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Cubic
Splines Tutorial
by
bkenwright@xbdev.net
First things first, let me say...sometimes some people call the Cubic Spline
the Hermite spline....but its upto you...I prefer to call it the Cubic :)
Lets take a looksy at the 3 equations...well its just one equation...which we
use for x,y and z. Remember if you work just in the 2D...you can throw
away the Z.
Well t is the value we'll use to get from one point to the next...and is
usually defined as 0 <= t <=1, make sure you remember that. As when
t is zero...where at the start point...and when t is one, where at our end
point. So we increment t using a small step value to get the various
points in-between our two existing points. These mini inner points will
produce that curvyness.
Lets take x(t) equation as an example....once we solve this, the other two
are solved as well, as they are the same more or less...just different letters.
Lets solve it using basic maths, then work towards what a matrix would look like
then onto a simple code demo.
It looks like a lot....but it you usually do it once. As I got out the
old notepad and proved it once using a pencil and paper....usually sticks in my
head better then once I've done it.
Putting it into a small C algorithm is really quite simple, as I've shown
here:
| pseudo c code: code.c |
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float
x[21];
void
Compute_x_Spline( int x0,
int x1,
float dx0,
float dx1 )
{
int step;
float t, incr;
float a = 2*x0 - 2*x1 + dx0 + dx1;
float b = -3*x0 + 3*x1 - 2*dx0 - dx1;
float c = dx0;
float d = x0;
step = 0;
incr = 0.05f;
t =
0;
while( t<=1 )
{
x[step] = a*t*t*t + b*t*t + c*t + d;
step += 1;
t += incr;
}//
End while loop
}//
End Compute_x_Spline(..)
// Move to the first point on our new line
xmoveto(
x[0], y[0] );
// Draw our new line with the curve
for(
int i=1; i<20; i++ )
xlineto( x[i], y[i] );
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Using what we have up to know....I created a basic Win32 app using DirectX as
the render surface. Its allows us to use the right and left mouse button
to control the tangent vectors for two points. Its a really simple piece
of code and would be a lot simpler if it wasn't for the win32 and DirectX
surface code.
| Download
Visual Studio Project Code |
| Try holding the left or right...or even both the mouse
buttons down and moving around the screen. I've only applied the
simple example to the x and y, but you can easily apply it to the 3rd
dimension..! Yup I'm talking z here...spooky z..heheh |
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A definite must is to look at the example reference at the bottom, which
gives some ideas on calculating values for our tangents automatically that look
good. Here are a few examples:
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References:
http://www.cubic.org/~submissive/sourcerer/hermite.htm - its a nice web
site, and explains more or less the same details I've gone over above.
Always best to read a few different tutorials first so you get a real feel for
splines.
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