New Update Normals!
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/New Update Normals!
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| (Please start this a a new thread) Cmon guys, give me a break. As a relative newcomer I read the UpdateNormals thread without actually understanding anything other than there was a bitch about 'mines bigger that yours'. Please explain to us newbies: Do I use UpdateNormals once per mesh? - After I've loaded a mesh? Or. Do I use UpdateNormals for every frame per mesh? - To keep it smooth? The old hands should realise that some of the concepts that they take for granted we newbies are still trying to understand, and the one-liner in the manual (as is often the case) doesn't help. |
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| As far as I know, you only use UpdateNormals when you have manipulated with the triangles or vertices of a mesh.. you don't need to do it on models you have exported from a modelling package.. UpdateNormals normalizes the normal vectors of every triangle, according to the vertices the triangle's connected to.. this means that the face will point in the right direction.. (other wise it would be invisible) |
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| You don't use updateNormals unless you have created a mesh yourself (with code) that needs its normals calculated. As a rule loaded meshes generally have all the normal data imported with them so you don't have to do anything there. |
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| Ah, don't be upset, that's what the forums are for. Ask, and you'll get an answer pretty fast. The UpdateNormals command just automatically recomputes the normals of your mesh. This is handy by example if you do things like mesh generation (you create a mesh on the fly) and don't want to bother recomputing the normals by yourself (that is, you build the mesh, and then just do a UpdateNormals). If you just load meshes from files (.x, .3ds, .b3d), there is very few good reasons why you would want to do an UpdateNormals. EDIT: Cross post. See? The answers were so fast to come taht I've been beaten :) |
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| Excellent, guys. Thanks. So basically I don't need to worry, coz I load pre-modeled meshes (don't build them internally), and amd I right? - just coz an model's animating ther'es no need for UpdateNormals. Great. Now if we can just tackle the other 200 Blitz commands that come with a one line explanation..... :) |
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| As a side note, I found I need to do an UpdateNormals on B3D solid cone prims as they appear to be generated with screwed endcap normals. Anyone else noticed this? |
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