Yay! Textures

posted in On the path with a ramblin' man

Published February 05, 2006

So I've managed to get Wing3D to create some simple meshes for me to use in my program. They'll do for now - but I'll definitely have to come back to these later on when I have some more time.

Strictly speaking the above screenshot is wrong - it's using the "Ambient Only" rendering path, which shouldn't have the diffuse components. But for testing purposes it'll do [smile]

In other news, Washu's put up another test/exam on C++ fundamentals. Having done this, and the previous, test I'm now even more convinced I need to brush up on my C++.

For quite a while now I've been thinking I'm a little "rusty" - the vast majority of my work is with the DirectX API, and whilst that may not be trivial it is a fairly straight-forward use of the language. The result is that I've not had to use many advanced constructs in recent programs.

I've been reading Code Complete recently in an attempt to learn something, but I think I need to up the pace a little. There are a couple of programming texts that I should either buy and read or simply re-read.

Given that my job in September is apparently related to .Net and Java type development, it'll probably be good to go over Java again and try and pick up the basics of C#. I'll probably be able to do that over the summer as I don't have the time now [headshake]

Jack

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Comments

Cypher19

Quote:it's using the "Ambient Only" rendering path, which shouldn't have the diffuse components. But for testing purposes it'll do

Um...yes, it should? Diffuse coefficients (i.e. diffuse textures) should be attached to both ambient lighting and direct lighting, right? Or did I miss something along the way...

February 05, 2006 01:49 PM

jollyjeffers

Quote:
Quote:it's using the "Ambient Only" rendering path, which shouldn't have the diffuse components. But for testing purposes it'll do

Um...yes, it should? Diffuse coefficients (i.e. diffuse textures) should be attached to both ambient lighting and direct lighting, right? Or did I miss something along the way...

I'm pretty sure the equations I've been working with don't use the diffuse coefficints outside of the diffuse term. But as Ysaneya pointed out recently - my equations might not be perfect [lol]

The basic equation seems to be:

Output = Ambient + Diffuse + Specular

Where both the Diffuse and Specular terms make use of the respective textures/coefficients.

In the case of diffuse it should be modelling the amount/colour of light that is absorbed/reflected by the surface given the incoming light.

If you have information to state otherwise I'd love to see it [smile]

hth
Jack

February 05, 2006 02:15 PM

Pipo DeClown

Wings3D is a fine modelling program, I've used it but I think it lacks the feel of completeness? I dunno, but hell, Blender is hard to learn indeed. Hehe. I like it, although I don't use it that much. I think it's certainly a great example of a well-communitysupported Open Source project.

But in the time of 'productivity over well-designed codestructures', is it worth to spend your time brushing up your C++ knowledge? Perhaps if you would want to be in the middleware/API/engine development-sector, or else you'd be better off using as much existing code as possible. I've looked at Washu's quiz and don't get me wrong, I did not get the answers correct either

, but what do those language-specific problems have anything to do with game or graphics programming? It seems to me that speed is gained through hardware upgrades nowadays so that's not a valid reason.

Correct me if I'm wrong..

February 05, 2006 02:45 PM

jollyjeffers

Quote:Wings3D is a fine modelling program, I've used it but I think it lacks the feel of completeness?

I agree - it's good at the basics, but try to go beyond those and you quickly hit it's limits.

Quote:Perhaps if you would want to be in the middleware/API/engine development-sector

That is my preferred area. I'm more into the technology side of things than gameplay.

Quote:do those language-specific problems have anything to do with game or graphics programming?

Washu's examples don't directly relate to games/graphics, but I think they illustrate the (lack of) understanding of the tool used to perform those jobs. It begs the question - "well if I didn't know my tool did that, what else does it do that I'm either not making use of, or using incorrectly?"

Quote:It seems to me that speed is gained through hardware upgrades nowadays so that's not a valid reason.

There is an argument for that, but at the same time good quality code will always be important. Quality and usage of the language goes beyond performance - it's about maintenance, functionality, extensibility, reusability etc...

Whilst there might be a few exceptions, the classic example is that no matter how great your hardware is, a software algorithm written for O( Log|N| ) will out perform a O( N2 ) implementation. Just run a comparison on the various sorting algorithms that they use in any/every university course.

Cheers,
Jack

February 05, 2006 03:35 PM

Cypher19

Quote:In the case of diffuse it should be modelling the amount/colour of light that is absorbed/reflected by the surface given the incoming light.

Well, the idea as I see it is that the total incoming light that is reflected in a diffuse manner (i.e. uniformly in all directions) is a result of incoming ambient light and incoming diffuse light added together. Another way of looking at it is, say, in a Cornell box, you have the one bright point light which is the diffuse part of the equation, and then the walls effectively become very dim, but very wide, area lights. The light reflected off of the wall can then be treated like millions of small point lights, which all add up to the diffuse light value.

February 06, 2006 08:53 AM

jollyjeffers

Okay, I see what you're saying. I shall give it some thought - but all of the research I've found so far tends towards the form I previously mentioned.

As a possibility it might well be an approximation/simplification - take out the diffuse component as a constant...

I shall think on it some more [smile]

Cheers,
Jack

February 06, 2006 09:04 AM

Cypher19

As have I, but then again, a lot of the lighting formulae (e.g. in tutorials) I've seen are just crap, and look like they've been written by people who clearly don't have a solid (if any) understanding of how light reflections are distributed.

February 06, 2006 12:59 PM

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jollyjeffers

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Yay! Textures

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jollyjeffers

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