Hello Everybody I posted this message in the beginner forum and relalised that it didn''t really fit. I am using vertex and index lists in gl and i was wondering about the best way to handle a problem. Imagine a box 8 vertex 24 Indicies 24 Normals So here is the question. Are the normals related to the vertex or to the indicies. If its related to the vertecies then i could do a average at each point to define a normal that would work for the 3 faces that are attached to it. But what i would like is to assign the normals to the indicies. So for each vertex there would be 3 normals, one for each attached face. So is this possible in gl or do i have to have 24 vertices to match the normals. Thanks for your help. Ben

Yah, unfortunately right now I think you''d have to have 24 vertices. I don''t think there''s a way to specify multiple normals for one vertex.

Thanks guys..

I appreciate the help. I didn''t think it was possible without duplicating the verticies. That really sucks. What about texture coordinates. Is it the samething.

Ben

Hello

I just took a look at nehes lesson 6, the rotating box.

// Front Face
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
// Back Face
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f);
// Top Face
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f);
// Bottom Face
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
// Right face
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f( 1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
// Left Face
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, -1.0f, -1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 0.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, -1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(1.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f);
glTexCoord2f(0.0f, 1.0f); glVertex3f(-1.0f, 1.0f, -1.0f);

As you can probobly see is that the texture coordinates go from first of the image to the last and do that again for the next face.
The problem with this, if texture coordinates are not using the indicies the you can't do this. Each vertex requires 3 different u,v coordanites, for the sides a -1,1 and 1,1 and what ever the top is.

Later, Ben

[edited by - zander76 on August 13, 2003 11:38:56 AM]

A cube has eight vertexes and six surfaces. Not sure where you''re getting the "indices" from.

If you specify the normals of a cube, you''ve got a few options. One is to specify a normal for each surface. glNormal*() sets the normal for every vertex after it, until the next glNormal*() call. So to specify the normal for a surface, you would do something like:

glNormal()
glVertex3f()
glVertex3f()
glVertex3f()
glVertex3f()
glNormal()
...

You can also specify the normal for each vertex. This is used in Gourand shading, where the normal for a vertex is the average of the normals of its associated surfaces:
glNormal()
glVertex3f()
glNormal()
glVertex3f()
glNormal()
glVertex3f()
glNormal()
glVertex3f()

Hope this helps.

Sorry.. i guess i should have been more clear. That was just an example of a problem i would like to solve using an index list instead of just straight calls. The example was ment to show the problem of using an index list with texture coordinates.

Here is a better example. (if there is a mistake sorry, i am just trying to do it in my head)

Vertex data.
<-1, 1, 1> <1,1,1>
<-1, 1, -1> <1,1,-1>
<-1, -1, 1> <1,-1,1>
<-1, -1, -1> <1,-1,-1>

Texcoords
<-1,1> <1,1>
<-1,-1> <1,-1>
<-1,1> <1,1>
<-1,-1> <1,-1>

Index list

// Front Face
1,4,3
1,2,4

// Side Face
2,7,4
2,6,7

Now here is the problem. I have 8 texture coordinates and 8 verticies. This may seem correct but if you take a look at point 2 it needs 2 different texture coordinates. On the front face it should have texture coordinates of <1,1> but on the side face connected to it it needs to have texture coordinates of <-1,1>

Does that explain the problem a little better. One the front face point 2 will be top/right of the texture image but on the side its top/left.

Thanks, Ben