# Errors in computing surface normals

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wizard341    144
I've been struggling with this problem for a while now, hopefully someone can come help me out. I want to compute a surface normal for a triangle (for backface culling implemented in software), and to my knowledge my equations are correct, but the direction of the normals im getting is aqward. I have a vertex class, which isnt really important save for these functions...
Vector Vector::Normalize3PointSurface(Vector v1, Vector v2, Vector v3)
{
Vector tempVector = v2 - v1;
Vector tempVector2 = v3 - v1;
Vector tempVector3 = Vector::crossProduct(tempVector, tempVector2);

return tempVector3;

}

float Vector::dotProduct(const Vector &vec1, const Vector &vec2)
{
return vec1.x * vec2.x + vec1.y * vec2.y + vec1.z * vec2.z;
}
Vector Vector::crossProduct(const Vector &vec1, const Vector &vec2)
{
return Vector( (vec1.y * vec2.z) - (vec1.z * vec2.y), (vec1.z * vec2.x) - (vec1.x * vec2.z), (vec1.x * vec2.y) - (vec1.y * vec2.x));
}

Now I have a pyramid, defined as such
Vector LowerRight(100.0f,100.0f,-10.0f);
Vector LowerLeft(-100.0f,100.0f,-10.0f);
Vector LowerRight2(100.0f,100.0f,-210.0f);
Vector LowerLeft2(-100.0f,100.0f,-210.0f);

Vector PyramidMiddle(0.0f,-100.0f,-110.0f);

Vector VertexPoints2[5] = {PyramidMiddle, LowerLeft, LowerRight, LowerRight2, LowerLeft2};
int SurfaceList2[4][3] = { {1,2,0}, {2,3,0}, {3,4,0}, {4,1,0} };
//front face, right face, back face, left face

//structures to hold some data in the future
Vector TriFaceNormals[4];
float TriFaceMagnitudes[4];
float TriFaceOrientations[4];

Vector ViewVector(0.0f,0.0f,-1.0f);


And then finally I draw the object:
void DrawPyramid()
{
//calculate surface normals and normalize them
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
TriFaceNormals[i] = Vector::Normalize3PointSurface(
VertexPoints[SurfaceList[i][0]],
VertexPoints[SurfaceList[i][1]],
VertexPoints[SurfaceList[i][2]]);

TriFaceNormals[i].normalize();
TriFaceOrientations[i] = Vector::dotProduct(VertexPoints[SurfaceList[i][0]], ViewVector);
}

glBegin(GL_TRIANGLES);
for(int i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
for(int j = 0; j < 3; j++)
{
glVertex3f(
VertexPoints2[SurfaceList2[i][j]].x,
VertexPoints2[SurfaceList2[i][j]].y,
VertexPoints2[SurfaceList2[i][j]].z);
}
}
glEnd();
}

The object draws perfectly fine, but the problem is when i step through in in debugging - the 'TriFaceOrientions' give me the values of 10, 210, 210, 10. Interestingly enough, If i change the z values way back when I define the object, those same values appear here as my 'TriFaceOrientations'. Something is definatly wrong here anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance for your help!

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Shouldn't it be: (Uy*Vz)-(Vy*Uz),(-Ux*Vz)+(Vx*Uz),(Ux*Vy)-(Vx*Uy)

EDIT: Nevrmind. I see. (good lord am I bad at this)