition from one month to the next. I watched the video tutorial on adding planet layers, but the only commands shown either load or unload the layers.
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You then use: Earth_layerdata.prop.Layer<layernr>_Alpha
From Uniview Runtime Syntax Document:
Command
Arguments
Description
Layer<n>_Enabled
True | False
Enables the rendering of layer number: <n>
Layer<n>_Alpha
<value>
Sets the alpha for layer number <n>
Layer<n>_Color
<r> <g> <b>
Sets the color for layer number <n>
SYNTAX ExampleDisables the rendering of geoscope layer 0 on Earth:
Earth_layerdata.prop.Layer0_Enabled False
Good luck with your presentation!
That is the command I was trying, but nothing seems to happen.
Even when I send the command from the command window. The only layer that seems to do anything is layer 0. If I used the Alpha command it is either 0 or 100 regardless of the value I enter.
Layer 0 is also the only one that reacts to the Enabled or Disabled command.
ActiveFires_May2012-Apr2013.layerset
ActiveFires.timeline
I have attached the layerset I created and the really rough timeline I have so far. For some reason the commands are not always executed from Producer. The commands do not always get executed from the command window either. Not sure why.
The idea is to have an active fire layer displayed and a text object showing the month. Then fade one month into the next along with the text. I also wanted to try this with a temperature layerset too. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can improve the flow of time, I would appreciate the help.
It would be really nice if data like this could be accumulated and played like the earthquakes.
Paul,
Thanks for the timeline. Had a look at it and now understands your problem better and can hopefully answer better!
Do not use Commands in Producer to do this. It is not possible to interpolate between different commands and misspelling is easy. Instead add the object Earth_layerdata to your timeline and then add all available Layer<layernr>_Alpha. Now you see what you have and can easily manipulate the opacity as you want.
Sorry for being unclear earlier.
say for example you load in four layers and they are numbered 1, 2, 3 & 4. then you decide to delete layer number 2. Then you load another layer that new layer will be number 5. even though you've deleted the layer, it still retains its number and any new layer added will be given a new number.
I am pretty sure it still works this way, but Sarah can let you know for sure
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Actually if you delete a layer and add a new layer immediately, the new layer will have the layer number of the just deleted layer in the Geoscope numbering.
At least that's how I've been able to update layersets without going crazy by having to rebuild a layerset from the ground up anytime something changes. It helps to keep track of your layersets in a separate document, like a spreadsheet, so you can keep track of what is happening as you add and delete layers. And also double-check gui.statemanager periodically to see make sure what you've added jibes with you think you've added. (I've been working with layersets containing anywhere from 20 to 70 layers, so I really don't want to re-create anything from scratch.)
Also if you are making a new layerset, start Uniview fresh. If you replace an existing layerset in Geoscope by using the Layerset->New... menu item, the memory structures for the previous layerset will remain. If you save out the layers in a new layerset file, you will retain extraneous memory elements, if the previous layerset had more layers than the new one you are saving out. This isn't a huge problem, but can make searching through layer properties in gui.statemanager a bigger hassle than it should be.
This actually helps a lot. I recreated the layerset making sure that I put the layers in the order that I wanted and now when I send an alpha command to a particular layer it actually does what I want. I guess when I created the original layerset, I did them out of sequence. I thought that the layer number would be the way they were listed in the Geoscope window. I did not think the order they were added mattered.
From now on I will create each layerset right after a fresh Uniview start.