Analytic Volumes
Exact primitive shapes evaluated per fragment - the default choice.
TidalVolumeAnalytic defines a
volume from a simple primitive shape. Its signed distance
field is evaluated exactly, per fragment, with full support for transform scale
and rotation - so the clip and any cross-section mask stay pixel-accurate at any orientation.
Shapes
The shape is one of three primitives:
TidalVolumeAnalyticTypes { Cube=0, Sphere=1, Cylinder=3 }
Create them from GameObject → Tidal 2 → Volume → Cube | Sphere | Cylinder.
Scale and rotate the GameObject freely; the analytic SDF follows the transform exactly.
- Exact per-fragment SDF - no texture, no baking step.
- Full transform scale and rotation support.
- Cross-section masks resolve by closed-form ray-intersection (no proxy mesh).
When to use analytic vs SDF
Prefer analytic volumes whenever a cube, sphere, or cylinder (or a combination of several) is enough to describe the region. They are the lightweight default: no bake step, exact edges, and they drive the pixel-exact cross-section masks directly.
Reach for an SDF volume only when the shape is genuinely arbitrary - a boat hull, a submarine interior, or other irregular geometry that a primitive cannot approximate.