Calculating vertice normals in a VertexController

[paulscode]

I am sure this question has been answered before, but I am having trouble locating a previous thread about it.  I am generating a terrain which is made up of a grid of squares.  Each square consists of two polygons and four vertices:

(1)---------(3)
| \              |
|     \          |
|         \      |
|             \  |
(2)---------(0)

(the numbers represent the index of each vertex).

Each square in the terrain has its own GridVertexController (which extends GenericVertexController and implements IVertexController).  The GridVertexController class has four SimpleVectors:

Code Select Expand

    SimpleVector vertex0, vertex1, vertex2, vertex3;

My program changes these four SimpleVectors to represent the new values for the square's vertices.

In the apply() method, I update the getDestinationMesh() array, and then attempt to update the getDestinationNormals() array:

Code Select Expand


    public void apply()
    {
        SimpleVector dstVertex[] = getDestinationMesh();
        SimpleVector dstNormal[] = getDestinationNormals();
        SimpleVector A, B, C, D;
       
        dstVertex[0].set( vertex0 );
        dstVertex[1].set( vertex1 );
        dstVertex[2].set( vertex2 );
        dstVertex[3].set( vertex3 );
       
        A = vertex1.calcSub( vertex2 );
        B = vertex0.calcSub( vertex2 );
        C = A.calcCross( B ).normalize();
        dstNormal[2].set( C );
       
        A = vertex0.calcSub( vertex3 );
        B = vertex1.calcSub( vertex3 );
        D = A.calcCross( B ).normalize();
        dstNormal[3].set( D );
       
        D.add( C );
        D = D.normalize();
        dstNormal[0].set( D );
        dstNormal[1].set( D );
    }


The vertices are changed correctly, but there seems to be a problem in the algorithm I'm using to calculate the normals, because lighting on the terrain is not correct.  For example, if I generate a flat terrain on the x/z plane with a light source directly overhead, the terrain still appears dark.

[paulscode]

Oops, I figured out my problem.  I was calculating the wrong cross-products (they were backwards).    I have it working now.  In case anyone is interested, here is the corrected code:

Code Select Expand


    public void apply()
    {
        SimpleVector dstVertex[] = getDestinationMesh();
        SimpleVector dstNormal[] = getDestinationNormals();
        SimpleVector A, B, C, D;
       
        dstVertex[0].set( vertex0 );
        dstVertex[1].set( vertex1 );
        dstVertex[2].set( vertex2 );
        dstVertex[3].set( vertex3 );
       
        A = vertex1.calcSub( vertex2 );
        B = vertex0.calcSub( vertex2 );
        C = B.calcCross( A ).normalize();
        dstNormal[2].set( C );
       
        A = vertex0.calcSub( vertex3 );
        B = vertex1.calcSub( vertex3 );
        D = B.calcCross( A ).normalize();
        dstNormal[3].set( D );
       
        D.add( C );
        D = D.normalize();
        dstNormal[0].set( D );
        dstNormal[1].set( D );
    }


[fireside]

Thanks for the code.  I might need it in an upcoming project.  It's still very early in the idea stage, though.  I might just make the terrains in Blender also, but it's a little more expensive for file size, I think.  Still, I can see what it really looks like in Blender and the files are pretty small.  Congratulations on the promotion to staff sergeant btw.

[paulscode]

Congratulations on the promotion to staff sergeant btw.

Thanks!