surface types and smoothing

[fractile]

I wrote a very simple export plugin. If I filter out surfaces only of type POLYGON some (visually random) surfaces don't get exported. So, what surface types exactly are there?

If I smooth the surfaces before exporting, nothing gets exported. The surface type will then be 8 (undocumented) if I remember correctly..

I got things working for now when I process all polygons regardless of their type and just try to triangulate them.. Is this the right way to go?

- Mikko

[fractile]

I ofcourse forgot the most important problem I have:

Vertex normals seem to be all messed up. I read vertex normals from the vertices of triangulated (if not triangle already) surfaces (svertex->v->normal). They aren't even unit vectors, length is close to zero. The normals from the surface itself seems fine, but I need the vertex normals to allow smooth surfaces when rendering the resulting exported model..

Any Ideas what might be wrong? I tried recalculating normals using object_calc_normals_force(), but I didn't help.

[Andy]

Can you post the main part or send the plugin code?

Andy

[fractile]

Here comes the essential part of the source code.

FMeshBuilder is an object that generated my mesh format.
The line commented out in fmesh_export_triangle_surface() is the line that causes bad normals for vertices..

- - clip - -

static void fmesh_export_triangle_surface(Surface* surface, FMeshBuilder& builder, int materialindex)
{
   printf("exporting surface..\n");

   int vertexindex = -1;
   for(List* v = surface->vertlist; v != NULL; v = v->next)
   {
      SVertex* vertex = (SVertex*)v->data;

      FMeshVector3 pos(vertex->v->x, vertex->v->y, vertex->v->z);
//      FMeshVector3 n(vertex->v->normal.x, vertex->v->normal.y, vertex->v->normal.z);
      FMeshVector3 n(surface->normal.x, surface->normal.y, surface->normal.z);
      FMeshVector3 tc(vertex->tx, vertex->ty, 0);
      vertexindex = builder.addVertex(pos, &n, &tc);
   }   

   builder.addFace(materialindex, vertexindex - 2, vertexindex - 1, vertexindex);
}


static void fmesh_export_object(ACObject* obj, FMeshBuilder& builder)
{    
   if(ac_object_get_num_surfaces(obj) > 0)
   {      
      object_calc_normals_force(obj);
      printf("exporting object..\n");

      int materialindex = -1;
      char* data = ac_object_get_data(obj);
      if(data[0])
         materialindex = builder.addMaterial(data);
      else
         materialindex = builder.addMaterial("default");
      printf("materialindex = %u\n", materialindex);

      List* surfaces = ac_object_get_surfacelist(obj);
      for (List* s = surfaces; s != NULL; s = s->next)
      {
         Surface *surface = (Surface *)s->data;
//         if(surface->type == SURFACE_POLYGON)
         {
            if(surface->numvert == 3)
            {
               fmesh_export_triangle_surface(surface, builder, materialindex);
            }
            else if(surface->numvert > 3)
            {
               // Triangulate surface
               List* triangles = surface_get_triangulations(surface);
               for(List* t = triangles; t != NULL; t = t->next)
               {
                  Surface* triangle = (Surface*)t->data;
                  fmesh_export_triangle_surface(triangle, builder, materialindex);
                  surface_free(triangle);
               }
               list_free(&triangles);
            }
            else
               printf("skipping numvert = %d surface ..\n", (int)surface->numvert);
         }
//         else
//            printf("skipping non-polygon surface %d..\n", (int)surface->type);
      }
   }

   List* children = ac_object_get_childrenlist(obj);  
   for(List* c = children; c != NULL; c = c->next)
      fmesh_export_object((ACObject *)c->data, builder);
}

static void fmesh_export()
{
   char *filename;
   FILE *file;
   char *filter[] = {"fmesh files", ".fmesh", "All files", "*", NULL};
   filename = ac_get_save_filename("Export fmesh file", filter);

   if((filename == NULL) || (*filename =='\0'))
      return;   

   FMeshBuilder builder;
   builder.begin("exported", 1, 1, 0);

   fmesh_export_object(ac_get_world(), builder);
   builder.writeToFile(filename);
}

AC3D_PLUGIN_FUNC int AC3DPluginInit(AC3DPluginInitData *d)

{
   double ver = ac_get_version_number();
   ac_add_command("fmesh_export_plugin", fmesh_export);
   ac_add_export_menu_item("fmesh...", "ac3d fmesh_export_plugin");

   return(0);
}

[Andy]

There was a bug in surface_get_triangulations where sv normals got messed up. This should have been in the release you have.

See my private message.

Andy

[fractile]

Argh! I'm now using AC3D 5.0 for linux, and the situation isn't any better.

SVertex normals for triangulated surfaces are still at random values (most often [0,0,0]). Should I also update my SDK header and rebuild my plugin with that? The ac_plugin.h that I have seems to be dated 22nd July 1999..

[fractile]

The problem isn't in the triangulation anymore. It seems that the vertex normals are bad, even if I triagulate the model manually before exporting. AC3D shows the model correctly smoothed.

I added a printf() in the code below to see, where the normals go bad. All I get is lots of "SVertex normal: (0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000)" messages..

static void fmesh_export_triangle_surface(Surface* surface, FMeshBuilder& builder, int materialindex)
{
   printf("exporting surface..\n");

   int vertexindex = -1;
   for(List* v = surface->vertlist; v != NULL; v = v->next)
   {
      SVertex* vertex = (SVertex*)v->data;

      FMeshVector3 pos(vertex->v->x, vertex->v->y, vertex->v->z);
      //FMeshVector3 n(vertex->v->normal.x, vertex->v->normal.y, vertex->v->normal.z);      
      printf("SVertex normal: (%f, %f, %f)\n", vertex->v->normal.x, vertex->v->normal.y, vertex->v->normal.z);
      FMeshVector3 n(surface->normal.x, surface->normal.y, surface->normal.z);
      FMeshVector3 tc(vertex->tx, vertex->ty, 0);
      vertexindex = builder.addVertex(pos, &n, &tc);
   }   

   builder.addFace(materialindex, vertexindex - 2, vertexindex - 1, vertexindex);
}

Rest of the code is unchanged from what I posted earlier.

[Andy]

The normal is part of the SVertex and not the Vertex.

You code appears to be accesing a normal which is part of the vertex. I can't see why this would compile, unless you have a very old header file.

In your code you should be using vertex->normal.

Aha - looked further down your message - a lot has changed since 1999...

I'll email you the new headers - which you will need for 5.0 anyway.

Andy

[fractile]

Thanks a lot! I got the exporter plugin working. A six year update did help I haven't yet tried recompiling my other plugins..